For someone who has been an integral part of the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the J.J. Abrams reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise, appeared in multiple “Riddick” installments, found time for a “Bourne” film and dipped his toe in the MCU with “Thor: Ragnarok,” Karl Uban somehow still manages to stay under the radar. And that’s even more surprising as he’s currently at the center of one of the most popular series on streaming television at the moment, Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys.” Then again, maybe that’s how the New Zealand native likes it.
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Adapted for television by Eric Kripke, “The Boys” is set in an alternate timeline where superheroes are commonplace and ingrained in American culture. The top team of this world are known as “The Seven” and are lead by a Superman-like figure known as Homelander (Antony Starr). The public, however, is unaware of Homelander’s seemingly neverending immoral and inhumane actions including the rape and disappearance of Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten), the wife of Billy Butcher, played by Urban. Looking to get revenge against Homelander and The Seven, Butcher puts together a ragtag group of mercenaries, the “boys” in question, to pull it off. When Billy discovers his wife has been raising Homelander’s son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), in hiding, it forces him to spend much of the show’s second season reassessing how to take down his arch-enemy.
Thanks to a number of other major storylines, the second season also allows Urban and his co-stars to fabricate some powerful and emotional performances in an often over-the-top world. And, spoilers ahead for those who have not watched it yet, but Urban is blessed with truly fantastic material to work with as an actor. In an interview last month, he referred to one particular scene in the season finale as an opportunity to show an emotionally broken Billy.
“The death of Becca Butcher and I guess instead of experiencing the full tragedy of that, it was a scene that shocked me at the time of shooting it,” Urban says. “It was a scene that resonated with me long after I had left the set. And it’s a piece of work that I feel blessed to be a part of. And again, so grateful to Shantel for really delivering a phenomenal performance in the next scene that only helped me reach a deeper level in my work.”
Urban had much more to say during our conversation which, it should be noted, occurred before “The Boys” began shooting season three after the New Year.
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The Playlist: As someone who has been a part of so many big franchises over your career, was there a moment you realized “The Boys” was turning into a “thing?”
Karl Urban: Yeah, to be perfectly honest, it feels like we’ve managed to build on the success of the first season, and from what I can see, our fans have really embraced the show and the response to season two has been phenomenal. Generally, I like to just focus on my area of control, which is what happens between action and cut. And in this instance, it’s very obvious that the show has taken on a degree of fandom that is definitely unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced before in streaming or television. And, at the end of the day, ultimately it feels satisfying and rewarding to know that what we have labored on so intensively for so long is so greatly appreciated, and we love it. We just feel like we have the best fans, and we’re so grateful for that.
From what I’ve been told, the show has mostly followed the storylines in the comic books so far. Were you aware of what Billy was going to go through in the second season before it started filming?
Yes. I had a series of conversations with Eric before the commencement of principal photography of season two, and the general theme for Butcher in season two was one of humanizing Butcher. We get to see a more desperate and vulnerable Butcher. We get to see Butcher in love, and we get to see Butcher make different choices than he made in season one. If season one was a lot more based on selfish choices for Butcher, [in] season two, we see that he has learned from his mistakes and there is a certain line in the sand, a morality that he will not betray, and particularly around his fellow teammates. In season one, he would have thrown anybody under the bus in order to achieve what he wanted to achieve, but in season two, he realizes the value of and worth of those teammates and makes different choices.
But he’s also clearly on a journey trying to reunite with his wife, who he had discovered was alive at the end of the previous season. Did you know how their storyline was going to end?
I was aware of the complete arc of the characters and the ultimate tragedy that befalls Becca Butcher and Ryan and Billy Butcher. And I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to work with such incredibly talented and wonderful collaborators like Shantel VanSanten, John Dorman, Giancarlo Esposito. Every day you go on to sit and you do your best to work moment to moment and to execute the story to the best of your ability as presented to you and fulfill the writer’s vision, but it’s made so much easier. And your work resonates at a deeper level when you get to collaborate with actors of that caliber.
I can not think for the life of me, of any other film or series that jumps in tone and in all sorts of extremes, but somehow still finds a way for the actors to give such grounded performances. Is that something the cast talks about?
At the end of the day we’ve been hired to do a job and full credit to Eric Kripke and the directors, for the most part, they just let us do our job. And when you’re working across the likes of someone like Shantel VanSanten, who is giving you the most heart wrenching and honest emotional connection. It’s very difficult for you not to just be in the moment and respond truthfully to what you are working with. And I’ve said this before, but right across the board, I believe that the wealth of talent and experience in the acting department is, I believe a prime reason for the success of the show. You care about these characters, they’re engaging, you feel for them. And also there is a great quality in the writing that even the most monstrous characters you can understand and empathize with because the writing has informed the audiences to how they’ve gotten to be the way they have gotten.
