Continuing our interviews from the Comic-Con press room for Netflix’s The Sandman, today the spotlight falls on a genre fan favorite – Jenna Coleman – who is playing a new version of the Constantine character, Johanna Constantine, in the upcoming Netflix series from Sandman creator Neil Gaiman.
The Sandman premieres August 5, and you can read highlights from our roundtable interview below.
Had you been able to meet Neil Gaiman when you did the Doctor Who episode with him?
Yeah. Neil was there at the read-through, he was there on set… I’ve met Neil quite quite numerous times over the years.
That helped make him realize that you were perfect for Johanna Constantine, right?
I guess. It was funny. It came to me very coded, what it was exactly. Initially, I didn’t even know it was Constantine. But what I knew was the character… the dialogue, the patter, the banter… it really bounced off the page. But it was all very kind of coded and intriguing, how it came to me.
This is probably the most unique version of this character that we’ve seen on screen. How did you go about preparing for the role?
A lot of learning how to do an exorcism. I had to learn Latin. It was really funny… I was learning French at the time for The Serpent at the same time as I was learning Latin for the exorcisms on this which are very, very different. I was walking around London and I was like, “oh my God, it’s insane! I’m walking around talking to myself doing exorcisms as I’m like doing my groceries!”
Can you talk about Constantine’s look?
With [Constantine], we really went through a costume journey on it. Are we doing like the trenchcoat that John Constantine has? At one point I had a suspender belt thing, and then Allan [Heinberg] in particular decided this iteration was the very much the upgraded version. This is Constantine who’s risen in the ranks and is now exorcist to the Queen. So we wanted to see the earlier days, and then the more put together version, and then it was a conversation about you know, looking at the other versions and I just felt like with this in particular I looked at Keanu’s Constantine and this version in particular… it was so clear to me what to do off the page. I was like “I want to take this this Johanna Constantine in this form and run with it.” So I didn’t go back and watch the other Constantines, but I used the comic book a lot.
What’s your favorite part about your character?
I love playing her, because she’s kind of roguish, cynical… and it’s all about a humor, and deflection, and her dryness, and wit, but underneath it is this kind of really wounded lone warrior. I think having those two things playing, and it’s all about like deflecting it, and not letting anybody close. It feels like there’s so much depth to play with, and then to have her meet Dream, and have this meeting of minds of these two characters, where actually, the one place that she usually hides and what she would hide is her dreams, and he sees her there.
She’s also not very easily impressed, I don’t think, and there’s a kind of like mutual respect, yet kind of battle of the egos and kinship between them. It was a really interesting dynamic.
I like the fact that there’s a real pragmatism to her. She’s going about her everyday business, and I think there’s a real cost to that. Having the gift is like a blessing and a curse.
Are you also playing her grandmother?
Yes. I’m [also] playing Lady Joanna Constantine, who is her ancestor in the 16th century. She is a lot colder and calculated. It’s quite a good way to look at the character. There’s a real kind of coldness to her, whereas you kind of see the weight of all of the loss and the death on Joanna Constantine in the contemporary [time], and a much bigger heart. compassion, and humanity, whereas I think the Lady Joanna is a lot more cold and cunning.
Who were some of your favorite characters to play off of?
Really, all my stuff’s with Dream, so, with Tom [Sturridge]. It is quite extraordinary working with him. Even seeing the way his hand moves, and everything’s like very slow. He’s completely present, and he’s listening, and he’s there with you, but he’s also as if he’s a thousand places at once. I don’t know how he achieved that, but that was quite extraordinary to play off.
What was your reaction when you saw this with the visual effects finished?
One of the things especially for Neil Gaiman, and a big thing about the show for me, is that it’s such a unique visual world. There’s a lot that I haven’t seen, so now I can watch a lot of the rest of it as a fan, as well.
The Sandman premieres August 5 on Netflix. Read KSiteTV’s other Sandman coverage here!