STACK #187 May 2020

FEATURE TV

humiliated gangster who comes to work for Herr Starr as his chief torturer, and a lecturer in advanced torture to students at Grail. And he’s having a blast!” The affable actor – whose local TV credits include Romper Stomper and the aforementioned Offspring – says that while he was aware of the Preacher comics, he hadn’t seen the show prior to landing the role of Frankie. “I’ve seen plenty of it now to get up to speed on the world I was going to be entering, and it was jaw-dropping and insane! It’s utter madness and hilarious, in my opinion. I had access to the comic books, which allowed me to have the exact look for Frankie – the colour palette, the hair, the Cooper: “I think it would be very hard to find a job now that allows us to do the things we’ve done in this – to do broad comedy in the same day you’re doing very dramatic and serious scenes about your father and then go on to a cleverly constructed fight scene.” As for dealing with the more outrageous and gruesome elements of the series, Cooper says he’s become a bit like Jesse – somewhat blasé towards the excessive blood and gore that surrounds him. “I go to work now and I just find it completely normal that I’m sludging my way through entrails strewn on the floor,” he smiles. “[The show] pushes the boundaries and becomes more and more peculiar, but I’m more used to it now and I love that they’ve been this daring, because the comic was daring. That’s the nature of how wonderful and different this show is. It’s been an incredible four years.” whole bit… But entering the world and seeing its internal logic, it’s confronting and refreshing. There’s no show like Preacher. ” It’s a sentiment that’s echoed by

• Preacher: The Final

Lachy Hulme as FrankieToscani

Season is out on May 27

triangle…’ And then you fall in a heap. It’s one of those shows you just can’t sum up.” Indeed, a quick visit to the costume department reveals that Preacher is probably the only show with racks of outfits labeled ‘Hitler’ and ‘God’! With prior seasons possessing the distinctive flavour of America’s Deep South, we’re curious to discover why the production has relocated to Melbourne for its last hurrah. Does Herr Starr have Australia on his hit list? “It’s a place where Jesse stops off to continue on his route to the next place, but God happens to be here at the moment,” explains Cooper. “Melbourne is definitely featured, but we also needed the landscape that Australia – and around Melbourne – offers. It’s completely magical; when we’re out in the desert, the light for filming is stunning, and so distinctive. “I think the season needed a change of tone. It’s always been such a part of the fabric of the piece. New Orleans was so specific, as was Albuquerque – a very distinct backdrop to a very

imaginative show. As it is in the comic – they are always very

clearly in a specific part of America. It seemed crazy to me that we took it to the other side of the world, but it’s been an absolute pleasure to be living in one of my favourite cities and working with an incredible crew that work extremely hard in making a show that takes a lot; they manage to shoot each episode in days. And it’s been wonderful being somewhere where the show is very loved and appreciated.” Hulme adds, “It’s always wonderful when big productions come to this country because obviously it provides great employment opportunities, particularly for the technicians. But the Australian actors get to do things that we wouldn’t get to do; I’d never be playing a Brooklyn gangster who runs a torture class in an episode of Offspring , for example,” he laughs. Elaborating on his character, Frankie Toscani, Hulme describes him as “an exiled and

THESAINTSPEAKS!

“When I approached the role of the Saint, I felt a huge weight of responsibility to every fan of the comics, myself included. When I put that outfit on for the first time, I knew that I couldn’t screw it up,” he laughs. “The challenge for an actor in playing someone like the Saint is that it’s as much about what you do as what you don’t do. It’s a study in restraint and economy. He doesn’t move when he doesn’t have to, or speak when he doesn’t have to, but at the same time you don’t want to turn him into a machine. He’s not the Terminator. He actually has human emotions about why he’s doing what he’s doing, so you have to keep that in the back of your mind when playing him.” STACK also had the pleasure of chatting with veteran actor Graham McTavish during a recent visit for Supanova. As a longtime fan of the Preacher comic books, he was delighted by the opportunity to play one of his favourite characters – the unstoppable Saint of Killers.

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