Despite the intense action and comedic gore, there are themes of social injustice, authoritarianism, and all sorts of contemporary issues running through the show. Do you enjoy that aspect of the material?
I think one of the most successful elements of the show is that it speaks on a multitude of levels. If you are just interested in some explosive set-piece and quippy one line as well, we’ve got that in the show, but if you’re interested to delve deeper and think about the show in metaphorical terms, how it relates to modern culture and society. Well, that’s in there too.
Was there anything in particular from season two that you were particularly excited to do when you got the script?
I would say there were three scenes that for me, that would stand up in episode 208 working with Giancarlo Esposito, where Billy Berkshire goes to do a deal with the devil and agrees to hand over Ryan in order to get his wife back. I loved the way that scene was written. I loved working with Giancarlo and it’s always nice to have an opportunity to play a duplicitous side of Billy Butcher, and one in which he is going against the wishes of those around him. So there was that scene. There was the same with Ryan on the riverbank at the end of 208, these two characters that had just lost the most important person in their life and each struggling to deal with it on their own terms. And seeing this, Billy Butcher, who has a noble heart but is constantly at war with this beast that resides within him trying to give comfort and install us for this young boy. And we see that he just doesn’t have the ability to connect. He doesn’t have those tools. And to see him attempt to do that to me was very endearing. And I was particularly happy with how that scene came off. It originally was a little different, and it was just a simple handoff. And I felt that after promising Becca Butcher, that he would look after Ryan, that there needed to be a beat between the two of them that was substantial. And I couldn’t be happier with the result of that collaboration. And the final scene that really resonated for me was the death of Becca Butcher and I guess instead of experiencing the full tragedy of that, it was a scene that shocked me at the time of shooting it. It was a scene that resonated with me long after I had left the set. And it’s a piece of work that I feel blessed to be a part of. And again, so grateful to Shantel for really delivering a phenomenal performance in the next scene that only helped me reach a deeper level in my work.
In a production such as this, you might be losing light at some point. I’m not sure what time of the day you were shooting it, did you have a lot of times to go through it or was it quick? Was it, we’re going do this, we’re going to capture it as many times as we can and go forward in that way. What was actually the aspect of how much time you had to capture it?
To be perfectly honest, that was probably one of the most frustrating days on season two of “The Boys,” because we shot some of that sequence in the morning. And then we had to stop shooting the beats between Butcher and Becca, and they went to shoot Homeland and Stormfront because [Aya Cash] was in this prosthetic costume, and she’s been in the makeup chair for five hours, and with all respect to her comfort and sanity, the priority is to get her in and out of that as quickly as possible. And that makeup has a shelf life. So we had to actually shelve the Becca Butcher death scene. And when we finally came back to it, it was the end of the day, we weren’t losing the light and we had two takes. But that is one of those instances where you need to bring your A-game. You’ve got two shots to get it. And again, I’m just incredibly grateful that I had a scene partner of such a high caliber in Shantel because we got the performance we needed in a very limited amount of time.
Do you know what the storyline is for Billy in the third season? Has Eric told anybody anything about where the show is going to go?
Not in its entirety. I’ve read about four scripts. So I have a pretty good idea of where things are going, but the second half of the season I haven’t seen yet. And at this point and time, I haven’t spoken to Eric about the season and where it’s going, but that conversation is going to be happening imminently.
Unlike other programs, you guys were already shooting the second season when the first season dropped. You’d had some reaction from critics and audiences about the first season, but you were still all assuming the tone would work. Do you feel like there’s a change going into shooting the third season now that reaction to the show has clearly been so positive?
Well, my personal opinion on that, and I mean this with the greatest respect to both critics and fans alike. I see my responsibility for the show as being primarily what happens between action and cut. My focus is about the research that leads up to that moment or the preparation that I do. And what happens to that work beyond that point is somewhat outside my area of concern and influence. I will obviously do everything I can to ensure that the show is 100% supported because I love it. I believe in the show and the talent of everybody involved, but at the end of the day, I just like to focus on the work. And that’s where my priorities are. The other day, the show got voted number one IMDb show of 2020 based on the accumulated searches that were generated throughout 2020, and a friend asked me, he goes, “Well, how do you feel that the show is number one?” And I said, in response, “To be perfectly honest, I spent more time today thinking about what I’m going to be doing with Billy Butcher in season three than I did about this phenomenal reaction that we have got a season two.” That’s where my head is at. I’m looking forward and that’s to me creatively where I like to reside.
“The Boys” is available worldwide on Amazon Prime Video.