Despite undeniable similarities between the two, Antony Starr of The Boys doesn’t endorse fans’ comparisons between his character, Homelander, and the soon-to-be (and former) president, Donald Trump. The darkly satirical Prime Video drama is notorious for depicting real-life political events, including various Trumpian scandals and pseudo-MAGA imagery. Still, according to Starr, these resemblances are “low-hanging fruit,” and he urges fans to look past the Trump comparisons and develop a more nuanced analysis of the show and its characters.
It’s not that Starr is denying The Boys’s overt references to Donald Trump or right-wing politics. Rather, Starr is inviting fans to look deeper. Per Entertainment Weekly, Starr affirmed: “Of course, people could make the comparison [to Trump], and they did.” However, he explained that these comparisons are obvious and somewhat reductive to Homelander’s emotional complexity. “I didn’t want the character to be a mustache-twirling villain,” Starr added. “It had to be a real person built from the ground up.” In short, Homelander represents a lot more than just Donald Trump, and Starr wants fans to challenge themselves by exploring that.

People hate the character, love to hate the character, and then there’s this weird thing where they empathize with the character. I take that as a signal that we’re going in the right direction, that it’s a bit more challenging for people than just spoon-feeding them.

In order to break out of the Donald Trump mold, Starr is determined to continue revealing Homelander’s vulnerabilities and emotional depth — a goal which occasionally leads him to alter scenes under the watchful eye of The Boys’s creator, Eric Kripke. In the fourth episode of the fourth season, for example, Homelander returns to the lab where he was raised with the intent of torturing his former handlers. Initially, Kripke wanted Homelander to display nothing but cruelty — but Starr opted for a more complicated reaction for Homelander when faced with his childhood home. “What was on the page was already good,” Starr recalled. “It just struck a chord in me that I thought we could go in a slightly different direction.” These moments are integral representations of Homelander’s complexity, elevating him far beyond the caricature of a real-life political figure.
The Boys’ Parallels to Reality Are Part of Its Unique Appeal

Although Starr is understandably eager for fans to look past blatantly obvious Trump references, it’s undeniable that The Boys draws inspiration from reality. As an outwardly charismatic leader with a cult-like following, Homelander can be compared to many political figures, both historically and now — which may be why Starr is desperate to humanize him. It’s easy to view people in black-and-white terms — all good or all bad — but it’s far more difficult to digest the idea of bad people who occasionally do good things or who sometimes have justifiable motivations. These moral dilemmas seem to be the key to Starr’s portrayal of Homelander: someone who is, at the end of the day, an irrevocably bad person yet still capable of inspiring empathy.

Related

The Boys Takes Aim at Donald Trump’s McDonald’s PR Stunt

Homelander working a burger joint? That’s almost as ridiculous as the idea of a presidential candidate…oh wait.

These quandaries will likely only intensify in The Boys’s final season. As the end hurtles closer, set photos have revealed a shocking — yet not entirely unsurprising — storyline, which will feature “freedom camps” in an obvious parallel to concentration camps. The implications of a Homelander-led authoritarian regime seem to blow any thoughts of humanization and empathy out of the water, but Starr may yet have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Release Date

July 25, 2019

Cast

Karl Urban
, Jack Quaid
, Antony Starr
, Erin Moriarty
, Jessie T. Usher
, Laz Alonso
, Chace Crawford
, Tomer Capon
, Karen Fukuhara
, Nathan Mitchell
, Colby Minifie
, Dominique McElligott
, claudia doumit
, Cameron Crovetti
, Nneka Elliott
, Laila Robins
, Shantel VanSanten
, Aya Cash
, Giancarlo Esposito
, Jordana Lajoie
, Katy Breier
, Matthew Edison
, Jim Beaver
, Elisabeth Shue
, Jensen Ackles
, Simon Pegg
, Susan Heyward
, Valorie Curry
, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
, Ann Cusack
, Nicola Correia Damude
, Christian Keyes
, Sabrina Saudin
, Malcolm Barrett
, Liyou Abere
, Jennifer Esposito
, David Reale
, Frances Turner

Seasons

4

Expand