Interview: Erin Moriarty & Antony Starr Discuss Their Dynamic On and Off-Screen in ‘The Boys’ [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 Antony Starr and Erin Moriarty, who portray Homelander and Starlight (respectively), about their on and off-screen dynamic.

Nerds & Beyond: It seems like the two of you have a great off-screen friendship. How do you navigate turning that into such an antagonistic dynamic on-screen?

Antony Starr: It’s great. These two characters are basically the opposite ends of the polarities — the good girl and the not-so-good boy. Every other character falls somewhere within these two on that spectrum. To put these two on a collision course … of course you’re going to have some very intense moments, and you’re going to have some really difficult emotional territory to navigate. So any off-screen friendship lends itself to an ease on the day, especially because we work so fast. We’re closer, we’ve got that shorthand. But it’s kind of the same with the whole group. Everyone gets on so well, but I’ll keep it in terms of [Erin and I]. Just navigating those difficult scenes with a shorthand, an understanding of each other, and a respect that is already there. It’s already built in. You don’t have to try and learn “Oh, will she get offended if I say this?” It just makes things a lot more fluid and a lot easier. 

Erin Moriarty: I find that, especially when we’re doing these very complicated scenes — cause they’re always complicated when it’s a scene between the two of us — I’m in my comfort zone because I’m working with Antony. As you said, we are good friends. The more comfortable you are, the more you’re able to focus on the performance and tap into that and not be distracted by anything else. So you might think that a close friendship would not translate to a good antagonistic relationship on-screen, but it totally works, because we just have fun with it. We have a rapport.

Starr: And [we] know how to f#!k with each other. 

Moriarty: It’s great.

Starr: It’s great.

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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