Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a cool chat I did with Preacher's Dominic Cooper way back during SXSW. Thankfully this particular embargo didn't render this particular interview irrelevant, which sometimes happens. I'm glad, too, because I had a lot of fun with this conversation, which took place hours after the pilot played like gangbusters to a 1300 seater theater.
Now that Preacher is on the verge of release (this weekend!) it's time to share the below interview with you fine folks. We talk quite a bit about the character of Jesse, how he got the gig, his reaction to the character via both the script and the original comics and just how blasphemous the show is willing to go in order to stay faithful to the original Garth Ennis comic.
We don't go spoiler-y about the pilot itself, but we do talk a bit about a big event that happens in the comics, an event which he admits he doesn't know if they'll be able to pull off even on a network like AMC.
Hope you enjoy!
Quint: This isn't your first time in Austin, is it?
Dominic Cooper: Yeah. I can't believe I haven't been here before. I feel really stupid because I have a friend who has worked here for years. He's working for a famous lawyer getting people off of death row. His job is quite tough. It's a dark job, tough job, but he lived here and said it was one of the best cities he's ever lived in. He just loved it.
Quint: It's a great city. The only downside is I'd probably weigh 30lbs less if I lived anywhere else in the world... There's so much good food here.
Dominic Cooper: This is the thing. What's the best? Where's your favorite?
Quint: What do you like? What kind of food are you looking for?
Dominic Cooper: I've eaten about 15 burgers since I got here, so maybe something different. Where would I get the best steak?
Quint: We're close, actually. My favorite steakhouse in Austin is The Roaring Fork, right next door to the Paramount, where Preacher screened. Best filet mignon I've ever had in my life.
Dominic Cooper: Seriously? Oh, I have to go. Everything I've eaten here has been great.
Quint: And probably greasy and covered in...
[Dominic Cooper/Quint at the same time: Cheese. ]
Quint: Yes.
Dominic Cooper: Which is what we want!
Quint: So, I read Preacher way back in the day. I had a friend who was obsessed with it and he loaned me the entire series right after the run ended. I'm not talking about trade paperbacks, but a stack of single issues, starting at Issue 1 and ending at 66.
Dominic Cooper: Is that what it went to?
Quint: I think it was (editor's note: it was, but there are also five one-shot issues and the four-part Saint of Killers mini-series they did as well).
Dominic Cooper: I read them immediately after I read this script and I really regret not being into them. I remember the kids who were into them. I remember my good friend's brother reading them. What's he doing? Why's he in his room all the time,reading that? Now I know. They're so imaginative and clever. I was always under the misguided view that (the comics) were for kids. They're not. They're so intelligent and so funny.
Quint: And so blasphemous!
Dominic Cooper: So blasphemous!
Quint: One of my big takeaways from the book that I'm so over the moon about being captured well in the pilot is that the three leads are super strong. I care about those three leads probably more than any other single comic book characters. In the pilot they did a great job of establishing all three iconically and right off the bat. Jesse's got a little bit more of a longer haul to get a full grasp on him as a character, but they did such a good job at clearly laying out these people. Was that character economy something that jumped off the page when you first read the script?
Dominic Cooper: Yeah, I got a real sense of each person. It was wonderful from there to go back over the comics and truly understand. My struggle has been to maintain belief in the stoicism of (Jesse). I don't know. He's surrounded by such colorful characters. For me, that's been quite the struggle. There's these elaborate, wonderful, rich characters and sometimes I wonder if I'm being really boring, but actually the unveiling of Jesse and the slow stripping away of who he really is... there are things that I'm finding out on each episode that I'm like “Fuuuuuuuuuckkkk. He is a dark man.”
Quint: Jesse's a slower burn, that's for sure, but I think you gave him a great little moment during the bar fight that really shows who he is.
Dominic Cooper: You get a glimpse of him, yeah.
Quint: That smile when the shit really starts hitting the fan. He's in his element and he knows he likes it.
