Preacher: Seth Rogen and Cast Talk Relationships, Hitler and Pissing in Pits

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Preacher Season Two is roaring along and things aren't getting any better for Jesse and gang as they continue their search for God.

We attended a press conference at San Diego Comic Con with executive producer Seth Rogan, Joseph Gilgun (Cassidy),  Ruth Negga (Tulip), Dominic Cooper (Jesse), Graham McTavish (Saint of Killers) and Ian Colletti (Eugene).

They shared their thoughts about Tulip and Cassidy's complicated relationship, Jesse's dark side, Hell's Hitler and more. Check it out!

Preacher Pressroom

The secret of Cassidy and Tulip's rendezvous from season one still weighs heavily on Cassidy's mind, especially because Jesse has no idea it happened.

Cassidy's other secret is that he loves Tulip, but he loves Jesse too, and while he wants to 'fess up, he knows that he can't. He also can't tell Tulip how he really feels lest that cause all sorts of other problems.

"It's a bloody shame. And he wants to be honest. He wants to be honest with his friend, as well, about what he's done. I don't think Cassidy understands Jesse like Tulip does," Gilgun said. "Tulip has seen that side of him, where, I think, I don't know, though. I think I don't know what to say without completely fucking ruining Preacher, right now."

Negga added, "I think the dynamic is interesting. Isn't it? Because I think that those kinds of feelings, that sort of male, female role, is in sort of reverse.

Having a Drink - Preacher Season 2 Episode 7

Because he wants to be honest and have, you know, the kind of conversation, and pour his heart out and have a night in to talk about his feelings, and she would have said, 'No, I don't want to do that. Let's keep that compartmentalized somewhere else...we don't need to talk.' And I love that dynamic. That tension is very constant."

She goes on to say, "What I love about her is that she doesn't think it's necessary to reveal everything because she's had a life outside of (Jesse.) And that's not healthy, but it's part of her. And I think we see all of those unhealthy bits of her sort of laid bare. Especially, in terms of what she's been doing when she hasn't been with Jesse."

Tulip and Jesse have had a tumultuous relationship as we learned in Preacher Season 2 Episode 5 where Jesse's dark side was on full display. But as Dominic Cooper explained, there is a reason for it.

"I've always been aware that he possesses that darkness and I think it comes from an incredible amount of guilt he harbors about the death of his father and the responsibility he feels for his father," Cooper said.

Exhausted - Preacher Season 2 Episode 7

"And from a life living with the most crazy people that have been portrayed in anything I've ever seen. Living in a coffin, under a swamp. As we saw in the comics, it's a bad form of behavioral, child development."

"He has that darkness that's constantly bubbling under the surface, and there are certain things, one thing which will really infuriate him and reveal that darkness is any danger towards the person he loves more than anything in the world, which is Tulip; because that's the only family he has. And it's the only comfort he's ever known."

Jesse isn't the only one with a dark side. The Saint of Killers is the darkest character on the show right now, and Graham McTavish talked about his role as Jesse's nemesis.

"[The Saint of Killers] goes through such an extraordinary trauma with his family and, you know, you could argue perhaps that the journey that he arrives on in season two, he's made this deal with Fiore and DeBlanc to get back Genesis. And in doing so, indirectly, I suppose, you would be killing little pieces of you," McTavish said.

Saint of Killers Returns - Preacher Season 2 Episode 2

"I had to try and find a human reason for all that, really, and for me it sounded impossible to center and say this, but it became a journey motivated by love as much as anything else, because he wanted to be reunited with his family and this was the only way he could do it. Now, he does take a rather heavy handed approach to this," he added.

Despite the darkness of the character, McTavish finds playing the Saint of Killers to be quite fun.

"It's great fun...It's one of more fun characters to portray, and he's got some interesting storylines through the rest of the season," McTavish said.

Another character with an interesting storyline is Hitler who is in Hell with Eugene. Seth Rogen talked at length about why he brought Hitler onto the show.

"I mean, we're definitely trying to play with the ideas of redemption and rehabilitation, I guess. And if there is hell, like, what's the point of it, is something we kind of talked a lot about.

More Secrets - Preacher

"Could you change in hell? Is there a point to changing in hell? Is it bad to change in hell, because if you act good, it kind of goes against the nature of hell," Rogen said.

"It would be very expected to just show a kind of pure evil version of Hitler, basically, and, you know, it's much more interesting to kind of explore. It's like, they're all people like even Hitler was a person, like the worst one at that.

"But if you're kind of embracing the idea -- which we did -- of having him be a character on our TV show, then we thought we should treat him like any other character as far as the thought we put into him goes.

"And for Eugene, again, it's kind of like, you know, he's nice to him. He inherently believes Christian philosophy of forgiveness and things like that, but he's in hell; which he also believes in and he's Hitler, so you know, there's a lot of things going on there. It all adds up mostly. That's all, I guess, I'll say."

Speaking of Eugene, Ian Colletti has to go through the makeup process each day on set. 

Eugene - Preacher Season 2 Episode 4

"It's a pretty crazy process. It takes about two hours to get into that character in the morning. And it's a one-time use. I mean I use it one day, they put it on my face and take it off and it's a disgusting mess," he said.

Colletti added, "I'm sort of amazed at how real it looks. Even on set, everyone gasps. Then last season there was someone who came up came up to me and said, 'Thank you for your service.' I was like, 'Woah, no.'

Rogen jumped in and said, "It's nice that they assumed you were in the military, though. If I had that, they would be like, 'Did you fall in a toaster?' Or something like that."

Rogen talked about some of the other difficulties on set, which sound horrid, but the exchange between Rogen and Gilgun is hilarious.

Preacher Press Conference SDCC 2017

Rogen says, "We made Joe [Gilgun] piss himself one time. This is gonna make me sound like a dick. But there's a scene where he's landed after jumping out of an airplane and he's like splattered in a field basically.

"So he's at the bottom of a crater with his guts out, and he's buried in a hole basically with like a prosthetic thing, and it took him a good 45 minutes to get into that little hole, and we were kind of pushed for time, and the sun was going down.

"And he says, 'I have to get out of the hole to piss.' And I'm like, 'You're not getting out of that hole to piss.' And I made him piss himself while he was in the hole," Rogen continued.

"I pissed my pants, man," said Gilgun.

"Yeah," Rogen said.

Gilgun reiterates, "I pissed my pants. I'm a grown man."

Rogen said, apologetically, "Yeah, I made a grown man piss his pants in a hole in the desert."

Gilgun responded,"So, as the crew was sort of going about their business..."

Rogen said, "Just like, 'Pretend this is not happening.' That's what we did, too. I mean, but that was partly his fault, and if he actually cared, I wouldn't have made him do it. He was in on the joke, I think."

Rogen used the incident to talk about difficulties of directing, and how much he truly enjoys it.

He said, "I mean, directing TV is good. It's a good lesson in time efficiency, there's not a lot of time to do these things, so you go in with these lofty plans sometimes, and then if anything goes wrong at all the whole plan kind of goes out the window.

But I think that's...kind of what's challenging in television is making it look interesting while doing things, basically, in as few shots as humanly possible."

"But it's not shitty. I love it. Directing this show, and directing, in general, is a fantastic job and is really fun, and I hope I get to keep doing it," he added.

If you need to catch up, you can watch Preacher online right here via TV Fanatic!

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Preacher Quotes

Violence makes violence makes nothing much at all. That what you want, kid?

Jesse

Something is coming.

African preacher