It took approximately ten minutes for the cast of The Boys to turn their New York Comic Con panel into a referendum on, as star Erin Moriarty put it, “gill sex.”
Moriarty (“Starlight”) and four other cast members, including Jack Quaid (“Hughie”), Antony Starr (“Homelander”), Chace Crawford (“the Deep”), and Karen Fukuhara (“The Female”), bantered about those gills and much, much more in a raucous panel Friday afternoon.
That’s a fitting way to celebrate on a show where, almost every episode, something baffling or strange or otherwise obscene happens. In one of the more bizarre moments, the Deep’s gills were—how shall we say—interacted with in a certain way.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a ‘gill’ category on PornHub after that,” Moriarty said.
The fully-packed panel, which took place on the convention’s largest stage, invited the cast to reminisce on the first two seasons. (Production for the third season wrapped last month.)
Every cast member shared memories of production and shed light on the show’s skyrocketing popularity and some of its wildest moments—from exploding whales to Nazi punching.
Quaid recalled that during the scene with the whale, someone told Laz Alonso, who plays Mother’s Milk, that “there would be air conditioning in the whale.”
“I don’t know who told him that,” Quaid said, “but the greatest thing I’ve ever heard was, ‘Hey, is there gonna be AC in the whale?’”
Moriarty called it “cathartic” to record dialogue for her scene fighting Aya Cash’s villainous character Stormfront. “Aya Cash may be one of the best people you’ll meet in your life,” Moriarty said, but the scene required her to yell, over and over again, things like “Eat my shit, you Nazi bitch!” at Cash. (“Sorry Aya!” she said.)
The cast all identified moments when they knew the show had passed a critical threshold of popularity. A random person wished Moriarty “happy birthday.” Quaid’s booth at a convention was flooded with birthday cakes after he and co-star Karl Urban revealed that they jokingly celebrate each other’s birthdays when it is not the actual date. Starr, who said he’s “done a lot of crappy shows,” recognized quickly that The Boys was better.
“I blew up a guy with an ass bomb,” Quaid said, wrapping up the panel. “I love this show.”
What else we learned:
—Series show runner Eric Kripke told Moriarty she was his first choice after her screen test, which she said (and any working actor knows) is not normal.
—Moriarty and Quaid don’t remember the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” anymore. “It’s like cramming for a test,” she said. “You cram the night before and then forget it.”
—The harnesses that the actors use for aerial scenes are really uncomfortable and, if Moriarty is to be believed, may have rendered Starr “infertile.”
—Quaid is as surprised as fans by how crazy things on the show get. “Every time I look at the script, I’m like, ‘What the fuck? Why?’’ he said.
—Asked for their favorite “coping” snacks, Fukuhara said she loves hot Cheetos but ultimately “they weren’t kind to my butthole.” Starr, in a nod to a truly disturbing scene, said, “milk, lots and lots of milk.”
—“Scientology is a fucking cult,” Starr said. Word.
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