Summary
- Homelander actor Antony Starr discusses the bizarre breastfeeding scene in
The Boys
‘ episode, “Dirty Business.” - Starr and showrunner Eric Kripke have a close working relationship, comparing it to co-parenting.
- The Boys continues to push boundaries, with Starr admitting he’s often surprised by the show’s content. He doesn’t agree with all of it, but went into detail about doing the breastfeeding scene and its Oedipal brilliance.
The Boys is known for pushing boundaries, and the latest episode, “Dirty Business,” features some incredibly uncomfortable scenes. Homelander himself, actor Antony Starr, took the time to break down one of the most hilariously not safe-for-work scenes the show has ever aired.
In the latest episode of The Boys, Homelander is confronted by Firecraker (Valorie Curry). Firecracker proclaims her loyalty to Homelander, who’s indifferent to her declarations. That is, until Firecracker reveals just how far she’s willing to go to please Homelander. She opens her blouse and sprays breast milk across Homelander’s face, resulting in a breastfeeding session between the two characters with Firecracker acting in a matronly role. We knew Homelander had a Freudian milk obsession, but wow…
Starr opened up to Collider about the scene, calling it one of the “weirdest” scenes the show has ever done. Starr recalled thinking, “What the f*ck are we doing? What are we doing? This is so bizarre.” Starr emphasized the absurdity of the scene throughout the interview, stating that he would never have imagined acting out a breastfeeding scene at his age:
“From memory, I think it’s
almond milk maybe mixed with a bit of water
. I can’t remember specifically what that was.
That’s one of my favorite scenes in the whole season. That’s the weirdest scene I think I’ve done
. If you look back at the show and you look at some of the things we’ve done, there are some pretty weird, very strange things that have been done. But for me, with that, it was the Oedipal thing and what ended up happening on the day, which is that I get hit with breast milk in the face.”
“It doesn’t look like it’s going very well between Firecracker and Homelander,” continued Starr. “All of a sudden, there’s this reveal of what she’s done and the loyalty that she shows, and then it becomes basically a love scene. It became this incredibly intimate, emotional moment. And I remember, at the end of the day going, ‘What the f*ck are we doing? What are we doing? This is so bizarre.'” He added:
“I think it was the mix of, first of all, having breast milk shot in my face. That’s weird enough. But then, there was the apology around it. And then, emotionally, where it went, it was just so twisted. It was so bizarre. It was like a sketch from that show
Little Britain
, but that’s slapstick comedy, and we were playing it for keeps.
We were playing a beautiful moment between these two really twisted people.
It’s the layers that just made that so bizarre.”
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Homelander is Starr and Kripke’s ‘Baby’
In the interview, Starr also stated that he and showrunner/creator Eric Kripke have a great working relationship, likening it to a co-parenting arrangement when it comes to Homelander. According to Starr, the two collaborate in between scenes, with plenty of workshopping and back-and-forths occurring between Starr and Kripke. For his part, Starr claims to be excited about the absurdity of his scenes, singling out the “Vought on Ice” sequence as an example.
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Starr did say that there have been times when the show surprised even him, and times when he thinks it might go too far. Recalling the infamous sequence in which a man shrinks down and crawls up another’s urethra, Starr says that he thought, “What the f*ck is that? That doesn’t make any sense. That’s not gonna work. That’s way too far.” He also admits, however, that he usually ends up wrong about a scene’s effectiveness.
Starr also spoke about the complexity that comes with playing Homelander. As audiences have seen this season, Homelander’s upbringing played a large part in the monster that he ended up becoming. While Homelander does take vengeance on the people who raised him, the actor notes that there’s a disconnect because of Homelander’s cruelty. Still, Starr also notes that Homelander has some human motivations, like being the best dad to his son that he can be.
The Boys pushes the boundaries of what’s allowed to be shown on television. There’s hardly a line that The Boys won’t cross — Kripke has even revealed that the series has turned down production notes from Amazon, only to use them as future inspiration. Homelander’s latest scene is just the next level of absurdity for The Boys. You can watch the series on Prime Video through the link below:
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