This season on Preacher we haven’t seen much of the Saint of Killers, but episode eight left the Saint and the Angel of Death about to escort Eugene, Hitler and Featherstone to Hell, so it’s safe to say that he’s back in the centre of the carnage – much to the delight of Graham McTavish, the actor who plays him.
“When [people asked] ‘oh, what are you doing today?’ I said ‘oh, you know, I’m on the shuttlebus to hell with Hitler, Arseface and the Angel of Death’,” McTavish chuckles when we catch up with him over the phone.
“It’s a wonderful collision of mad people in that [episode], and with Ruth [Negga] coming in, it’s great. It’s absolutely great. And we had enormous fun doing all that sequence in the next episode… When we shot it all in episode nine, you know, tanks, Nazis, all of this craziness appearing, I just thought this is so great… There were lots of times where I had to struggle not to laugh… with Jason [Douglas] who plays Satan, with Ian [Colletti] as Arseface, with Noah [Taylor, who plays Hitler], all of those guys had me laughing on camera. It was so embarrassing, this terrifying man in a Stetson just openly laughing.”
It may surprise you to know that the man behind the Saint of Killers is capable of laughter, but he chuckles the whole way through our conversation, and is genuinely delighted to be on Preacher, having been a fan of the comics for years. He doesn’t even mind that the Saint has taken the secondary villain role this season.
“I’ve been on a side trip basically, this season, because I think if you’re doing a long term show, it can’t just be the Saint pursuing Jesse, because that just becomes repetitive. So I think they’ve been smart in doing that,” he says. Besides, he looks forward to many more episodes of the Saint’s antics, if Preacher gets renewed for a fourth season. “[T]here’s the whole Masada stuff, the nuking of the Saint and his relationship with Jesse and how that shifts, all of those things I’m pretty sure and very much hoping will be played out as we go forwards.”
You can read more of our interview with Graham McTavish in the upcoming 150th issue of SciFiNow.