Ahead of the highly anticipated Season 4 premiere of The Boys, ClutchPoints spoke with some of the cast and crew about the show's popularity, the growth/changes in their characters, and the continuing madness that surrounds every inch of the program.
Since its premiere, Prime Video’s The Boys has been a massive hit. While there has been some oddly typical discourse that follows any show, the Eric Kripke adaptation of the Garth Ennis comic has been met with praise and appreciation from fans and newcomers alike.
Winning over the hardcore fans of The Boys
The Boys is one of the few (if only) adaptations of any kind where the changes made by the creator are welcomed by devoted fans. It’s definitely a feeling that isn’t lost on Kripke, “I'm really grateful that the fans of the comic have embraced the show, And look, I'm a bigger fan of the comic than anybody. I think Garth [Ennis] is the best comic writer alive. So yeah, it gives you good confidence and I've always just tried. I've always said to Garth, ‘Look, I just want to get the characters and the tone right.'”
The first thing a lot of readers of The Boys might mention as a good change is how plot-driven it is. For example, they do not give The Boys access to Temp V from the start. They also added the detrimental effects of taking too much of it. But Kripke knows there are more than just straight plot points that cause a need for further improvements.
“If I can get that right where those [changes] are recognizable from the comics, and I like to think they are, then the audience will go with me on a different story because the politics today are different than they were when Garth wrote it,” Kripke said. “You know, he wrote in a very post-9/11 world and I'm writing mine in a very Trump world. So, it has to change to accurately be what it always wanted to be, which was this really brutal satire.”
Adding nuance to the characters
Kripke isn’t the only one that needs to worry about bringing something new to the table, though. Starlight actress Erin Moriarty explains how as the story expands, it brings the need for its actors to take a closer look at where they started with their characters, and where they need to go.
“It essentially allows me to feel like we're adding nuance to these characters that we've introduced for three seasons and we've earned plot-lines or plot points that expose extra colors in the fabric of who they are that would otherwise be judged in a very reductive way,” she said.
Victoria Neuman actress Claudia Doumit followed up on the matter. “You want the characters to evolve, you want them to be in different circumstances,” she said. “You want them to go from…I mean, in my case; hidden to exposed. Because they react differently, and it's interesting to see them in those different environments. Because there's people that do that, too.”
Antony Starr on playing the “bad guy,” Homelander
No matter what changes for their characters, though, keeping in mind what needs to be presented at all times can be a challenge. Homelander himself, Antony Starr, puts it best, “It's a balancing act, right? Like, I want to create the most multifaceted, layered character possible. But it also has to serve the needs of the show. It's not just me, it's not the Homelander show, it's The Boys. Jaws is not about the shark.
He continues, “I'm the bad guy, and so I want to do what I can with the character, but it's got to serve the script. And so it's always a balancing act of getting whatever we can in there and making the most of the character and what we can get out of it, but also making sure that the requirements of the narrative are met for me.”
NSFW scenes
But let’s be honest — some people just want to watch The Boys for the crazy, off-the-wall action and NSFW madness. One has to wonder if sometimes some of the actors feel left out when they don’t get their unforgettable moments. Claudia Doumit jokes, “I think all the time, Where's my dildo fight? Where's my exploding penis?”
Though, everyone does have their limits, “The amount of time that I spent in ‘Herogasm' has given me a pass for the rest… not pass, but my quota is full. The surplus, I'm grateful for because I love absurdity,” recounts Erin Moriarty. Still, Kimiko actress Karen Fukuhara ponders, “I’m still waiting for my Herogasm invite.”
The Boys Season 4 of course doesn’t disappoint with its crude and outlandish presentation. But, you’ll be surprised how much of what the audience sees is in fact live on set for the actors.
While receiving a text from Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, Doumit’s Victoria Neuman was met with quite the visual. “I did see a real [redacted],” she revealed. “It was the intended picture. It was…great. [laughs] It was very real. It was very helpful for the character's reaction, I would say.”
Even Eric Kripke himself had “fond” memories of that one. “That's a good one. I haven't thought about…I haven't been traumatized by that one for a while. So, thanks for bringing that one back up.”
