AMC’s Preacher at San Diego Comic Con

When Preacher was announced as the newest addition to AMC’s television line-up, there was an immediate hubbub and excitement surrounding it. Based upon a comic book series written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Steve Dillon, Preacher is about a not-so-perfect preacher, Jesse (Dominic Cooper), who gets possessed by a supernatural being that is both angelic and demonic. We were thrilled to chat with some of the producers and cast of Preacher at SDCC about what’s happened and what might be coming up!

Seth Rogen, executive producer and writer

• On belief as expressed on the show: “It’s a conversation, it’s not a statement..that is what I hope keeps us from being alienating or being preachy.”
• On diverse casting: “It added to the characters, to the story, to the themes. It made it slightly more of our time. In some ways…[it] allowed us to potentially explore some of the things going on in ur country and the world.”
• On filming action/fight scenes: “Our biggest enemy in filming these sequences is time.”
• The most difficult character for him to write: “Jesse.”
• “We spend way more time in post-production than I thought we would…the tone is very specific in style.”

Evan Goldberg, executive producer and developer

• On changing the comics in the adaptation process: “[Garth said] as long as we maintain the core characters’s emotional arcs…then we could kind of run wild.”
• On diverse casting: “We did it intentionally. We just thought having an all-white cast was lame. It was also interesting to the love story…[plus] Ruth just showed up, and we were like ‘[Tulip is] just you.”
• On describing the show to a newcomer: “Genre-jumping: action, horror, comedy….it goes everywhere.”
• On anyone they had in mind for casting before the show was cast: “We had a nice conversation with James Franco a few years ago. He was very Jesse-ish.”
• On which character is the hardest for him to write: “The characters that had to be created [that weren’t in the comics].”

Garth Ennis, Preacher comic book series writer

• “You have to give the audience something to hook onto. I know that there have been a number of success stories where characters have been unlikable from the get-go, but Preacher just wasn’t going to be like that because it has just enough tradional heroism in it to keep people coming back.”

Joseph Gilgun, Cassidy

• “I think Cassidy sees a little bit of himself in Jesse. Jesse is someone who is seeking redemption–they all kind of are….Cassidy is an old man. He’s, what, a hundred or more years old …he’s got time…everybody dies and leaves him in the end anyway. It’s his first time in a long time to…feel wanted and needed.”

Graham McTavish, The Cowboy

• On knowing the comics: “I knew everything about the books before we started….[The Cowboy] was a character I loved when I read it.”
• “That’s something with a lot of the characters actually….the struggle to suppress their true natures.”
• On what the characters all share and is interesting to explore: “Trying to keep the darkness, I suppose–that we all carry around with us–to keep that in check.”
• “I love the fact that he’s trying to be a good man.”

Ian Colletti, Arseface

• On his prosthetics and make-up: “It is one of the most challenging things…but it kind of forces me to rely on my eyes.”
• “My hope is that…people will forget about the prosthetics and the deformity and see him as relatable.”

Ruth Negga, Tulip

• “What attracted me to her is what repels most people from her…the violent tendencies. I think that she feels that it’s an armor of sorts to protect herself.”
• “She can’t bear the idea that there is so much injustice in society.”
• On being a woman of color and being cast as Tulip: “It’s a relief to play someone like her, but also watching it, it is a relief to see someone like her.”

Dominic Cooper, Jesse Custer

• “The truth is that power on that scale is very dangerous…the fact that he is capable of having this entity inhabit him and remain there–when most people who have [had the same experience] have exploded–the fact that he can harness it means, to me, that he is half demon, half good…[and] he is desperately trying to prove himself.”

Catch up on season 1 of Preacher before next year

Photo Credit:Lewis Jacobs/Sony Pictures Television