Preacher’s Julie Ann Emery on Featherstone’s biggest season
Preacher star Julie Ann Emery tells Hidden Remote why Preacher season 4 is ‘the biggest Featherstone season’ and saying goodbye to the AMC series.
Preacher has an outstanding cast, including Julie Ann Emery, who’s had the role of her career in the AMC show. Her character, Grail operative Lara Featherstone, is someone that you love to hate and also just love to watch—because her performance is that great.
Julie Ann has long been a tremendous actor; you may know her from recurring as Betsy Kettleman in the first season of Better Call Saul, or recurring on shows like Fargo, Suits and Major Crimes. But Preacher has been a game-changing role for her, demonstrating just how much range she has and letting her play a pretty cool antagonist.
She spoke to Hidden Remote ahead of Preacher‘s new season to discuss why the final season is Featherstone’s biggest and what it felt like to say goodbye to such an interesting role and series.
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She found out the series was ending the week before the fourth season started filming, and explained her feelings toward the conclusion.
“[Executive producer] Sam Catlin told me, and it was deliberate on part of Sam and Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen,” Julie Ann reflected. “It’s always hard to say goodbye to a brilliant multifaceted character like Featherstone, but I would always rather see a show like Preacher go out on its own terms instead of being strung along and [to] not know if it’s going to go another season.
“I always prefer to see an actual ending,” she said. “Even as a viewer, I prefer to see an actual ending to what I’m watching.”
While this season will be the end for Lara Featherstone, the character is getting to go out in style. After first being introduced during season 2, Featherstone’s role has gotten bigger and bigger, and she has a significant part to play in these last ten episodes—plus, Preacher fans will get to see a side to her they haven’t seen before.
“This is the biggest Featherstone season we have,” Julie Ann revealed. “Every season there are new aspects to Featherstone that even surprise me, which is a great testament to our writers, but season 4 Featherstone is my favorite. Featherstone is definitely pushed to her limits—both physically and emotionally—in season 4.”
While she may be one of the bad guys, Featherstone has been a fascinating character to watch, as Preacher has enabled her to develop more than most TV antagonists. Audiences understand why she’s so devoted to The Grail, and even feel for her as a person, no matter how much trouble that she brings with her.
That speaks to not only the skill of the show’s writers, but the work that Julie Ann has done, because her natural charisma brings a warmth and depth to the character—even if she is working for the wrong side. And this season, she’s about to dig deeper into Featherstone than audiences will have ever expected, or that she even expected!
“I think Featherstone has evolved immensely,” she explained. “I do a lot of homework, I do a lot of deep character background, so in season 3 I was surprised that Featherstone was capable of rage. There was a lot of rage in season 3 for her, and when she gets angry she makes mistakes, and she can’t stand to make mistakes. That was new and interesting.
“This season there’s an even further evolution of Featherstone that totally took me by surprise,” she added. “I wrapped the finale about ten days ago, and it took everything I had emotionally. I never would have thought I’d said something like that about Featherstone. Never would have thought I would see her go to such an emotional place.”
Working on Preacher has been an incredible experience for Julie Ann, because of both the amazing cast and how unpredictable the show is. When the episodes can include things like a literal bus to Hell or a musical number, it’s a challenge that requires a lot from an actor.
“I had a conversation with one of the new recurring cast members in the middle of season 4. He was asking me all these questions, saying I don’t know how to prepare for that,” she recalled. “I was like dude, you’ve got to build your character and hang on for the ride on this show. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I think that’s completely true for this show more than any other show I’ve been on.”
But collaborating with incredible actors, including but not limited to Dominic Cooper, Academy Award nominee Ruth Negga and Pip Torrens, has not only helped her bring her “A” game but made her an even better performer.
“It pushes your work to a bigger, better place. No one wants to suck on Preacher,” Julie Ann laughed. “The level of teamwork is high…The characters go deep and the conversation is always about elevating the work, and it’s a pleasure, but it also pushes you.”
“It’s the longest that I’ve sat with a character and she’s probably the most complex character I’ve ever played,” she reflected. “It’s been very difficult to say goodbye to her. It’s been hard for me to find the right thing to move on to, because I have to sort of live up to her in some way. Everything seems boring after Featherstone.”
While she understandably can’t say how Preacher season 4—and thus the entire series—ends, she did reveal that she didn’t expect to be around for the finale. Julie Ann was convinced that Lara Featherstone would be one of the show’s many casualties.
“I definitely thought I was going to get killed off!” she admitted. “I’ve absolutely, 100 percent, been waiting since I got hired to be killed off. And after what happened to Hoover [Malcolm Barrett] at the end of season 3—Catlin told me it was the final season because I looked at him and said you just killed my partner, when are you killing me off? I am pretty thrilled to make it through three full seasons of Preacher.”
Preacher airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. For more on Preacher and other AMC shows, follow the AMC category at Hidden Remote.