“I'm shocked by what they let us get away with”
Even as viewers might be surprised to see some of these images pop up in such a highly beloved television program, Kripke is also still amazed at what he and his team is allowed to show. “I'm always and continually shocked by what they let us get away with,” Kripke said. “And there's many times this season where I'm like, There's no way — this is where they're going to draw the line. And it turns out, there is no line.”
As with any good product and any good actor will tell you though, just because something is funny or outrageous, doesn’t mean a lot of thought goes into the production. Still, sometimes it is all that comes at the moment.
Getting into the headspace of the characters
Starr recounted the preparation for his transformation into Homelander. He says that there's “no way” to prep for what he does and it's done off-camera.
“There's no way to prep for it, I don't think,” he said. “For me, it's like, all the prep is done in the psychology behind the scenes, which is working on the material and working on the script so that we know the emotional beats going on through the scene and what everything means. And then we get on set and then it's just about playing around.”
He does need to take into account the actual set-up and camera positions for what comes out on the day. “And, of course, a lot of that depends on…Are you tight? Are you wide? And they're like, ‘What are you doing?' So, I'm very fortunate in this, we are very fortunate in this, that they will set a camera on a face that isn't speaking, which is not every show. A lot of shows don't cut to you unless you're talking. But we're fortunate that we've got a smart group of people making this show,” Starr added.
Fukuhara agrees that a lot of what we see is actually all built up in the moment. While she may not remember exactly, she mentions while discussing an emotional scene in the final episode of The Boys Season 4 she explains, “I think that was in the moment, it must have been. To be honest, I don't even remember it. [laughs] That's why it's fine. I mean, obviously, I'm learning the sign, because I couldn't do it without hours and hours of practice. But on the day, you never know what your scene partner is going to do and it's a conversation. So you have to let it fly a little.”
The Bloomin' Onion
And then sometimes what seems like a well-planned delivery turns out to be a stroke of unintended brilliance. During a mid-conversation turn of the subject between the Deep and new Season 4 character Sister Sage, Chace Crawford waxes poetic about a Bloomin' Onion.
“That was actually an improv moment that we had. We kind of made it this moment. And, I mean, the fact there's a Bloomin' Onion there…I don't think that was exactly in the script, but it was like a dead moment,” Crawford said. “He's supposed to be angry at her and then he sees it and eats it with his gloves on.”
It’s a personal favorite moment of the new season for our interviewer and he couldn’t help bring it up. Chace reciprocates, “No, thank you. That scene was so weird, and it obviously got very weird with her like kink, you know, with the [redacted] and all that.” But, you’ll all have to wait for that episode to find out more.
Keeping audiences on their toes
Shock doesn’t always come from violence, murder, or sexuality. Kripke is able to keep viewers guessing, and sometimes, they don’t get it right. “I just like keeping the audience on its toes, that's all I'll say,” Kripke said of a popular theory.
“I like surprising an audience and often in the writer's room, I'll say, ‘Well, we can't do that because the audience knows that's coming. You have to go 180 degrees off that,'” he elaborated. “And I think the audience likes it too. I think as much as we're like this spoiler culture now, the audience still loves the experience of being surprised. I try to deliver that.”
The Supernatural connection
And while plenty of fans have already heard the news that Eric is hard at work getting Supernatural alum Jared Padalecki into the next season, he still had surprise appearances up his sleeve for Season 4. He also acknowledged that he's diving back into the Supernatural well
“My only motivation for bringing these guys all on is because they're family and it's fun to bring like your old friends back and you have a shorthand and life's too short to work with a*sholes and these are all really nice people,” Kripke explained. “And it's not even so much that you know, I mean, yes, I know that I'm collecting Supernatural Pokémon at this point but it's not so much that they're even from Supernatural, it's just these are a lot of people that I love and have known for a long time.
“If I could cast my shows exclusively with the people I love, I would do it,” he added.
What's next for The Boys?
Though more surprises are always in store, for all the changes Kripke has made, the road map that is broadly outlined in the comics is still on the table.
“There'll be twists and turns, of course, but even the Victoria Neuman story heading into the White House and a potential coup over the United States. That's from the comic, that's their big meta-story. And from the minute we introduced that character in Season 2, we were always heading in this direction.
We were just heading there in a way that, hopefully, threw some curveballs at you along the way,” Kripke concluded.
The Boys Season 4 premieres on June 13 on Prime Video.
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