Eric Kripke Reveals Why He Made Jensen Ackles Be A Bad Singer (Again) On The Boys - Exclusive
Anyone who's listened to Jensen Ackles' band Radio Company or watched him perform songs at conventions knows that the actor is an incredible singer. Yet time after time, we watch his gruff characters struggle to hit notes the way we know Ackles can. What started as an entertaining character choice for Ackles' "Supernatural" character Dean Winchester has become somewhat of a staple in his onscreen roles. Who do we have to thank for that? "Supernatural" and "The Boys" creator Eric Kripke.
Kripke created Dean Winchester and helmed the adaption of Ackles' "The Boys" villain Soldier Boy. Well, the actor is back at it again with slightly off-tune performances that fans can't help but fall in love with (even when Soldier Boy is being incredibly problematic). Why does Kripke love making Ackles a dicey belter? During an exclusive interview with Looper, Eric Kripke revealed why he made Jensen Ackles a bad onscreen singer once more, even though the actor has some pretty epic pipes.
Crank that Soldier Boy
On whether or not Ackles ribbed Kripke for making him a bad onscreen singer again, the showrunner said "No," with a laugh. Basically, Soldier Boy sucks as a human being and a Supe, and Kripke wanted to showcase that. "He can save his skilled singing for off-camera. Soldier Boy is a pompous piece of s***," Kripke explained. "It's like ... It feels wrong for him to have been an amazing singer, and what felt right is for him to completely appropriate other people's culture for his own benefit — hence, him rapping the way Blondie did [laughs], which is insane. It's insane." Leave it to the '50s and '80s to have some pretty yikes material to work from that would never fly today.
"Wait until Episode 7 airs, but his 'Calypso' number — Robert Mitchum has an album called 'Calypso – Is Like So...' where he did that song," Kripke elaborated. "If you look at the album cover, we absolutely recreated it for Jensen's sequence, and it's bananas because Robert Mitchum is doing an entire album with a Caribbean Patois." There's nothing like a hefty dose of cultural appropriation to illustrate how awful a character is.
Kripke continued, "He is like, 'Hey, man,' and it's the craziest thing for Robert Mitchum to do [laughs], and I couldn't wait to get that in the show. I'd been trying a million times this season until that was the right spot. I can't have Jensen sing well. It ruins the joke." Despite Ackles' performances being a bit of a satire on Soldier Boy's egomania, Blondie herself was digging the homage. The star retweeted the performance with the caption: " Holy s***!! Epic @TheBoysTV " on her Twitter account.
The Season 3 finale of "The Boys" is now streaming on Prime Video.