Julie Ann Emery Pulls Back the Curtain on Featherstone and ‘Preacher’ Season 4 [Exclusive Interview]

As any fan of Preacher knows, Julie Ann Emery plays the tough as nails Featherstone, antagonist to Jesse and his gang, especially Tulip.  

I recently had the chance to chat with Emery, who took the time to delve into Featherstone’s motivations and her relationship with Tulip O’Hare. 

Emery started off our chat evidently excited to dive right in and talk about all that Featherstone has gone through over the past three seasons. 

“Season 4 is Featherstone’s biggest season, for sure!” she exclaimed. “If I were forced to choose a word [to describe Featherstone] it would be dedicated. Maybe zealot. The interesting thing about Featherstone — that I did not expect when I started the show — is that Featherstone herself has evolved quite a lot.” 

“I knew I was going to play these personas, and I knew that I wanted to run with those as far as I could and make them as real as possible, but I didn’t [expect] Featherstone’s rage. It really surprised me,” Emery said. “I think Season 2 was Featherstone living her best life. There’s an air to her that season that was really fun to play.”

The topic of who Featherstone is at her core transitioned to a discussion of Herr Starr and the dynamic these two characters share. It’s a dynamic that Emery had much to comment on.

“[Sam] Catlin and I have talked a lot about what this love is that she has for Herr Starr and why it blinds her. From the beginning, I have always seen it as a cult-like love — like the way a cult member would love a cult leader.” 

“So that’s a sort of all-encompassing love that blinds you to certain things. It’s not necessarily physical. That said, with the turn of events where Herr Starr becomes beautiful again, I think Featherstone doesn’t understand why he didn’t think he was beautiful already,” she continued.

“For her, the scars were battle wounds. You know, they made him stronger. They made him more dedicated. They made him the person that was willing to do anything to accomplish the mission and get it done. It made him a better leader,” she noted. “It made him even more lovable in her eyes. The fact that he could want anything else would be confusing for her.”

Season 4 has been a big season for both Featherstone and Herr Starr, who is now the All-Father. Recently, Herr Starr found himself punished by God for his misdeeds. The subject of him disappearing led to questions about how Featherstone would have reacted if he had not been found and she’d been asked to take his place.

“I think it didn’t even occur to her. She had to get Hoover 2 out of the way and then find the All-Father, find Herr Starr. I’m not sure Featherstone sees herself as a leader. She sees herself as a general, right? But not as a king. She’s a good soldier,” Emery explained.

“She’s very large and in charge in Season 4, but the mission in itself is not something she’s interested in setting. She’s interested in figuring out how to make the mission happen.”

Despite this, Emery thinks that Featherstone would make a great replacement for Herr Starr — should the opportunity arise. 

“I think she’d be brilliant at it, but I don’t think it’s something she’s considering. Because she’s not in it for power. She’s in it for what she sees as very pure reasons. And our last two All-Fathers have been in it for their own indulgences.”

While it is looking like the apocalypse this season is going to be spearheaded by Starr, Emery did ponder what it would be like if Featherstone were the leader instead.

“Starr’s amazing, but he’s more devious than he is skilled in terms of [physical] battle,” she noted. “He’s more sneaky. You saw that in his introduction episode in Season 2. Starr is always using his mind.”

“[If Featherstone led the charge] That would be a battle of the ages.”

Of course, we can’t talk about the apocalypse without also talking about God. During the course of our conversation, we discussed both Featherstone’s view of God as well as Eugene’s.

“God is on such a tear at this point it’d be interesting to see how Featherstone would react to God; to this version of God. It’d be interesting to see if she bought into that or if she saw that as heresy.”

“Eugene is the only true Christian in our world. He is really a true Christian. The members of the Grail consider themselves to be true Christians but that’s not what’s going on,” Emery continued.

Of course, we also had to discuss the relationship between Tulip and Featherstone. It is, after all, a cornerstone of the entire show. There is no show without the constant battle between Tulip and Featherstone. 

“There’s something coming in the finale with Featherstone and Tulip that maybe my favorite scene on Preacher for Featherstone,” Emery teased.

“It’s totally extraordinary that they were willing to make Featherstone another badass female character when they wrote her in Season 2. I wasn’t positive that would continue to go that way when I joined the show. But they’ve really run with it.”

“Then, Ruth [Negga] and I didn’t know if we would ever have scenes together again. We didn’t know if that would ever come back around again. But, they have reveled in putting us together and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s really wonderful to see these two prizefighter women go head to head all the time,” Emery said.

The subject of badass females on Preacher naturally turned the conversation to the fans themselves.

Emery was eager to mention that the industry “stereotyped [Preacher] as the dude show” and yet there are “so many brilliant, wonderful geek girls talking to me on Twitter and social media that are massive Preacher fans.”

“I think the industry thinks of a show like Preacher differently than they should. I think it doesn’t reach out to its female fanbase enough,” Emery stated.

Emery was, however, quick to applaud Preacher for how it proves that television shows can have more than one badass female character at a time. She noted how traditionally, a television should wouldn’t have two characters such as Featherstone and Tulip who are both strong, independent females.

“Look where opening that door has led. I mean it’s just really been such a joy to take that ride,” she said.

To further drive home just how special this relationship is, Emery talked about how Tulip and Featherstone feed off one another. “I think that Tulip and Featherstone understand each other better than anyone else in the world. They are rivals, but they are women living in a man’s world.”

“They are many times underestimated when they shouldn’t be. There’s an understanding between them even now that exists in a way that would lend themselves to girlfriends. If Tulip and Featherstone could stop trying to kill each other, absolutely they’d be friends,” Emery continued. 

“There’s an admiration there. I mean, they’d be comparing recipes on how to blow people up and the best way to kill a guy with a knife. There’s a lot there with them,” she joked.

Finally, we discussed just what Emery would like to see from Featherstone if she ever got a spin-off television series. 

“Since I’m on another prequel series for AMC, I would be interested in how Featherstone became Featherstone. I have my own thoughts and ideas on that that will be in my secret stash forever,” Emery teased, before continuing along that train of thought.

“In the comics, Featherstone was a Sunday school teacher once upon a time. I believe she was living a normal life at some point, and something happened that broke her and created this black void in her soul that allows her to do the things that she does and the Grail gets in her life.”

“There aren’t many women around the Grail. She’s one of a few. At one point, Hoover 2 calls her hysterical and I’m surprised she didn’t chop off his head right then and there. How was that journey for her? How did that come to be?” she wondered.

With the series finale upon us, Emery had one last thing to say:

“Just when you think you’ve seen the craziest thing on Preacher, you haven’t. Just wait ten minutes. It’ll happen. But much like all of Season 4, the season finale is chock-full of action. It’s just a speeding train toward the apocalypse.”

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

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