Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched Preacher's "Damsels."
With last week's two-night premiere, AMC's Preacher re-exploded back into fans' lives in a huge way for Season 2, and tonight's Episode 3 only slowed down long enough to introduce some new faces that should be quite familiar to fans of the source material: Herr Starr and Featherstone. The episode didn't give away too much for either character, but CinemaBlend thankfully had a chance to talk to actress Julie Ann Emery, who told me how her live-action Featherstone compares to the comic iteration.
The Featherstone from the comics is there, and the beating heart of Featherstone is definitely straight from the comics. But there is a layer to Featherstone in the series that's added and new that includes her sexuality and includes the lengths she's willing to go to -- the tactics she's willing to tack -- that I think fans are going to find very exciting. I find it very exciting. She is a thrill to play, as an actor. . . . There's a lot going on with Featherstone, and I can't wait for it to slowly unfold over Season 2 for everyone to see.
Understandably, Julie Ann Emery couldn't get encyclopedic with her descriptions about how closely TV Featherstone will be tied to Comic Featherstone, and she specifically mentioned how downright secretive AMC was being about Preacher's new additions. But I'll offer no complaints about the juicy tidbits she was able to reveal, and we got to see Emery's Featherstone using some of her wily ways to keep others, including Jesse, off their games, which seems to already put Featherstone deeper into the game than she was when introduced in the comics. Plus, it turns out the blonde hair is fake for TV.
Now with the first name Lara, Featherstone was introduced via a musical number in a New Orleans jazz club, with Preacher making the location jump due to Jesse's mission to find God. She sang a sultry version of Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue" and didn't at all appear to be ready to throw down in the name of The Grail. Some antagonism shone through when giving the one bar patron his state capital quiz, but then she went right back to being a Curious Cathy once she started talking to Jesse. Which is, of course, where some alarm bells went off.
In case anyone thought that maybe that wig-pulling reveal was its own double-cross, where Featherstone might have actually taken kindly to Jesse's Southern drawl, Julie Ann Emery didn't make that seem likely, telling me this.
She's a zealot. She's willing to do absolutely anything for the cause, her cause being The Grail. And that creates a lot of mayhem. There's something about a person who's willing to go to any lengths, where there's no line, you know? She is definitely one of those people. . . . It's not limited to her sexuality, but she will use her sexuality. She'll use anything.
I like the idea of Featherstone being this T-1000-esque character whose drive doesn't allow her to back away from advancing towards a goal, with figuring Jesse out being the goal at this point. And it sounds like she'll be as loyal to The Grail as her comic counterpart was, if not far more so. (And she's already heard the Word of God, too.) Julie Ann Emery did confirm that she's worked with just about everyone in the main cast, so fans can expect to see Featherstone mixing it up on a grand scale.
And for what it's worth, the actress touted the villainous Featherstone as being one of the best parts she's seen written for a woman in years. Just in case we all needed one more reason to love it and Preacher.
With hopefully lots more to come from Julie Ann Emery's Featherstone and Pip Torrens' Herr Starr, Preacher Season 2 airs Monday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out how the show Head to our summer premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are hitting primetime soon.
