IR Interview: Eric Kripke & Antony Starr For “The Boys” (Awards Track) [Prime-S4]

The Inside Reel

Creator/Showrunner Eric Kripke and Actor Antony Starr talk to The Inside Reel on this edition of “Awards Track” about balance, character and intent in regards to the 4th season of their Prime Video genre series: “The Boys”.

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:11♪♪

00:13Look, we've all done bad shit.

00:15What's insane is that our solution to every problem is murder.

00:20Violence isn't brave.

00:21♪♪

00:24Violence is power.

00:26♪♪

00:28That's a spirit jam.

00:29Who wants a creamy, delicious milkshake?

00:32If we're ever going to win against monsters,

00:34we need to start acting human.

00:37Run!

00:38Ah!

00:39♪♪

00:45You're all f***ing welcome.

00:47♪♪

00:51Pushing the boundaries but also keeping it both empathetic and edgy

00:56is such a key thing, and that's true of the story.

00:59Obviously, Anthony, it's true of, you know, of Homelander.

01:02I mean, can you sort of talk about, Eric, first that,

01:05keeping that edge but keeping it relevant,

01:08and then, Anthony, taking that performance,

01:11keeping it so you feel for the guy but you know he's bad, you know?

01:16I mean, you know, we don't—

01:18we spend a surprisingly little amount of time in the room

01:22talking about being edgy or shocking

01:26or what's some shocking thing we can do.

01:29We spend almost all of our time talking about character first.

01:35How are they, you know, who are they?

01:38How do we dig to deeper psychological levels?

01:41And then we talk a lot about just what's going on in the world

01:45and how can we be a reflection of things that we see happening

01:52and just be current and literate.

01:55♪♪

01:57This country is corrupt beyond repair, so we gotta save it.

02:02♪♪

02:04It's not gonna be easy. We'll have to do some terrible things.

02:07For the greater good.

02:09You'll no longer be beloved celebrities.

02:11♪♪

02:14You will be wrathful gods.

02:17Show me a little wrath.

02:19♪♪

02:22That doesn't sound good, Ashley.

02:24We are no shit, Ashley. Sorry, Ashley.

02:28The whole world is about to burn.

02:31We need someone like you, Billy,

02:33before the Supes start rounding us up and dumping us off in camps.

02:37I have found the answer to all our prayers.

02:41A virus that kills Supes?

02:43This is insane and desperate, even for you.

02:46Well, insanely desperate's where we are, don't you think, love?

02:49And then, like, it's only, like, in the very last minute

02:52that we, you know, put in something crazy.

02:56The architecture...

02:58So I think the reason it works

02:59is because we don't really even focus on that stuff.

03:01Like, the architecture beneath it is so sound

03:05in terms of its character and characters and thematics

03:10that I think people...

03:12But the thematics of season four, though, Eric,

03:14are very specific and they're very timely across the board.

03:18Well, you know, look, it's about...

03:20Obviously, it's about an election

03:22and it's about, like, real things that are happening out in the world

03:25and, you know, we lean into that

03:30because, you know, we have a story that's about celebrity,

03:35the intersection of celebrity and authoritarianism,

03:38and that just, you know, not just in the United States,

03:40that just happens to be something that's happening all over the world.

03:44But it's also about facing your, you know,

03:49the flaws in your past and the wounds in your past

03:53and can you overcome them to move forward?

03:55And almost every character struggles with that

03:58and that's where you get an emotional connection,

04:00that's where you get an episode.

04:02You like this segue?

04:03This is where you get the episode of, like, Ant going back home to his lab

04:07and how he nails that.

04:23Come here.

04:27Come here. That's an order.

04:38I'm your father.

04:42Not him.

04:45And I always will be.

04:52Come here now.

05:00Ryan?

05:03Ryan!

05:04Can you talk about that? Yeah.

05:06I mean, that's a great example.

05:07Thank you, Eric.

05:08I did see that segue.

05:10Get that segue and run with it.

05:13So that episode was actually fantastic.

05:15I mean, it was a great...

05:17Here's the great thing about this show,

05:19the scripts come in, like you said,

05:21they're architecturally sound is a great way to put it

05:23because they come in and I know that the show is in a good place

05:30when the scripts come in,

05:31and this episode specifically came in and I went,

05:33oh, my God, the ideas are coming out.

05:35Right?

05:36It's creatively inspiring.

05:39So we knocked that around a bit.

05:40And then that's what the reason I think people empathize with the character

05:46and it's had such a mixed response in a positive way,

05:49a positively mixed response is because it is grounded.

05:55You know, in that episode,

05:56this is a guy going back to confront his demons.

05:59He's going back to confront like a group of people that tortured him.

06:07You know, the poor guy, and he doesn't know what he's doing.

06:09He doesn't know what he's going to feel.

06:11And that was important is to go in there and have a mix of,

06:14a range of feeling because to my mind,

06:20going back and doing that would be such a raft of different emotions.

06:25And I think that's,

06:26it's the truth and the reality that we anchor the character in the situation

06:30and we drape it over that architecture.

06:32And I think that is what people respond to.

06:56I can't believe this is happening to me again.

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