W
Whenhelearnedthatthefourthandfinalseason
ofAMC’sPreacherwouldbefilmedinAustralia,
GrahamMcTavish—whostarsasthemoroseand
heartlessSaintofKillers—was,well,elated.
“ItmeantI couldseemykidseveryweekend,”says
theactor,whomakeshishomeinNewZealand.
“From Australia, that’sjust a three-
and-a-half-hour planeride, which
is nothingcomparedtowhat I’m
usedto.”
Indeed. McTavish, who was
born in Glasgow, Scotland,
decidedtomovetoNewZealand
in 2011 while filming Peter
Jackson’sTheHobbit. “Iloveit
there.It’sa veryspecialplace.”
Butitmakesthejobof
being a Hollywood actor
— onewho is constantly
working — all the more
challenging.Inadditionto
abusycareerasavoice
actor, McTavish most
recently starred in all four
seasons of Preacher, was
in all three Hobbit films
and, for two seasons,
starred in the Starz series
Outlander as Dougal, the
fearless war chieftain of
Clan MacKenzie.
“Dougal was great
fun to play because he
was a very dangerousman,”McTavishsayswitha chuckle.“Andthosearemyfavoritekindsof
characters.They’reunpredictable.”
Whilehehad toperfecthisGaelicdialoguephoneticallyfor
manyofOutlander’sscenes,McTavishemployedadifferent
actingtechniqueforPreacher, aseriesbasedon
a wildlypopularseriesofgraphicnovels.
“TheSaintofKillerswasbasedonthe
ClintEastwood characters from the
spaghetti westerns,” he explains.
“Thisisa manoffewwordswhohas
losteverythingandisnowdrivenby
asilent,intensevengeance.”Cue
themenacinglooks.
ThoughtheSaintkillsSatan
attheendofseasonthree,his
storyarc inseasonfour(now
airing)hashimconfrontingGod
—andit’snotpretty.“Ithink
itmayupsetsomepeople,”
McTavish admits. “But for
me,itwasaverysatisfying
endtomycharacter’sstory.”
Undoubtedly, the
actor’s biggest thrill was the
opportunity to play a lone,
iconic western character
—hat, holster, guns and all
—who rides into a desolate
town. “For a guy from the
U.K., this was beyond the
bounds of possibility. It was
allI could do not to punch
myfist in the air with glee.”
—Kathleen O’Steenmix
in the
PARI DUKOVIC/AMCA Devil’s
Revel
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