Dominic Cooper: It's the addict finding his crack and he loves it. He's trying to fight that the whole time. He's dark, he's drunk, but he thinks he's doing the right thing. You're exactly right. That's Jesse. That glimpse of joy. He loves it and he's relishing every minute even though he's tried so hard to fight against being that thing again and here comes his ex-girlfriend trying desperately to drag him back into that life.
There are so many good moments in the next episodes coming up where he's tempted again. He thinks he's completely in charge of this thing and he thinks he's doing absolute good for the world and then you're confronted with the fact that he's not. He's doing some quite bad things.
Quint: True, but there's also a reason why Genesis chooses Jesse.
Dominic Cooper: Right, because he's capable of handling it. I love that so much. There's so much for me to find out and play with and find the balance of Jesse's character. My audition was just me meeting with them and chatting for hours. I remember on my first day I thought, “They might hate this.” I didn't really know (Jesse) yet. There's still a lot to discover, but they were so accurate and specific with what they wanted this person to be. They said on stage (at the Q&A) that they had been looking for a long time, which I didn't know until today.
Quint: Sam Catlin said that this season we're staying in the small West Texas town where Jesse presides over his congregation. It's an interesting choice that I imagine gives you a little breathing room to really flesh out the character before the team-on-a-mission aspect from the comics comes into play.
Dominic Cooper: Yes, totally. We get loads of flashbacks as well. We'll see the truth behind Tulip's background. It's heartbreaking.
Quint: You guys are still shooting the first season, right?
Dominic Cooper: Yeah, we're hardly in at all. It was funny watching (the pilot) today having now shot episodes 3 and 4. Knowing what I know about Jesse now, it was quite peculiar. I like it, as an actor, having the space and time to really find a character is really great.
Quint: That's one of the core benefits that television offers. The only way you get this kind of time with a character in film is if it's part of a giant, continuing franchise.
Dominic Cooper: Absolutely. To get to know a character that much, to get to see how they change... I'm really enjoying the process.
Quint: When you met with Sam and Seth and Evan did they kind of lay everything out for you or did you get the chance to discover how the story unfolds when you went to read the comics after that meeting?
Dominic Cooper: It was an absurd meeting. I can't really ever describe it. I went in there and there were these three mad people trying to explain to me something that can't be explained. What the story was, where it was going to go, how it was going to end. “Some episodes are going to be in heaven, some will be in Hell...” I was like, “What is this?!?” But it kinda made sense and I love them. You can see the energy and excitement they had about doing something that had been that long in the making. I majorly wanted to have something to do with it. I never ever read anything like it.
I went to the comics after that ludicrous meeting. I didn't really know how it ended. I didn't know what this meeting was, just that it was crazy and that I got on really well with them. I told them an elaborate story about something absurd that had happened to me the night before. They obviously saw something in me that they thought was like Jesse, which is kinda frightening.
Quint: That's either a compliment or the exact opposite of a compliment.
Dominic Cooper: I wonder. I suppose if I was making it and I was looking for him... like what you said, what could Genesis survive in? He needs to be capable of some pretty awful things but at the same time he wants to be good.
Quint: I seem to remember in the books Genesis goes right to Jesse Custer...
Dominic Cooper: He goes right to Custer.
Quint: Right. I like how here, in the pilot, there's a series of unworthy vessels it tries first. That choice is so great because it makes the character of Jesse instantly mysterious. Why does this guy get this power when other, clearly better, people couldn't handle it?
Dominic Cooper: Of course. I didn't think of that, but of course it does.
Quint: When you read through the books for the first time did you ever stop to think “How the fuck are we going to do this on TV?”
Dominic Cooper: Of course!
Quint: “Are they really going to let us kill God?”
Dominic Cooper: Well, that one I think they still don't know or how people would react to that. It raises some tough questions. The conversations Jesse and Cassidy have together are good conversations. How could God exist? We did it in an episode just the other day. “How could God exist if Hitler exists?” “That is a good question. To the best of my knowledge, here's how I can answer this.” At the moment to be able to have discussions about religion is a positive. I mean, (the show) is going to offend, but it'll create a conversation.
