Last week brought the Season 1 finale of Peacemaker, the first live-action television series to be set within DC’s continuity of blockbuster films. Spinning out of the events of The Suicide Squad, the series follows Christopher Smith / Peacemaker (John Cena) and a ragtag team of allies as they take down a new alien conspiracy. One familiar face within the series is Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), who previously disobeyed orders at ARGUS in The Suicide Squad to help the team take down Starro and save Corto Maltese. Over the course of Peacemaker‘s first season, fans have gotten to discover new sides to Harcourt, especially as she has developed a closer relationship with Peacemaker and the other members of the team.
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In celebration of Peacemaker‘s Season 1 finale, ComicBook.com got a chance to chat with Holland about her emotional and action-packed work in the episode, as well as what’s next for the fan-favorite character after the monumental events of the episode. We also spoke about the finale’s major DCEU cameo, crafting the character dynamics with her co-stars, and so much more!
Record-Breaking
ComicBook.com: It was just announced that the season finale had the best single day performance of a Max Original ever. I wanted to get your reaction to that, because that is just such an incredible thing to hear.
Jennifer Holland: I’m just blown away. I’m so constantly surprised at the reaction from fans on this show, and just how it’s grown over the course of the series. It’s been a dream. It’s difficult, because you go, “Oh my gosh, we’ve got to do this again. I hope that people like it the second time around.”
Fan Response
You touched on it, but what has it been like to see the fan response over the course of the season? The Peacemaker Parties on Twitter have felt like such a great communal experience, what has that been like for you?
It’s been great to be able to connect with fans in that way, and just to be able to go on the ride of discovering the series. The ride of discovering the series with the fans has been a totally different experience that I’ve never had before. Getting the opportunity to connect in a real way with fans like that, and really just get this genuine feeling for how much they’re loving the characters, and how much they’re enjoying the show, it’s just been awesome.
Favorite Scene
What has been your favorite scene of the season, either to film or just to see the audience react to?
Whoo boy. I think that my favorite scene to film was probably the Judomaster fight in episode seven. It was just such a well-choreographed fight sequence — and the emotional journey that Harcourt goes on through the course of that fight, I thought was just really cool. It wasn’t just this fight, she was also dealing with Murn’s death over the course of fighting with Judomaster. I really loved that. Wayne Dalglish, who was our stunt coordinator, he directed that scene and he just did a fantastic job. I loved filming that.
But I loved filming the whole series. I sound like a broken record every time I talk about it, but it was a really great experience. We had a really good time. And I just hope that we, in Season 2, are able to hang out together and go to dinners together and stuff, because we couldn’t do any of that [in Season 1] because it was right in the middle of COVID in Canada.
Harcourt
I loved the slow burn of Harcourt’s character growth, and her journey over the course of the season. I was wondering if you could speak to playing that, and where you think she’s at, as a person, by the finale.
I love her character arc through the whole season. I think it’s really, really nuanced and it doesn’t rush itself. I really love the way that it was written into the whole series. I think, for me, I didn’t want to hold back. I wanted Harcourt to be as cold and closed off as she could be in the earlier episodes, because I wanted her to really have that full character arc throughout the season.
I think the interesting thing is that we don’t know where she goes from here. She’s not exactly an open book now. She still has a lot of demons and a lot of stuff to deal with. Emotionally, she’s still very closed off. But she — at this point, I think — has finally accepted that it’s okay to have a team, and it’s okay to have a family. Whereas when we saw her at the beginning of the series, she was such a lone wolf. She felt like she was just carrying everyone else, and everyone else was just a liability to her. She thought she would be better off alone. I think she has accepted that there is value in having a team and having a family.
Harcort and Adebayo
I love how Harcourt and Adebayo’s dynamic has progressed over the season. In the finale, in particular, you had some really great moments together. What was it like to craft that with Danielle, over the course of the episodes?
Oh, man. I’ve said this before, but I did all of this work on my own on the character, and how she felt about Adebayo, and what that dynamic was like for her. You can’t prepare for what the other actor is going to give you. So when I first meet Danielle, I’m like, “Oh, sh-t. She’s like the sweetest, most charming, lovely human being. You couldn’t be mean to her if you tried, in real life.” She made my job so hard, because she’s just so lovable and charming. That was an unexpected dynamic. I was going to have to really try to not like her at the beginning of the series.
Finale Fight
I did want to ask about the big fight sequence in the finale, because you guys did such an incredible job, and it unfolds in a way that is so mesmerizing to watch. What was that like to participate in that, and put that together?
Just a dream. A lot of it is one big shot that they did. I don’t want to discount what the actors did — the actors did do a lot, and we rehearsed a lot, and we’re a huge part of that fight sequence. But because the camera work was so dynamic, it was such challenging camera work that they were doing. They used our stunt doubles a lot for that fight sequence, because they don’t have the time to keep re-shooting it over and over and over again. They have to have the pros step in, so to speak. So a lot of that was done with our incredible stunt doubles, who did such a great job throughout the entire season.
I remember shooting the slow-motion walkout when “Do You Wanna Taste It?” starts up again. It’s me and Peacemaker and Vigilante, and we’re slow-mo walking out onto the field to start this fight. I just remember just thinking, “Oh my God, I’m in one of the coolest James Gunn slow walks of all time.” He does a lot of slow walks, so that’s saying something. [laughs]
Justice League
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask about the Justice League of it all. Obviously, Harcourt is in a unique spot when all of that is happening, but I wanted to get your reaction to the fact of the Justice League are in the show and the team has crossed paths with them.
I love it. I love when the different shows and movies can cross over. I think it’s fun for fans. I know that, before I was in any of these superhero projects and I was just a fan, it was always fun to see Nick Fury show up at the end of the movie you were watching. You’re like, “Oh, cool!” So I thought that it was going to be really fun.
You just don’t know how people are going to react to it. But I just hoped that people would see, “Oh, cool. There’s a place for all of us in this world.” We’re a different tone and we’re a different type of team. Maybe we’re not as superhero as some of the superheroes are, but we’re in the same world and there’s room for all of us in this world.
Final Scene
The final scene that Harcourt has with Peacemaker — James tweeted that you made John cry. What was it like filming that moment?
That was a grueling day, actually. We had some issues with the makeup that day. We had to keep going with it, and trying to make sure that she looked right, because James wanted to make sure she looked near death and very pale and sick. We had all these wounds that we had to put on my face and everything. There were a couple of snafus with the makeup that day. It is what it is. You roll with the punches when you’re shooting something. But it’s not an ideal situation to get you prepared for the emotional scene that you’re about to do. It was just trying to really, just stay focused and be in the moment.
It was a special scene to film, for sure. I felt incredibly connected to John that day. He was always just the best scene partner. He just gives his one-hundred percent, and he’s totally there with you. I just think he’s great. I know that there are people out there who want to say that he’s not a real actor or something because he was a wrestler, but he is as real as they come. He is 100% committed to the roles that he takes on. He’s also totally dedicated to growing as an actor, and he’s incredibly talented. I feel so lucky that he was the guy who was the leader of our actor squad on this series, because he’s just the best. He’s really great.
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Season 1 of Peacemaker is available to stream in its entirety on HBO Max.
