Interview: Eric Kripke & Karl Urban Talk ‘The Boys’ and “Herogasm” [EXCLUSIVE]

Lindsey
4 Min Read
Prime Video

Everyone’s favorite twisted, diabolical superhero series is finally back — the first three episodes of the long-awaited third season of Prime Video’s The Boys are now streaming! Based on the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is set in a world where superheroes exist, but many of them fall short of the “heroic” part of their job description. Some of the worst can be found amongst The Seven, a famous superhero team working under Vought International. Meanwhile, the Boys are a ragtag crew of vigilantes fighting to take the Supes and Vought down once and for all (and doing their best not to die in the process).

We had a chance to talk to The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke and Billy Butcher himself, Karl Urban, about the logistics of pulling off a feat like season 3’s upcoming episode “Herogasm” and cast members stepping outside of their comfort zones.

Nerds & Beyond: This season has some of your wildest scenes yet, especially the first episode. What were the conversations like behind the scenes with the cast and crew to logistically make things like “Herogasm” happen? And who out of the cast is the most open to outrageous ideas?

Eric Kripke: Speaking specifically about “Herogasm,” [it’s] a logistical nightmare. When you think about dozens of completely naked people simulating sex acts during COVID … the risk of someone being unprofessional or inappropriate is scary to me. I held my breath the entire time. There’s multiple intimacy coordinators, there’s multiple COVID officers, there’s multiple supervisors. I kept saying, “We have to lock this down tighter than we’ve ever locked down anything before,” in terms of it being professional and safe. But it’s really scary, right? Because it’s naked people everywhere, and they’re all pretending to have sex. So that’s really scary as a producer who needs a safe, non-toxic set where everyone feels welcome. That’s a really terrifying thing to try to pull off. I would say it’s challenging, because it’s important the set be a happy, safe space. It’s really important to me. It’s obviously hard and long hours. People have to be happy to be at that job. You have to put in a lot of extra care to make sure that happens when you’re doing something like “Herogasm.” I’d be curious who [Karl thinks] is the most open to the madness.

Karl Urban: I would think Chace [Crawford] is pretty open. He gets asked to do some pretty wild s#!t. [laughs]

Kripke: Crazy s#!t, he does some crazy s#!t. Although I will give a certain prize to Jack [Quaid] this season — for the amount of nudity that guy is rocking in season 3 without complaining. It’s like, “Oh, another entire scene with my ass hanging out?” but, “Sure.”

Urban: It was interesting to see … Initially you could see that it was something he was quite uncomfortable with. But Jack, full credit to him, actually put the work in. He came up in terrific shape, and then once he got over the initial awkwardness of it, then he actually quite embraced it. Just like, “Yeah!”

The first three episodes of the third season of The Boys are now streaming exclusively on Prime Video. Catch the next episode on Friday, June 10, and stay tuned for all of our coverage on the series, including episodic recaps, our spoiler-free season 3 review, and more.

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By Lindsey
Lindsey joined the Nerds and Beyond team in 2018. If she's not writing or out and about with her camera, she's probably watching anime, nerding out over Star Wars, reading manga, and definitely forgetting to water her plants. And waiting for the Genshin loading screen to pop up. Contact: lindsey@nerdsandbeyond.com
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