Quint: I might be wrong, but I thought the logo on the whiskey bottle in the pilot, which is silhouette of the cowboy, was the exact outline of the Saint of Killers from the comic.
Dominic Cooper: Yeah, it is.
Quint: I'm dying to see how they approach that character.
Dominic Cooper: It's very cool. The backstory is very cool and I don't know the half of it yet. I've just seen glimpses of it. They're actually shooting him this week.
Quint: Have they announced who's playing him?
Dominic Cooper: I don't know, but you'll like it. If I had my camera I'd show you a glimpse.
Quint: Well, I wish you had your camera!
Dominic Cooper: He looks really cool. You're going to love it!
Quint: The pilot didn't shy away from the weirdness of the book, which gives me all the faith in the world that they'll do right by the story.
Dominic Cooper: They are going to go for it for as much they can. Think of how many people were cracking up (at the screening) today. It's so absurd. Him eating the teabag. Little moments like that.
Quint: The guy that actually leant me the comics came to the screening today.
Dominic Cooper: Oh, he was there? Did he enjoy it?
Quint: Yeah. I looked over a few times during the screening and saw him clapping, so I suppose that's good news for you guys.
Dominic Cooper: How very cool. I don't really have anything in my life like that. There must be a book or something. There's a few books I want to adapt into a film. Maybe when they are turned into films I'll be all “Oh, wow. How have they done this?!?” And how must Garth (Ennis) feel seeing those characters? He wrote this, he's seen these characters in his mind for however many years. It must be extraordinary for him to see it. I can't work out what it must be like. What was it like for him sitting in that cinema? I can't imagine what it must be like. I've never had anything like that. I'll go ask him.
Have you spoken to Joe (Gilgun) yet? He's hilarious.
Quint: I didn't get him, sadly. You're it for Preacher interviews, but I can't complain. You're Jesse Custer! I'm happy.
Dominic Cooper: I'm glad you're happy.
Quint: And if you had your camera I would be even happier because then I would have seen the Saint of Killers!
Dominic Cooper: … I could get my camera and show you.
And so he did, the kind-hearted soul. I can confirm the silhouette of the Saint of Killers is pretty right on, long duster, big hat, six-shooters and all.
One more funny little anecdote to leave you with before I let you go: They held these interviews in a hotel meeting room with multiple tables and had ALL the Preacher folks doing interviews in the same room. I was there an hour early, so I saw all involved there. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Sam Catlin, Garth Ennis, Dominic, Ruth Negga and Joseph Gilgun.
Shortly before I was called to do my interview with the Preacher himself, a funny thing happened. Gilgun was doing an interview about five feet from me and the conversation drew my attention.
Now, I really wish I could have talked to Gilgun because every conversation I eavesdropped on was hysterical and laden with obscenities (ie my kind of talk), but this one in particular made me laugh. They were talking about the famous backwards V sign, which is the UK equivalent of flipping the bird, and its origins.
Gilgun must have seen my amusement because he started to draw me into it, asking if it was true that the rude gesture came from English longbowmen flashing the French the ol two-finger salute during the 100 Years War. It was common for the French to cut those two fingers off of their prisoners so when returned home they couldn't be put back into the fight.
So, the legend was that the English started doing that as a “fuck you” sign to the French and it stuck around.
I said I remembered looking it up once and that the story was an old wive's tale. Sure enough, I fired up Google and saw that most historians believe it's a much more recent gesture, an inversion of Winston Churchill's V For Victory.
At the end of the day, we decided the French/100 Years War story was better, so we should stick with that. Print the legend, right?
Anyway, that was funny to me and maybe some of you might find it funny, too.
Definitely check out Preacher when it airs. As a comic fan I'm super happy and as a guy who just likes good TV, I can't believe this weird bit of insanity is actually going to be airing week to week. Support it!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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