[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys.]From show creator Eric Kripke and based on the best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the Amazon Studios original series The Boys never fails to shock and awe in its irreverent take on superheroes corrupted by celebrity. With very little to stand in his way and no regard for the powerless, an increasingly unhinged Homelander (Antony Starr) is pushing Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) to go further than ever before in their attempts to stop him.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Starr and Erin Moriarty (who plays Annie January, aka Starlight, girlfriend of Hughie and one of the Seven) talked about how much they knew about their story arcs before shooting Season 3, whose story moments tend to most surprise him, the cameo in the first episode of the season, the shifting power dynamics between Homelander and Starlight, getting to explore more of Annie and Hughie’s relationship, Herogasm, and whether Homelander could ever have a happy ending.
Collider: In keeping with the first two seasons, there are crazy things that happen in Season 3. How much were you told about the season, before you started shooting it?
ANTONY STARR: We’re lucky to get the scripts pretty far in advance. We all get an outline for where our characters are going, pre-season, with a ballpark idea of where things are going. Then, as the scripts come out, we usually get a few up front, like three or four, and then, as they work on the back half, we get the rest of the season as they come out. We kind of know where things are going, but it’s always an enjoyable surprise to see what actually ends up on paper and the reality of what we’re actually going to be doing.
ERIN MORIARTY: Yeah. I think the cool and important thing is that, before each season, we always sit down with [Eric] Kripke and he tells us what our general trajectory is. He also always lets us know what we should know that would be helpful for our character, beginning the season, in terms of what might happen later on, so that we can incorporate foreshadows at the beginning of the season in our performance. We do get a few of the scripts in advance, and since it’s such a big cast, one of my favorite parts about doing this show is that I love everyone’s work so much, but there are so many aspects of the storyline that I’m not in. I loved reading the other storylines and the scenes that I’m not in, and seeing them play out on screen as well. That’s really fun.
Three seasons into this show now, with all of the crazy things that have gone on, do you still have moments where you question what they want you to do, or is it just all in a day’s work for the show?
STARR: Most of the time, I’m reading The Deep’s things and going, “You want him to do what?” And then, I call Chace [Crawford] going, “Are you okay with this?” I’m used to it now, every time I see something crazy, whereas originally, when we started the show, I read a few things and was like, “No, that’s too far.” Now, I know not to do that because usually those things end up being my favorite scenes in the show.
MORIARTY: Those are usually the moments that I actually like filming the most because they’re insane and so fun. I know that I’m probably not gonna ever work on a job like this, that has that many moments. But also, as Annie and as Starlight, who has such a strong moral compass, I don’t have as many of those moments.
STARR: The Deep takes most of those.
Antony, what was it like to know you’d be calling Charlize Theron a “Nazi bitch”?
STARR: Charlize is the best actress that I’ve ever had the chance to not work with in a scene. Unfortunately she wasn’t on set. We had a double because she couldn’t make it to Toronto.
But eventually, you knew we’d all see you calling her that.
STARR: Yeah, it’s so absurd. The only way to look at that stuff is that it’s very funny. It’s so absurd, these superheroes coming in with these dreadful, very well-crafted lines that are so absurd. It’s so nuts. It’s just so fun and crazy. And what a baller Charlize Theron is. She came in and had the most absurd little cameo, and what a way to kick off the season. It was great.
There have been so many shows that have incorporated the entertainment industry, in some way, and The Boys does movies and TV shows within the show, and recreates movie premieres.
STARR: That’s part of celebrity culture. It’s that whole corporate-sponsored celebrity that the show is all about. That’s one of the things that makes the show really enjoyable, being able to dip into all those things. It really gives the show such a scope and it gives the writers a huge field to plan.
MORIARTY: She’s also one of many little celebrity cameos we have throughout the season that come in at hilarious moments. They’re inserted so perfectly. She’s the first of many in the season.
We get to really see the shifting power dynamics between your characters this season, as there’s a push-and-pull struggle going on between Homelander and Starlight. What was that like to get to explore?
STARR: It was super fun. I’ve always looked at it like Butcher and Homelander are basically the same animal. They’re two sharks. Homelander is the bad guy of the show, and Butcher is in the middle, and then Starlight is the ultimate good, the beacon of hope, and the bright light of goodness. We both find out in Season 3 that emancipating ourselves and actually speaking our truth is the way forward and the way to get what we want, but obviously for very different reasons. It was cool. I love the way that this show really parallels character journeys alongside each other. We had a lot of fun doing that. It’s always good to bang heads with people that you enjoy working with, so it was great fun.
MORIARTY: Yeah, it was really fun and funny how those two characters, working for such opposing sides, have this parallel. Obviously, the parallel is that they ultimately end up in this place of understanding that speaking honestly is going to best service them and result in such different things. It’s interesting how they both come to that. Also, as a young woman who is working for this corporation that has historically been very sexist, for me, Erin, I enjoy the catharsis of playing a young woman coming into her power, standing up to a man who is drunk on power and who has taken advantage of his power. That, to me, is fun and cathartic to play out.
Erin, to offset all the crazy with Vought and The Seven, you get to explore more of the relationship with Annie and Hughie. More than ever, they feel like the moral center of the show. What do you enjoy about their relationship and getting to see more of that this season, and what they bring out in each other?
