"The Boys" is on Season 4, and its cast is ready to discuss all the gory details. Watch as Antony Starr ("Homelander"), Chace Crawford (“The Deep / Kevin Moskowitz”), Karen Fukuhara (“Kimiko Miyashiro”), Erin Moriarty (“Starlight / Annie January”), Claudia Doumit (“Victoria Neuman”), Colby Minifie (“Ashley Barrett”), Susan Heyward (“Sister Sage”), and showrunner Eric Kripke chat with CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell about superhero fatigue, favorite death scenes, parallels between the show and real life and so much more.
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00:00Does the idea of quote-unquote superhero fatigue concern you at all as you continue to look
00:07for exciting ways to tell stories in the genre?
00:09No, not at all.
00:12That's a spirit, champ.
00:19I actually, I question where the fatigue lies.
00:24And I think, without going digging into specifics of anything that has or hasn't been successful,
00:32I'm very curious to see what happens around any notion of superhero fatigue when James
00:37Gunn's superhero things come out because I think, because I think, I don't think the
00:43audience is fatigued.
00:44Let me put it that way.
00:45I think the audience is hungry.
00:48We were just down in Mexico doing a doing a CCXP down there.
00:52And they are hungry as hell for superhero content.
00:56So I think, I think it's easy to start saying it's a superhero fatigue or whatever.
01:03I think people just want fresh story and fresh ideas and fresh storytelling.
01:08And because of the nature of our show being an inverted universe, we're not bound, we're
01:15not slaves to the same masters.
01:17We're not bound to the same moral true north that standard superhero things are.
01:23So we have no boundaries.
01:25Right.
01:26And I am not and never have been invested in this world because you guys wear tights.
01:33You can be any characters and whatever you're doing, I'm on board.
01:36So yeah.
01:37Well, the funny thing is, I don't think any of the, I don't think any of the actors or
01:40anyone making the show treats it specifically like a superhero show because all the characters
01:47have to be a little more three-dimensional.
01:50And we can make them a little more three-dimensional because we don't always have to be good.
01:55We don't have to be always bad.
01:57We can be both.
01:58We can have really complicated mixed characters and I think that makes it much more enjoyable.
02:03With this team of writers, no, mostly because they follow the culture.
02:08It's not just about taking a collection of stories and kind of giving us what we're familiar
02:14with.
02:15We're using it as a lens to talk about what's going on, to talk about the lives that our
02:20audience members are going to go live after they watch the show.
02:24So that's not so much of your mind, especially because the Kripke and the writers, they've
02:30set up a world where it's a reflection back at React.
02:34Yeah.
02:35I mean, it's very, very surreal and it's always troubling that reality seems to represent
02:46our insane show more and more every year.
02:50But yeah, it's honestly, the last couple of years have been like that.
02:54We've been writing things and then just as the show is dropping, those things seem to
02:59be really big and in the news.
03:01And people always ask me like, well, how are you so prescient?
03:04How did you know that was coming?
03:06And my answer is always the same, which is like, look, that was shitty two years ago
03:11and it's shitty today and it's going to be shitty two years from now.
03:15Like they're all problems that are not going away anytime soon, unfortunately.
03:20And so it looks like we're being current, but we're really just talking about the same
03:24old shit that we were talking about two years ago.
03:26I can't believe this is fucking happening to me again.
03:30Karen, so favorite is a weird word, but what's your favorite way that Kimiko has died so
03:35far?
03:36Oh, that's good.
03:37Kimiko has died.
03:38Yeah.
03:39Ooh.
03:40You know, it's got to be the first one when she is fighting Black Noir and then there's
03:46a, you know, the crane with the camera is going from her dead body and we all think
03:53that she's dead.
03:54There's some epic music playing.
03:55Yes.
03:56That was amazing.
03:57That was so cool.
03:58And then she's like, boom.
03:59That was good.
04:00That was so good.
04:01That was so good.
04:02I mean, also as an actor, I was like, phew.
04:03Yeah, of course.
04:04Made it.
04:05Made it.
04:06I made it.
04:07Thank God.
04:08Colby, I'm curious, considering how many people get killed kind of willy nilly on this show,
04:15and I think we all sort of sit waiting for each person to go, Astrid's ability to survive
04:19and even thrive is kind of commendable.
04:22I want to know what you think her most valuable quality is that kind of keeps her safe-ish
04:28in the realm of the boys.
04:29Yeah.
