Why The Cast Of Amazon's The Boys Looks So Familiar
In a culture smitten with superhero mania, Amazon's The Boys, which is based on the R-rated American comic book series of the same name, offers an alternate take on what life in a superhero world would actually be like. Spoiler alert: it's pretty twisted. Gone is the unyielding sense of morality and ethical righteousness, as characters like Homelander and A-Train essentially operate with no consequences for their often eyebrow-raising actions. They may look like they just stepped out of the DC Comics universe, but trust us, their league could care less about justice.
With comedic masterminds Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg at the helm, Amazon's adaptation was destined for success, and the show has lived up to its lofty expectations, becoming the streaming platform's highest-rated original series to date. With a definite second season on the horizon, it appears as though the show's fantastic cast is going to be around for a potentially long time. Let's take a look at where you might've seen these actors actresses before. Here's why the cast of The Boys looks so familiar.
Killer Karl
Karl Urban is a bit of a fanboy's idol. He's seemingly played a part in every major film franchise, spanning from deep space to middle-Earth. Trekkies recognize him as Bones from the 2000s Star Trek films, fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy know him as Eomer, and MCU enthusiasts identify him as Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok. Perhaps one of his best roles was actually that of Judge Dredd in 2012's wildly underrated Dredd, a film that bombed at the box office but has developed quite a respectable cult following through the years.
In The Boys, Urban plays Billy Butcher, an ex-CIA operative hellbent on bringing the corrupt superheroes of his society to justice. As the leader of "The Boys," Butcher aims to take down the supes by any means necessary, and Urban has admitted that it often felt like toeing the line was difficult on set. "Inevitably there were email chains and phone conversations that would get to the point where I would feel like, 'Hey, this is crossing a line here, that is probably a bridge too far...' But from what I've seen, I think they've just done a really great job of finding the right tone, making it edgy but still palatable." With an extensive background in action movies, Urban was truly perfect for the role, and his performance certainly proves that.
Hughie's a Hollywood heir
If you found yourself watching The Boys and wondering why Hughie Campbell looks so familiar, there's a good reason for that. The actor, Jack Quaid, is actually the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, and he shares quite an uncanny resemblance with both parents. Talk about Hollywood royalty!
At age 27, the young actor has already built up quite an impressive filmography. He played the hilarious redneck Fish Bang in 2017's heist flick Logan Lucky, and had a brief part alongside the Rock in 2018's explosive blockbuster Rampage. More recently, he starred alongside Maya Erskine in the indie rom-com Plus One, a film that won one of the audience awards at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.
Quaid made his film debut as Marvel in 2012's The Hunger Games, a role he landed as a sophomore at New York University. Although the antagonistic part was relatively minor in the film, it apparently made a very lasting impact on Quaid's career. "No matter what I post on Instagram now, there's at least one comment that's like, 'You killed Rue!' Yup, I know. And I'm officially really sorry." As Hughie Campbell in The Boys, Quaid is yet again out to kill, but this time it's not 12-year-old girls he's after — it's problematic superheroes.
The Starr of the show
Antony Starr plays the show's main antagonist, Homelander, a darkly twisted take on Superman. Homelander is the leader of the Seven, the most popular super-team in America, and some of his actions are downright sinister. Speaking to Collider, Starr admitted that he actually enjoyed acting out some of his character's more despicable moments in the series. "There's a twisted part of me where, the weirder it gets, the better it gets, and we go to some pretty dark places."
Before he donned a super-suit for Amazon's streaming series, Starr was much less recognizable. He had small roles in the 2004 comedy Without a Paddle, and the 2005 motorcycle drama The World's Fastest Indian, but he's perhaps most famous for playing twin brothers Jethro and Van West in all 107 episodes of the New Zealand's comedic crime drama Outrageous Fortune. In 2012, he starred alongside Joel Edgerton and Teresa Palmer in the mysterious drama Wish You Were Here, and his performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor win at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. With The Boys quickly becoming one of the most popular new shows in 2019, Starr's career could really take off.
Starlight's starlet
Erin Moriarty's acting career has been hot from the start. Her first onscreen appearance was on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live, where she played Whitney Bennett for six episodes in 2010. Since then, Moriarty has seen her resume blossom with prestigious credits. She played the daughter of Vince Vaughn's character in the alien-hunting comedy The Watch and starred alongside Woody Harrelson in the first season of HBO's gritty crime drama True Detective. In 2015, she got her first taste of the superhero world, landing the role of Hope Shlottman in the second season of the since-canceled Marvel Netflix series Jessica Jones.