MORIARTY: What I enjoy in this season is that, in the beginning of the season, it’s been a year and you see them as an established, slightly matured couple in a really stable place. You do see the love there, and the love is very justified because they have an immense bond and they’ve been through similar experiences. They both found each other and can both really empathize with each other and understand each other because they both are relatively similar. However, you do see a new side of Hughie this season, and that’s where the dynamic gets really interesting because that’s really unexplored territory for us. Sometimes, as humans, we can contradict ourselves and find ourselves reactive, reacting or behaving in a way that we didn’t expect. That’s what happens with Hughie, in terms of feeling emasculated by my power. And so, playing with that dynamic between the two of us and trying to work through that is unprecedented for us and was just interesting to do because I didn’t expect them to bring that out in Hughie, but it was a pleasant surprise to have to deal with that challenge.
Antony, Homelander is definitely more openly unhinged and unstable this season. Does he have an awareness of how deeply rooted all of that is, in his insecurity? Do you think he is the type of guy that even has any awareness of that?
STARR: Do I think he’s self-reflective? I don’t think Homelander is the most spiritually aware chap. I think the guy is going through what most people would go through at puberty, which is this self-identification process, breaking free of the parent figures. But one thing that was actually really fun to play was to look at what Homelander created in himself and the tools he created and used to get himself through hard times. That was a lot of fun. Reflectively, there is one scene that’s a directly reflective experience, when we see this character that he has created, as a boy, in the mirror that he has a conversation with. That was a lot of fun, to mess around with the internal mechanics of this guy. What made him the way that he is and how he did he cope with it? It just adds a lot of context to the character, and in doing that, it deepens the experience for the audience. It’s always fun, finding new territory with this character, and in this case, seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes. I don’t think we’ve hit the bottom yet either. There are layers to mind.
Even if he were to get everything that he thinks he wants, do you think he really would ever be satisfied? Is there any way to ever actually fully satiate him?
STARR: Well, no. Like everyone in life, as soon as you get what you want, you move onto the next thing. It’s human nature to want more. As much as he doesn’t want to be, at the core of it, he’s human. Ultimately, he’s full of the good and the bad of humanity, mostly the bad, you could argue. We’ve all got experiences in life that everyone can relate to, when you get what you want, and then you’re like, “Oh, shit, it’s not enough.” You then set a new goal. You’ve always gotta be moving forward, or you stagnate. If you stagnate and you stop moving forward, you do so at your own peril. What we try to do with these characters is really keep them evolving and keep them growing and keep them fresh, like real people in the real world.
MORIARTY: We analyze and satirize the concept of celebrity and there is a cliche that is sometimes true, which is that celebrities are people who want to be famous and seek out that level of public validation because they didn’t receive it growing up. And Homelander definitely didn’t have a home life or any type of parental validation. There is that thing that can play out in celebrities, which is therefore seeking out fame and external validation to the extreme.
Starlight finds herself at Herogasm. Between everything going on in that scene, with the Love Sausage and all of the bodily fluids being thrown around, what was it like to shoot that? Did it feel like the weirdest thing you’ve ever done on this show?
MORIARTY: Oh, yeah, it was 100% the weirdest thing I’ve ever shot on this show. I had no idea what I was getting into, and I don’t say that in a bad way, but nothing can prepare you for spending five days straight in a simulated orgy. I was really lucky and happy to have Laz [Alonso] by my side because Mother’s Milk and Annie have developed this unexpected bond, and they become partners in crime on a mission. I loved that we went through it together. It was hilarious because, here you’ve got this guy with OCD, and he’s a germaphobe, and he’s walking into an orgy where there are fluids and stuff everywhere. It was the weirdest thing I’ve done on this show, and I would say the weirdest thing I’ve done in my career. I don’t say weird in a bad way, but that would definitely be the weirdest, period, ever.
Antony, what would you consider the most outrageous thing you’ve done on the show, or just that has been on the show so far? As far as your own personal taste level, is it something from this season, or is it something from a previous season?
STARR: Oh, boy, I’ve gotta say, I reckon a man shrinking himself down to get inside the eye of a penis, and then sneezing and exploding inside that other man, definitely was something. When I read that, I was like, “Oh, wow, cool. Yeah, that’s way too far.” Then, when I saw it, I just laughed. I laughed my ass off and I was like, “Wow, this is just so insane.” It didn’t even seem dirty to me. It just seemed just weird. Maybe I’m desensitized to what’s on this show now, but that’s the theme for me. When I think things seem over the top and too much, I just bite my tongue because, every time I see how it turns out, in the end, I’m wrong, and it’s worth it.
For some reason, I somehow never get offended by this show.
STARR: It’s because it’s funny. If we’re exploding someone with a grenade up their butt, like in Season 1, it’s somehow humorous. It’s dark comedy, and it’s pulpy and fun. It’s just accessible because of that.
We’ve seen Homelander killed in the comics. Have you had conversations with Eric Kripke about what Homelander’s eventual fate could be, whenever that might happen? Do you think he could ever have a happy ending? Do you think there’s no way to avoid whatever his potential fate might be?
STARR: I think Homelander’s happy ending would be him annihilating everyone in the world and sitting there in a bloody wasteland on his own, with no one to mess with him. I don’t think there’s a redemption story for Homelander. I wouldn’t really wanna see that, to be honest. I don’t think there’s any intention of doing that either. As for his demise, I don’t know. Every time I try to pick out what might happen in the future, I’m wrong, so I’ve given up speculating. I’m just like, “You know what? I’ll leave that for the writers and spare myself the embarrassment of being wrong, again and again and again.”
The Boys is available to stream at Prime Video.