BLURRED LINES

Jack Quaid is Hughie

Your character is kind of the moral compass of the show. So where is Hughie at this season, after what he’s been through?

Well, I can’t give away too much, but after the events of last season, he’s very much on a path of redemption, as are a lot of people. The stakes have been ratcheted up as a result of what happened. There’s basically an all-out war happening, with him figuring out how to be a good person and morally right within this war, where lines are blurred and crossed so often. That’s definitely something he has to deal with this season. That’s been superinteresting, because he crossed the line last season, a few times. Playing around with how he doesn’t want to go there again, but he has to. Sometimes he has to make the wrong decision so that, in the end, a good thing can come out of it. That’s why I love playing this character: constantly grappling with the morality of all these different situations and making sure that the Boys and Hughie don’t lose their souls in the process.

Hughie and Butcher seemed to be at a crossroads last season. What does that relationship look like now?

Karl [Urban] and I have been having a blast playing this conflict. With these two men, one will stop at nothing to accomplish his mission and another wants some of the same things but doesn’t want to cross a line, and we’ve gone way deeper with that this season. Finding new levels to the Hughie/ Butcher relationship has been one of the most rewarding things about this season to me, as an actor.

In the comics, Hughie doesn’t want to inflict damage. Is that an integral part of season two?

For sure. Hughie cares about taking care of the people he loves. I don’t think his goal is killing any of the supes or crossing the moral line, but if someone he knows and loves is in trouble… He’s interested in keeping everyone a family. So, when Butcher shows back up, that really derails everything because this guy left us all. He has a one-track mind, and he’ll sell us all out if possible. When we reconnect, it’s really heated because I know all of Butcher’s tricks. That’s another thing. In season one, Hughie was a little bit naïve about Butcher. He was still figuring him out. This season, he knows all his tricks and he’s not willing to go back down that road and be his naïve sidekick and go along with his shit. He knows what Butcher is thinking. That’s been a cool thing to play.