Preacher: Ruth Negga on How Her Diverse Casting Will Positively Affect the Story
Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga recently appeared at Wondercon to discuss their upcoming AMC series Preacher, and the two stars got onto the topic of appearances.
Negga, who is an Ethiopian-Irish actress, and will be playing Caucasian blonde character Tulip O'Hare, who is Jesse Custer's on-and-off girlfriend. While fans may be apprehensive regarding the role change in terms of ethnicity, Negga is nothing but excited about what it means for the story.
"A lot of people have said it's going to change things because of Jesse's family and everything, and they're right. It will change things. I think, isn't that amazing that it will change things? Can you imagine Jesse's grandmother thinking that her great grandchild will be mixed race?
"It would kill her. That would finally put the nail in the coffin. Brilliant." From a narrative perspective, this is actually quite frightening. Jesse's grandmother is an evil, cold and brutal-beyond-words woman, and it's hard enough seeing her treat Jesse and Tulip the way she does in the comic book.
Cooper plays a Jesse with shorter hair, though he does reveal that there is a flashback to a time where he shows off a long-haired Jesse. "We did a scene, some of the flashback stuff, the other day and I chose the hair. I said, Let's make it blonde.' We might go back to that but it's too '90s."
Preacher premieres May 22, with a pilot that runs an hour and a half. "That wasn't supposed to be an hour and a half," showrunner Sam Catlin said. "We just didn't know what to cut."
Source: Slashfilm
