Interview: Karen Strassman talks role on AMC’s Preacher and more

During a recent interview with Karen Strassman, the actress sat down with us to discuss her current role on AMC’s Preacher and upcoming appearance in Tom Six’s The Onania Club.

On AMC’s Preacher, new members of The Grail are making their presence known. One of the newest additions to the Allfather’s team is Dr. Lois Slotnick. She’s played by the talented Karen Strassman who took the time to speak with us about her role on the AMC series. She’ll guest star in two episodes this season.

After, Strassman has a featured role in Tom Six’s latest movieThe Onania Club. In it, she’s playing a woman by the name of Barbara Dowels, presumably a member of the club. The film comes from horror director Tom Six, best known for his Human Centipede trilogy. Six’s new movie isn’t as grotesque as his other films but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart either.

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For more on Karen Strassman, check out the entirety of our interview below:

Hidden Remote: Karen, for Preacher, you’re joining the series in a recurring guest role as Dr. Slotnick. Teases of your character have shown her introducing a syringe filled with a mystery liquid to Herr Star and a captive Jesse Custer. What, if anything, can you tell me about this scene?

Karen Strassman: Dr. Slotnick has been hired by The Grail to find a way to create the perfect DNA elements to inject into the Humperdoo so that Genesis may be able to stay in his body to allow him to become the real Messiah.

Hidden Remote: What is Dr. Slotnick’s relation to Herr Starr? Cohorts in The Grail, etc.

Karen Strassman: The Grail obviously recognized Dr. Slotnick’s incredible freakish genius and hired her to work for them. I’ll leave other details and suppositions to your imagination.

Hidden Remote: Aside from what we’ll see on-screen, is there more of a backstory for Dr. Slotnick?

Karen Strassman: Before shooting, I spoke at length with Mary Laws, writer and executive story editor on Preacher. We discussed and came to an agreement about Dr. Slotnick’s origin and past that led her to the Grail, but I don’t want speak out of school here, so I’ll keep that under wraps for now.

Hidden Remote: For Preacher, a fourth season hasn’t been announced but will you come back if asked?

Karen Strassman: Dr. Slotnick and I would be thrilled to be invited back into this glorious world.

Hidden Remote: Can you say anything towards where Dr. Slotnick’s allegiances lie? Is she loyal to the Allfather or to Herr Starr?

Karen Strassman: It does appear her loyalties lie completely with Allfather and Herr Starr, doesn’t it?.

Hidden Remote: Karen, you’re billed as a talented voice-over artist with many credits under your name, including the latest Warcraft game, World Of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth but you’ve also taken part in a number of acting roles as well, just not as many. What drew you to Tom Six’s The Onania Club?

Karen Strassman: The Onania Club is a bold and daring social commentary. I like how Shakespeare describes the job of writers creators and artists…

“For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure…” (from Hamlet)

There are some very ugly things going on in the world right now, and in my opinion, The Onania Club is actually a tame version of realities of the world we live in.

Hidden Remote: Tom Six is known for developing some of the most shocking/controversial content, did that factor into your decision to take on a role in his film?

Karen Strassman: Yes, absolutely.

Hidden Remote: Do you have any other upcoming roles that you’d like to talk about right now?

Karen Strassman:  I’ve signed too many NDA’s! There’s so much I can’t talk about yet!

Hidden Remote: Going back to Preacher for one last question. In regards to your featured scene, did you film any additional takes of your character introducing those genetic samples? I know the Tom/Brady was highlighted but did any not make the cut? If so, can you elaborate?

Karen Strassman: There were some fun little sequences of experiments with Humperdoo that were really funny that we just didn’t have enough time to shoot that day so they had to cut them. One where Dr. Slotnick actually pees herself, which would have been really funny. But, you never know. The fun thing about this is business is that there’s always a chance I’ll have another opportunity to pee myself in some other project down the road.

You can see Karen Strassman on Preacher in Episodes 8 and 9. Episode 9 “Schwarzkopf” airs on August 19, 2018. Strassman can also be found on Twitter with the Twitter handle @karenstrassman.