Julie Ann Emery on ‘Preacher’ Season 3 and the Show’s Theme of Good vs. Evil [Exclusive Interview]

Fans of Preacher rejoice! We haven’t seen the last of Featherstone yet.

In an exclusive interview with Tell-Tale TV, Julie Ann Emery, who plays Featherstone, talked about what we can expect from the show this season.

“We are going to see a lot of characters from the comics that people have been waiting for. Including characters that have not been announced yet or shown up in any pictures,” Emery teased.

“We are going to see more Featherstone down the road as the season progresses. We’re going to see the continuation of Featherstone’s love for Herr Starr. We are more closely aligned with the comics in Season 3. I think fans of the comics are going to be really excited,” Emery continued.

She wasn’t able to tease much about what we can expect from Featherstone this season, but she could give just a few hints.

“Featherstone herself is very confident and straightforward, and we’re gonna see her sureness challenged. You know she’s a real believer in the cause, and so she seems to not fear anything, including death. We saw that last season. We’re gonna see a lot of what’s at her core challenged.”

Going off of that, Emery was able to talk a bit more about the changes she has seen with Featherstone during the course of her storyline and discuss what growth she sees in her character, growth that she enjoys.

“This season focuses a bit more on herself. Last season we mostly saw Featherstone and her personas operating in one way or another. This season we do get more personas, but we see much more of Featherstone as herself walking around in the world. And [we see] the sides of Featherstone that we have never seen before. I am very excited to see how that plays out,” Emery stated excitedly.

Speaking of Featherstone’s personas, the most prominent one is Jennie. Jennie comes in conflict with Tulip quite often and was a big part of Preacher Season 2. Emery was able to expand on that a bit more and unpack what exactly we are going to expect this season with them.

“Well, we are going to see more Tulip and Featherstone time. Featherstone and Tulip’s relationship last season was very complicated and shrouded and just through Jennie, one of the personas. This season is much more straightforward. Fans are really gonna enjoy it. I mean, I killed her at the end of last season. There’s definitely some opposition for Featherstone that I think fans will enjoy,” Emery explained.

She even coyly hinted at some more push and pull between The Grail and Jesse. A simple yes gave us all we needed to know about that running conflict.

“The introduction of the All-Father throws the dynamic of The Grail into absolute upheaval. There’s a very specific dynamic between Starr and Hoover and Featherstone. Throwing the All-Father into that mix definitely upends everything for sure,” Emery said.

Moving on from the discussion of her character into the show itself opened the door to an in-depth discussion of it’s deeper themes.

One of Preacher‘s big themes centers on the loss of faith, but Emery believes it’s bigger than that.

“I think the theme of Preacher has to do with light and darkness and good vs. evil. On our show, we are in no way the good guys. We really truly believe we are the good guys, but we’re not,” she stated.

“We have a vampire, an assassin, a former robber. I mean Jesse is not a straight-up preacher. Jesse comes from a life of crime. And we have three people, who on the face of it in normal life, we would judge as not good or necessarily bad people,” Emery continued.

“On Preacher, there’s a very complicated conversation happening about faith and about hope and about darkness and light and good and evil and all of it. We see our heroes supposedly be bad people who are absolutely working for the good of it all. Preacher is a very honest conversation about faith. A very honest conversation and modern conversation about good and evil for sure,” Emery concluded.

It’s that conversation that is going to really drive this season according to Emery. It has even made an impact on her personal life.

“I do feel like the people you would jump to judge on Preacher turn out to be the good guys. I think that impacts my life. I don’t think I’m a super judgmental person, but the world is at an interesting place right now. The show literally deals with the disappearance of God. And what happens when we feel that goodness has abandoned us. I think that speaks to many lives right now,” she said.

Adding to that sentiment, Emery said, “We’re wondering what’s going to happen and how things are going to play out. Where have our hope and goodness gone? It definitely makes me frame those questions for myself in my regular life.”

When asked about whether or not there was a scene or a moment that particularly stuck with her, Emery was able to talk a bit about Featherstone’s growth.

“Featherstone takes a journey with the things she doesn’t want to look at in her life; things that she sort of boxed up and put in the basement of her mind. I’m excited to see how that plays out,” Emery said rather excitedly.

When asked about whether or not she would play a different character if given the chance, Emery had a few ideas. “On the one hand, [The Saint] is indestructible and, on the other, is there anything crazier than Cassidy? I do love playing crazy,” she admitted.

“This season Grandma is an amazing role,” she continued.

So it’s clear that she loves complicated and crazy. Something that she does well in playing Featherstone.

Expanding a bit more on Preacher‘s skill of introducing new female characters that stand on their own, Emery was proud to be a part of that conversation. In fact, she believes in it 100%.

“Preacher, as they continue to add female characters, has not required any of them to be shrinking violets. I was a fan of season one, and then Featherstone came across my desk. I wondered what this was going to be because often times they don’t allow more than one badass female character on a show at one time,” Emery explained.

“This season we have three. More if you count the recurring roles that are gonna come up. The women on our show are strong and actionary in their own right and powerful in their own right. I really love that about our show,” she continued.

She didn’t stop there. She went on, explaining even further about what makes all these female characters so great.

“They’re strong in different ways. I mean, they’ve written three strong women who are wildly different from each other. That’s really refreshing and beautiful to see. I hope that other shows will continue with that tradition. I hope that’s something we see more and more on our televisions,” Emery gushed.

Before our discussion ended Emery did leave some simple parting wisdom for everyone.

“Things change in a moment,” she stated, reminding us all to just let life happen because you never know.

You can catch Julie Ann Emery on Preacher airing Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.

Additional reporting by Shabnaj Chowdhury.

*Featured image credit: Vince Trupsin

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