It’s long been known that the
baddies always get all the best
lines, but in the case of Preacher’s
evil organisation The Grail, they
get the best lines, scenes, action
sequences, slapstick... basically
everything. The unholy Grail
trinity consists of Pip Torrens’
Herr Starr, Malcolm Barrett’s
Hoover and Julie Ann Emery’s
Featherstone: “I love the dynamic
between the three of us... we are
defi nitely playing on that this
season, for sure,” Emery says
when we catch up with her to
chat Season Three of Preacher.
Since joining the show,
Emery has become an expert
at managing the weird, off-
kilter tone that makes Preacher
different from anything else on
TV. “I had a lot of angst about
the tone last season, because
the truth is Preacher is not one
tone. Preacher is a mash-up of
genre and of tones that shouldn’t
theoretically work together, but it
does!” Emery says.
“I think a lot of the tone of
Preacher has to do with the three
people at the top. [Executive
producers] Seth Rogen and Evan
Goldberg’s sense of humour, but
[showrunner] Sam Catlin comes
from the Breaking Bad world and
his sense of grounding characters
and writing great scenes. I think
there’s a really great marriage
happening of both of those things
and you have to be prepared for
that in whatever scene you’re
doing at any time on Preacher.”
The show can switch
effortlessly between straight
drama and comedy violence,
often in the same scene, and
often with the aid of some post
production magic. “There has to
be room left on Preacher for some
stuff to expand in post,” Emery
explains, citing the ‘Come On
Eileen’ car chase as a sequence
that was pretty straight-forward
until the song and the editing
changed that. “And it’s also a
high-end cast,” she adds, “you
want to rise to the occasion of the
actors you’re surrounded by.”
Even fans of the comics on
which Preacher are based are
stunned by how much the show
has got away with. “AMC, to their
credit, picked up Preacher to let
Preacher be Preacher,” says Emery,
who adds that she is constantly
surprised by how far the show isWe speak to Preacher’s Julie Ann Emery about the craziest show on TV WORDS ABIGAIL CHANDLER
ALL HAIL
THE GRAIL
The Grail isn’t going
to let Jesse go.PORTAL
010 | W W W. S C I FI N OW.CO.U K
allowed to go, even though “we’ve
got to be losing advertisers”.
“There are things this season
that I was surprised were in...,”
she admits. “I know hardcore
fans of the comics don’t like to
see anything change, but we
would have run out of material in
two seasons because the comics
move so fast. And also whatever
medium you’re on, it’s going to
provide certain parameters. Thereare very few parameters for our
show considering that we’re on
an ad-supported network. It is
really shocking over and over
again. And this season, too, every
now and then I’d read something
and I’d look at Malcolm and be
like: ‘They’re going to let us do
this?!’ and then they did!”Preacher Season Three is
available on Prime Video.