A villainous side of superheroes revealed in this violent delight Chace Crawford’s latest role - in violent superhero drama The Boys, is a huge change from his days in teen drama Gossip Girl. The actor tells us all about the Amazon Prime series
THE BOYS 5 SHOWS BASED ON COMIC BOOKS
Say the name Chace Crawford, and the first image that pops into your head is of him as the (mostly) squeaky-clean Nathaniel Archibald from Gossip Girl. He played the Upper East Side heart-throb from 2007 to 2012, and devotees of the American series adored his golden boy character.
But Gossip Girl fans be warned, because his latest role is the polar opposite of ‘Mr Nice Guy’ Nate.
The 33-year-old Texan actor is one of a string of big names starring in Amazon’s latest original production, The Boys.
Based on the comic book series of the same name, the drama is executive-produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, whose writing work includes Superbad and Preacher.
If you aren’t familiar with Rogen and Goldberg’s humour, it could best be described as consisting of risque jokes that verge on the puerile, rather than fun, family viewing.
And Crawford’s character, The Deep, isn’t exactly the most likeable guy at first meeting.
“It’s rare that a project comes across that I instantly want to do,” he says during a visit to London to promote the series.
“You see Amazon, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg – they did Preacher and I loved Preacher – and I read the script for this and I was like, ‘I’m in!’”
It’s difficult to reconcile the engaging, funny and very charming person sitting in front of you with his new on-screen bad boy character.
Fans of the comics will know the tone is edgy and the humour dark, and the Amazon series, developed by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, stays true to that ethos.
The Boys is a world of superhe
roes gone bad. Idolised as celebrities for their powers, The Seven, as they are known, are squeaky clean to the public they are saving, but behind closed doors it’s a different story.
Enter The Boys, spearheaded by Karl Urban (who plays Billy Butcher) and The Hunger Games star Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, who are hell-bent on exposing The Seven and their hypocrisy. This is driven by Hughie’s rage after he discovers one of The Seven is behind a devastating loss in his life.
“They are flawed,” Crawford says of The Seven, “I don’t know if people actually like to see the anti-hero, but the reason they are the anti-hero is because they are human.
“The Deep is really insecure because he’s the fish guy – he can only talk to fish and he wants to be the number two guy so badly, but he feels like the lower man on the totem pole.
“He’s like this deeply insecure, flawed, almost depressed guy behind it all, and I think that can be the darker side of fame and power that’s isolating.”
The Seven are led by Homelander (Antony Starr) , with other superheroes including Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), A-Train (Jessie T Usher) and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell).
They are managed by the Vought Corporation, with Elisabeth Shue playing Madelyn Stillwell, Vought’s Senior VP of Hero Management.
The pilot episode dives straight into the darker side of the storyline, with The Deep stripping naked and making a lewd proposition to the newest recruit, Starlight.
“It’s probably one of the most shocking things of the whole pilot,” Crawford says of the scene.
He continues: “They were like, Chace Crawford as The Deep in The Boys.
‘What if superheroes existed in the real world? We’re not shying away from real-world issues - we want to show it through a lens in this way, through the growth of nature of fame and celebrity and power, and we’re going to deal with it head-on and not exploit it’.
“But, yeah, so that scene is obviously in there.”
The not-so-nice traits of The Deep aside, the character also gave Crawford a chance to flex his comedic muscles, something he relished.
“There is comedic silliness to him as well; it doesn’t redeem him as a character but it is more lighthearted and I got to do some comedy. So it’s this dark, edgy character but also he’s a loveable loser type.”
Another endearing member of the cast is British favourite Simon Pegg, who stars as Hughie’s father.
The Boys comic book creators Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson originally based their visuals of Hughie on Pegg, who has also written a foreword for a collector’s edition of the comics.
Working with Rogen and Goldberg is something Crawford describes as a “big deal”.
He explains: “They say, ‘This is what the show is going to be, we’re going to guard our idea of it’, and I’ve never really been a part of something where it was exactly what they said it was going to be.
“Their voice is there but they let us improvise, it was kind of like, the best idea wins.
“They let me own the character and, within the scene, if you had an idea, even Evan would email me and be like, ‘Oh my god, that improv was so funny’. I’ve never had that (creative freedom), to be honest, so for me I got so excited going to work every day, it was so great.”
The Boys is streaming now on Prime Video. A second series has already been ordered.