In The Boys, Moriarty plays Starlight, an up-and-coming supe who realizes that her fellow "heroes" aren't actually very heroic at all. Obviously, playing a superhero means that fight scenes are inevitable, which was a new experience for Moriarty. In an interview with Brief Take, she admitted that she was somewhat surprised to find herself enjoying it. "I'm the type of person who watches UFC and winces, so I didn't think that I'd take to it very fondly, but there's something cathartic about it. It was super fun and it all the more made me feel like I was in that character's shoes, so I loved it." Good thing, since it sounds like Starlight will be kicking more butt in the show's highly anticipated second season.
Chace the Deep
Chace Crawford was once one of the hottest names in Hollywood, even gracing the cover of People's Hottest Bachelors List in 2009. Crawford soared to fame playing Nate Archibald, one of the leads, on CW's Gossip Girl, a show still widely considered to be one of the best teen TV dramas of all time. His budding popularity earned him a part in 2008's horrific The Haunting of Molly Hartley, as well as 2012's What to Expect When You're Expecting. Since Gossip Girl wrapped in late 2012, however, Crawford has flown relatively under the radar.
That's why seeing his chiseled jawline again in The Boys was such a breath of fresh air. Crawford plays the Deep, a vain spin on Aquaman, who may look good in his skintight super-suit, but his shocking actions suggest he is anything but. In the show's very first episode, the Deep has an incredibly uncomfortable-to-watch scene with Erin Moriarty's Starlight that is all too realistic given the terrible stories that sparked the #MeToo movement. Speaking to Collider, Crawford noted that that scene wasn't supposed to happen at first. "It's funny because I read the script and that scene wasn't in there, originally. And then, I got the job and I'd heard talk that they might want to do that because it was in the comics and it was a really big jumping off point for her character."
Speedy Shaft
2019 has been a bit of a breakout year for Jessie T. Usher. In addition to shining as the cocky, unapologetic speedster A-Train in The Boys, Usher also starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Regina Hall in Shaft. Although Usher is really blowing up these days, he actually has a pretty solid acting resume under his belt, too.
After picking up small one-off gigs in network dramas like Without a Trace, The Mentalist, and Criminal Minds, Usher landed a recurring role in Cartoon Network's Level Up series after playing Lyle Hugginson in the 2011 TV movie of the same name. In 2016, he hit the big time, playing alien killer Dylan Hiller in the ill-received action blockbuster Independence Day: Resurgence and starring as Evan in the warm holiday comedy Almost Christmas.
However, arguably Usher's most recognized role is that of the talented hooper Cam Calloway in Survivor's Remorse, the Lebron James-produced sitcom on Starz. Apparently, the role has blessed the actor with a humorously incorrect fan perception. "I get challenged to basketball games. If I'm walking into a basketball gym, everybody wants me on their team... I'm very honest, I tell people I am not a good basketball player... I didn't play basketball growing up. I did martial arts, soccer, I'm an avid swimmer." Let's hope that now people don't try and challenge A-Train to relay races!
Wonder Woman wannabe
Dominique McElligott, who plays the Seven's boozy heroine in The Boys, started acting in 2001, but her filmography to date isn't very extensive. After starring in Irish shows like On Home Ground and Raw, she landed her first major American television role as the widow Lily Bell in AMC's railroad-centric western Hell on Wheels. She turned out to be a perfect pick for the part, but she didn't think she'd get the role when she auditioned. "When you go up for these brilliant parts," she recalled, "you just figure, 'Okay, well, they're going to pick some American actress, and that will be that.' But, the opportunity was there, and I really enjoyed the audition."
After her character was killed off on Hell on Wheels in late 2012, McElligott went on to star alongside the likes of Yvonne Strahovski and JoAnna Garcia Swisher in ABC's short-lived drama The Astronaut Wives Club, where she played Louise Shepard, wife of real-life astronaut Alan Shepard. After that show went off the air, McElligott really struck gold by being cast as Hannah Conway, wife of Joel Kinnaman's Republican candidate Will Conway, in Netflix's mega-hit series House of Cards.
While she may not have a high quantity of acting credits under her belt, the ones McElligott does have are at least pretty high quality.
