Jennifer Holland first played Emilia Harcourt in 2021's The Suicide Squad, and now reprises the role in spinoff TV show Peacemaker. The series, which is now out on HBO Max, revolves around John Cena's titular character as he works with the U.S. government to stop an alien threat. After having a minimal role in The Suicide Squad, Harcourt is one of the main players on Peacemaker, factoring heavily into the story.
As Peacemaker continues its run on HBO Max, Screen Rant spoke with Holland about her experience making the show, the character's DCEU future, and much more.
Screen Rant: We have to start with the opening credits. They are so fun. "Do You Wanna Taste It" has been stuck in my head ever since I watched. I don't know if you're in the same boat.
Jennifer Holland: It's been stuck in my head since sometime early 2020.
I bet! How was the choreography for you? That was just so fun to watch.
Jennifer Holland: It was awesome. I loved working on it. James brought on Charissa Barton, who was the choreographer who created the whole thing, and she sort of took James's vision, which was very similar to what it ended up being, and she just kind of expanded on that and created this really amazing thing. I think, originally it was supposed to take place on one of our sets, maybe the HQ set or something like that. But James had specific ideas of how he wanted to shoot it and the types of shots that he wanted to get, and so they ended up with this stage situation and it's kind of a fever dream. It's amazing.
Definitely unskippable credits.
So, we meet Harcourt in The Suicide Squad, but we learn a lot more about her in Peacemaker. What was it like for you to just dig deeper into this character?
Jennifer Holland: It was a lot of fun. I mean, just to work on the show in any capacity, I think I would have just been ecstatic. When I first heard that Harcourt was going to be in the series, I had absolutely no idea what that meant or in what capacity, and when I found out the depth of her character and just how well written she is, in my humble opinion, and how nuanced of a character she was, I was just blown away. I just couldn't believe that I had been given this wonderful opportunity. I just feel so grateful that I get to play her and I hope that everyone feels like I do her justice.
Oh 100%. And by the way, I would like your arms routine, whatever that is. I want that.
Jennifer Holland: Thank you so much! I worked out a lot for this role. I didn't want her to look like someone who was just incredibly svelte, like someone who didn't eat food. I wanted her to look like someone who ate food and drank beer, but also was an expert at what she does and so I worked out really hard with a trainer. He's an actor and he's a good friend of mine. We were on this series, Sun Records together. His name's Kevin Fontaine. He's an actor and, much like all actors, we go through periods of time when we're not working very much. He's also very fitness-oriented and he started doing some training on the side and he's incredible. I worked with him on Zoom only and he just kicked my butt.
Did you do a lot of fight training for the show?
Jennifer Holland: I did. Anytime I wasn't on set, really, I was working with the stunt team, and the fight team, and the tactical guy on just training. We did a ton of just general fight training, they taught me a lot of basics of certain things, and then we did a lot of training for the specific fights that we have in the show. The stunts team, led by Wayne [Daglish], was just incredible. I think they created some really amazing sequences in this show and I'm so grateful to be a part of them. It's been a dream of mine to be able to meld the physical part of myself, the athletic part of myself, with acting and I got to fully do that in this series and my stunt double, Yulia, is incredible. She makes me look like way more of a badass than I am. She taught me all of the fights. We worked tirelessly to make sure that I could do everything almost as well as she was doing it so that whenever they needed to shoot, they wanted certain shots, I was able to do it and sell it and she just worked really, really hard with me to make sure I was able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without her. I owe so much of this character to her, definitely.
I love you in this show and I'm so glad because in The Suicide Squad the tagline is "don't get too attached," so you never know who's gonna make it. Was there ever a version, or did you and James ever talk about a version, where Harcourt, for whatever reason, did not make it past The Suicide Squad?
Jennifer Holland: I don't think so, because she was such an inconsequential character to some degree [laughs]. I mean, she ended up becoming somewhat important throughout the different iterations of his script. Originally, the character was called, like, "Comms Tech 2" in the original script. The character became more integral to certain parts of the story and then he thought, "Oh, maybe I'll give this character a name from the comic books so that when fans are watching the credits, they'll see, 'That was Emilia Harcourt!'" And they'll be like, "Oh, cool! What does that mean?" You know? But there were no plans for her beyond The Suicide Squad and, thusly, I think she was never going to be important enough to perish.
I see what you're saying. But now I feel like, and this is maybe my own fanfic, but I feel like she could be like the inner connective tissue, if there were a bunch of shows, she's the one that calls everyone up and is like, "Got an assignment for you." That's what I want to see, at least.
Jennifer Holland: You know what? I want you in the creative rooms of these different various DC properties selling that because that would be the most amazing thing.
Let em know! What other member of The Suicide Squad would you love to boss around next, or at least explore Harcourt's dynamic with?
Jennifer Holland: The one that I always say is Bloodsport, because I think it would be fun if we ever got to have Bloodsport and Peacemaker together again. That would be a really fun thing to watch. But it would also probably be really interesting to see Ratcatcher 2 meet up with Peacemaker again and see how they interact with each other after what happened in the film. So, I don't know. I think it would be fun to have any of them back into the mix.
Yeah, I agree. Where does Harcourt rank in terms of characters you've played? Is she your number one?
Jennifer Holland: Yes. There's probably some part of me that feels that way while I'm in the midst of any certain character if I've really fallen in love with them. Usually, I try to because it's the best way to give full life to someone, is to love them for their faults and their strengths, I think. But, yeah. The truth is, not to in any way poopoo any of the other writers I've ever worked with, or anyone else who's ever created anything that I've worked with, I just think I've never gotten to play such a fully fleshed out, real, flawed individual as much as Harcourt is if that makes any sense. She's just such a full person to me, that I just love her so much. I just think she's messed up, and she's flawed, and she's got all kinds of issues, and she's also strong. There are reasons to look up to her and there's also a lot of things that she has to learn. So I just think she's a wonderful, full character.
That's good to hear because I interviewed James the other day and he said he wants to do 87 seasons of Peacemaker, so you may be playing her for a while. What would it mean to get multiple seasons of the show and get back together with everyone for another season?
Jennifer Holland: Well, we'll have to see! We don't know who makes it out of this story alive. You just never know until it's all out there. Then we'll get to see what the possibilities are next.
That's true, because nobody has seen the final episode yet. Nobody knows what happens. What episode are you most excited for people to see?
Jennifer Holland: My favorite episode is episode six. The finale is a really incredible episode, I love the finale, but episode six, there's so many important things that happen for so many of the character arcs. Everyone really gets a good character arc. There's one character arc that doesn't really come full circle until episode eight, but a lot of character arcs come to some crescendo to some degree or hit a climax in that episode and it's just such a wonderful nuanced episode. It was the last episode that we shot and James directed it. I think everyone was just in their element. Everyone had really gotten as comfortable as possible with the characters by that point. James had gotten as comfortable as possible with himself and knowing what he was doing with the show, and everything just kind of flowed and it is, I think, the most beautifully nuanced episode in the series, myself.
Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max.