AMC’s Texas-set ‘Preacher’ has spiritual powers

Dominic Cooper, the star of AMC’s Texas-set Preacher, is almost embarrassed to admit it: The actor is willing to do whatever it takes — beg, borrow, even steal — to snag the plum roles.

When it came to the character of Jesse Custer, a West Texas preacher with a dark, dangerous past and a newfound, almost supernatural power of persuasion, Cooper resorted to out-and-out theft.

“I became aware of this show during pilot season,” says Cooper, who’s best known as flamboyant Howard Stark in Marvel’s first Captain America movie and in Agent Carter, the TV spinoff. “Word gets around quickly about scripts that people are excited about and, at that time, Preacher kept coming up.

“So I happened to be at a friend’s house and I stole his script. It was awful of me, yes, I know, but I did it and I couldn’t stop reading it and I loved it. I was desperate to be part of it.”

Cooper quickly learned that Preacher, which premieres 9 p.m. Sunday (then moves to 8 p.m. the following Sunday), is based on a 1990s cult-favorite comic book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

“I eventually found the comics and read them all and deeply regretted not knowing about them when I was growing up,” he says.

Cooper also learned that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s writing-producing team (Superbad, This Is the End, Neighbors) was bringing the twisted, bloody, darkly funny story to television.

“I managed to get a meeting with the guys,” he says. “I’ve never had a meeting like it: five grown hairy men enthusiastically describing all the lunatic things they hoped to achieve with their favorite comic.

“I was immediately drawn in. Then I felt sheer, utter panic when I officially got the part. How on earth would I go about playing this character, who lives in a world so far from the one I know?”

Newfound powers

He does it quite well, actually.

When the show opens, Custer has to be one of the worst preachers on the planet. His flock suffers through incomprehensible sermons (in one, Tom Landry is inexplicably referenced) and his spiritual advice is pretty much useless to all.

He’s really only going through the motions, trying to live down his violent criminal past while fulfilling a promise made to his dead father about leading the church in his old hometown of Annville.

But then something extraordinary happens. An otherworldly force passes through him and gives him special powers of persuasion. Now, when he offers a suggestion, others act on it with all their heart, although often there are grave consequences, for this is a power that’s hard to control.

“He is unsure what this power is, where it comes from or how he’s going to harness it,” Cooper says. “It turns out that it is much more dangerous than he thinks in the beginning.”

But with the help of a couple of larger-than-life friends — a hell-raising criminal ex-girlfriend (played by Ruth Negga) and a 119-year-old Irish vampire (Joseph Gilgun) — Jesse is going to find out about his new ability and whether it’s heaven-sent or comes from someplace else.

Expecting big things

Network executives have a lot of faith in Preacher, which, despite its setting, is filmed in New Mexico. They seem to believe the show could be as big a sensation as The Walking Dead, which is why AMC is bringing in Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick to moderate Talking Preacher panel discussion shows after the first and final episodes of the season.

Cooper isn’t bold enough to forecast the show’s future, but he says he hopes viewers have as much fun watching it as he had making it.

“It’s been an absolute delight in terms of acting work,” he says. “One moment I’m having a very serious debate about religion and the next minute I’m beating people up in a huge bar fight. It’s exhilarating for me as a performer to be able to do that.”

Speaking of that first-episode bar brawl, in which the preacher teaches an abusive husband and his buddies a bone-crunching lesson that they’ll never forget, Cooper had the time of his life.

“It was fantastic living that fantasy,” he says. “The reality of me being in a bar fight is I would be knocked out in five seconds and probably wouldn’t get up again. But in that moment, I never felt tougher.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "AMC’s Texas-set ‘Preacher’ has spiritual powers."