Laz loves Mother's Milk
Laz Alonso's extensive experience with action flicks may have made him a no-brainer for The Boys, but don't make the mistake of assuming he doesn't have range. Sure, he's starred in explosive thrillers like Jarhead, Fast & Furious and even James Cameron's box-office slaying Avatar, but he also can handle more emotional roles, such as that of Jason Taylor in 2011's romantic comedy Jumping the Broom, a role that earned him a nomination for best actor at that year's BET Awards.
For the past ten years, Alonso has been racking up acting credits like they're going out of style. He's starred in network television series such as A&E's Breakout Kings and NBC's The Mysteries of Laura, as well as motion pictures like Detroit and Traffik. Prior to landing the part of Mother's Milk in The Boys, his most recent role was that of Warren Hendrix in the Jessica Alba-led Spectrum crime series L.A.'s Finest.
From Fauda to Frenchie
There are a select few Hollywood stars who served in their country's military before becoming performers. Much like Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who served in the Israeli army for two years, Tomer Capon was a paratrooper in the IDF during the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. This experience helped him channel an incredibly genuine performance for the role of Aviv Danino, a former IDF soldier suffering from PTSD in 2018's Israeli TV show, When Heroes Fly.
Capon's first big break was playing Boaz in 2015's thrilling Netflix series Fauda. He went on to appear in a slew of Israeli television shows, including Combat Medics and Fullmoon, and even starred in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival-winning drama One Week and a Day.
In The Boys, Capon plays Frenchie, one of the primary members of Butcher's hero-killing team. It is undoubtedly his biggest role in American television, and he knows it. "It's like a dream became reality to be on this show playing Frenchie."
Fukuhara's Female
Karen Fukuhara's acting career had the kind of start that most actors can only dream of. After working as a TV reporter for roughly five years, she was cast in a little film called Suicide Squad. In the DCEU blockbuster, Fukuhara made her acting debut as Katana, the sword-swinging right-hand woman to Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag. When speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, the UCLA grad explained why she thinks she landed the big-time part. "During my sword-fighting portion of the audition... I hit one of the lights, and I remember hearing the casting director and David gasp. But I just kept going with it, and I think that's what David liked, that I didn't stop in the middle."
Since Suicide Squad, Fukuhara has only appeared in a handful of projects, including the supernatural thriller Stray and lending her voice to various characters on Cartoon Network's Craig of the Creek. Seemingly unable to resist the superhero genre, she landed the role of Kimiko, a.k.a. the Female, in The Boys. Given that her dangerously powerful character doesn't speak, Fukuhara had to learn other ways to portray emotion. "You listen more... And then how I try to show what I'm trying to portray through my physical being rather than through my voice. It's interesting because it's just a different form of communication."
Shue's Stillwell in charge
Compared to the rest of her fellow castmates on The Boys, Elisabeth Shue, who portrays Madelyn Stillwell, the shadowy corporate puppeteer behind the Seven, is arguably in a league of her own. She's been a staple in Hollywood as far back as the mid-'80s, when she starred in hit films like The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, and the Back to the Future franchise.
In the '90s and early 2000s, Shue proved impossible to typecast, snarfing up roles ranging from Hollow Man to Piranha 3D. In an interview with NewNowNext, Shue addressed the diverse makeup of her acting credits. "I don't think I've ever had any sort of plan. I just looked for characters I thought I'd enjoy playing and people I really wanted to work with. The stories haven't always panned out, but I feel strongly that when I look back at my career, whether the movies were good or bad, I'll be proud to say that I worked with really talented, interesting actors and directors that I admire. At the end of the day, that's what matters to me."
Simon says play the dad
Unless you actively avoid going to the theaters, chances are you've seen a movie with Simon Pegg in it. He's arguably one of England's best actors, and his impressive Hollywood success backs up that claim. With a natural knack for comedy, Pegg has headlined popular laughers like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End, and Paul, just to name a few. He has also starred in action blockbusters, playing Scotty in the newer Star Trek films and the tech genius Benji Dunn in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Interestingly, Pegg's inclusion in The Boys was practically a must. The character of Wee Hughie in the comic was reportedly visually modeled on his likeness, and back when studios were first toying with a film adaptation, Pegg was the obvious choice for the role. However, due to years of sitting in production limbo, by the time Amazon officially greenlighted the series, Pegg was too old. Instead, he signed on to play Hughie's dad, a fun nod to the fans who have long vied for his inclusion.