Joseph Gilgun regards getting a role in “Preacher” as a life-changing event. PHOTO: KAREN BUTLER
By Karen Butler
British actor Joseph Gilgun says he jumped at the chance to play Cassidy, the opinionated, trouble-making Irish vampire in "Preacher."
AMC's Texas-set, supernatural drama is based on the 1990s comic books created by Northern Ireland's Garth Ennis. The 10-episode series follows Dominic Cooper's Jesse Custer, a minister with a violent past who is now seeking redemption when Cassidy shows up and wants to be his best friend. Ruth Negga and Ian Colletti co-star.
"We are very similar," Gilgun, a hilarious and delightfully candid raconteur, confessed to reporters in New York about where he himself ends and his character begins.
"I am a bit of a drunken reprobate. I am unapologetic about it. I know you are supposed to follow the etiquette of being an actor,” he said, “and talk about generic [information]. I'm just not willing to do it and if that means not getting up there or up to that elite status where you can just do your own accent and change your outfit, then so be it.
"And I think Cassidy is unapologetic about the very same thing. Life is for living, right? And, in that sense, I am kind of carefree. But there is a side to Cassidy that is damaged. There is a side to me that is damaged.
"If you see me on set, generally, I'm super-stoned, messing with something dangerous and expensive," he laughed, adding he "lives for" the days when he is called upon to do emotionally complex work.
"I don't cry in my life. I don't allow Joe. Joseph doesn't get to cry, so, by the time it comes to a character, I love that, man, it's such a release," the actor said. "So, I am an actual actor. I'm not just this moron who's rolled up, and is somehow winging it. I am very sensitive. I've got bi-polar. I suffer. I've suffered. My dues are paid. I think we are very similar, it's just that I'm not Irish.”
So, how did Gilgun go about perfecting his accent for the role?
"I've got a couple of family members and friends that are Irish and I've been lucky enough to spend time there and do a bit of traveling around and stuff,” he said, “and I've always played with the accent because I love the accent and I've always wanted to play someone who is Irish and the stars just aligned -- an Irish rogue! I mean, how often does that part come about? It's just ridiculous. I am so lucky."
Despite his success on the TV shows "Emmerdale" and "Misfits," and in the films "This is England" and "Pride," Gilgun said he considers the role of Cassidy in the Seth Rogen-produced "Preacher" a life-changing opportunity.
"I've been on the telly for a long while," Gilgun noted. "I've never saved any money or anything. I'm not one of those people. I've spent it all on cannabis and trainers that I never wear out because I never go anywhere.”
The lack of much of a sex life summed up the most recent phase of his life. “Still in love with my ex-girlfriend,” he revealed. But life seemed far brighter after he was approached by a household industry name to do the AMC show.
“Seeing Seth Rogen in front of you, asking you if you want to do this job – man, it's just ridiculous,” he said. “It's really moving. It's just incredible."
In a separate interview, the Holywood, Co. Down native Ennis talked about what the comic-book culture in Ireland was like when he was younger, recalling as well at what point he realized one could make a living out of creating graphic novels.
"Preacher" is based on comic books by Garth Ennis.
PHOTO: KAREN BUTLER
"I had no experience of fandom or anything like it until comparatively later on," the 46-year-old writer and producer told the Irish Echo. "All I got were British comics. I did not read an American comic cover to cover until I was almost 17 and I found a 'Dark Knight' triad in a bookstore in Belfast. That was my first proper exposure to American comics. Before that, I knew what they were, but I never read enough of them or had the chance to really sit down with one or get a sense of an ongoing storyline over multiple issues until then."
Once he got that taste, however, Ennis said he became obsessed with this method of storytelling, particularly those graphic novels penned by the legendary Alan Moore and Frank Miller.
"And that, I think, was around the time I thought: 'Oh, there is something worthwhile going on here. They are not just abandoning the medium for kids,'" he said. "And they are saying comics can be for all ages, for everyone and that was what convinced me to stick around."
"Preacher" airs on AMC Monday nights.