04:30I mean, I think she is such a public figure for Vought that having her die, I think it
04:40wouldn't be great for their fiscal year, especially, you know, when Giancarlo Esposito, when Stan
04:48Edgar is pushed out, you know, there's some turmoil and like the board, there has to be
04:55meetings with the board and all that kind of stuff.
04:56And we have to make sure that Vought can survive because, you know, without Vought,
05:03the home of all of this power that Homelander wields would be gone.
05:07I mean, he can wield power in many different ways, but you know what I mean?
05:12Like I think, I also think like she's a great, you know, when Sage comes in and Ashley is
05:19basically a, I want to say a musketeer, but that's not the right word, a mascot.
05:26Not a musketeer.
05:28When Ashley is now a mascot for Vought, you know, I think Sage understands that that is
05:35actually quite important to have a playing leader, even if, even if Ashley wields no
05:44power.
05:45That doesn't sound good, Ashley.
05:46Oh yeah, no shit, Ashley.
05:47Sorry, Ashley.
05:48Claudia, I need to know because did the boys and Gen V feel like totally different projects
05:55to you?
05:56What was it like sort of portraying Newman in different ways in comparison to the way
05:59that she kind of interacted with different people?
06:02No, I definitely felt that it was still under the same umbrella, which is great because
06:08it's in the same universe.
06:11I mean, I did feel different though as Newman on Gen V because I'm interacting with these
06:17like essentially these college kids.
06:19So it has like a whole different kind of approach.
06:23I think Newman in general talks to different people in different ways, depending on who
06:28she's like up against.
06:30But it was really funny to come in as this kind of like faux maternal figure.
06:35Like that's the energy that I felt like I had.
06:38It felt easier to hide.
06:40That's what it was.
06:41It felt easier to hide because they're more trusting.
06:43Well, that's what, you know, the character dynamic.
06:47So yeah, it just felt easier to be duplicitous Newman on that show.
06:53I can't tell you guys how impressed I am at the fact that you're constantly reinventing
06:57this show and that the fact that like four seasons, five seasons into it, I'm still as
07:01invested in the characters as I am from-
07:04I know how the writers do it.
07:06It's a testament to the writing, like they're phenomenal.
07:10And Eric, how many people ask you for a part?
07:13How many people ask you to maybe participate?
07:17I mean, more and more now.
07:18I mean, in the early days, it was more like, what can we do to get away from you?
07:23Now I would say like heading into season five for the first time, we've gotten, you know,
07:30like Seth Rogen or his partner Evan Goldberg will shoot me an email and like we were just
07:36talking to, you know, huge star X and, you know, they want in and can we get them in?
07:45So, you know, and we're obviously I'm, I have very little shame.
07:50So of course, I'll find a part to get them in the show.
07:54You'll no longer be beloved celebrities, you will be wrathful gods.
08:01Show me a little wrath.
08:03Aaron, my favorite part of Starlight's story currently involves her wrestling with the
08:06idea of whether a hero needs a costume to have a greater effect.
08:11And as a performer, I'm wondering if you're also a little bit pleased to not have, not
08:15have to wear the hero costume as often as maybe some of your co-stars do.
08:18Oh yeah.
08:19The thing about it is like, there's never, I'm never going to lose that ultimately like
08:24unshakable feeling that putting on a cape is just like, there's something to that that's
08:29profound that you can't escape that.
08:31Like you thought, you know, I didn't dream of that as a child even, but like it's a cape
08:35and there's a part of you that's like, how did I even end up here?
08:38This is insane.
08:40So that novelty never wears off, but at the end of a very long day in a very tight suit
08:47like that, when you just want to like sit down and eat lunch without feeling like your
08:52organs are compressed.
08:54It's been a really like physically comfortable transition into the boys and into Annie exclusively
09:02also satisfying for her emotionally, but predominantly like just overall feels physically
09:09really good to wear sneakers on set.
09:11I never take any days for granted.
09:13Why don't I just get to wear some sneakers?
09:15It's the best.
09:16It's the best.
09:17But that suit is stunning.
09:18Like the reason why it was so impeccable looking is because it was tailor made for our bodies.
09:25So I'll never forget that experience and I'll always like love putting it on.
09:29I say that, but I want her to stick to her commitment of remaining Annie and not her.
09:35But I love it forever.
09:37I'll let you ladies know that I'm wearing athletic shorts underneath here.
09:41Look at you.
09:42I love them.
09:43You get it.
09:44I love it.
09:45You get it.
09:46This is insane and desperate, even for you.
09:47Well insanely desperate's where we are, don't you think, love?
09:50Let's go.
09:51Chop, chop, motherfuckers.