Warning: Big spoilers for The Boys season 4, episode 6.
Valorie Curry grew up in California, however not the progressive California individuals so typically consider. “I grew up in Orange County, within the suburbs south of LA,” she tells StyleCaster. “So as of late, it’s very purple, however after I was rising up, it was very conservative, very non secular. We took faculty discipline journeys to the Nixon Library.”
Taking part in a far-right ideologue and conspiracy theorist, Curry’s character in Prime Video‘s hit collection The Boys attracts from many larger-than-life nut jobs—a few of Firecracker’s dialogue comes from the precise mouths of politicians—however this actor has lots of private expertise to be impressed by, too. “There’s something cathartic in getting to do that clowning act,” she says. “It’s that stuff that you simply neglect out of your childhood, after which there’s this muscle reminiscence that kicks in.”
Associated: The Finest The Boys‘ Theories on the Worm Inside Billy Butcher’s Head
When she signed onto the present, Curry didn’t know a lot about her character, aside from “her historical past with Starlight, her podcast, and her politics,” however it wasn’t till the making of Firecracker’s supersuit, an arduous, time-consuming course of, that it actually all began to return collectively. Curry was flying out and in of LA each 10 days for months as a result of each element of Firecracker’s swimsuit is intentional, proper right down to the zip pull on the again. “It’s a cock ring,” she laughs. In fact it’s! “It has to carry, however it additionally needs to be smooth sufficient in the event you’re getting thrown round,” she explains.
Curry has by no means performed such a hyper-feminine, sexualized function earlier than, and in episode 6, Firecracker’s true powers are explored in nice element. “This character primarily embodies the male gaze,” she observes. “A weaponization of femininity and self-objectification.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability. We did warn you, spoilers forward.
There’s loads to unpack on this episode. We be taught that Firecracker has been taking hormones to make herself lactate to show she’s loyal to the trigger and to Homelander (Antony Starr). Do you know the breastfeeding scene was on the agenda initially?
I didn’t know. The concept was floated to me a few months earlier than, after which I noticed the script a few month earlier than. It appears inevitable, like, “In fact, that is taking place.” I’ve watched the present and it’s been constructing to anyone doing this with Homelander. I don’t consider it a lot as a being about loyalty although, Firecracker does have this actually preternatural instinct about what individuals want and a shameless willingness to offer that to them, no matter it’s.
In taking pictures this scene and going backwards and forwards on the dialogue, there’s an actual hazard about it. There’s a vulnerability in saying to Homelander, “I see your humanity, I see what you’ve been attempting to cover—this factor that’s considered as a really freakish fetish,” and she or he’s naming it to him. At that second, she additionally will get to point out him she’s not afraid of him. As a result of he may, at any level, laser her face off.
What number of takes of the milk squirt did you do?
The benefit of having the time in-built to actually fine-tune that scene was that we started working with this unimaginable intimacy coordinator, Casey Hudecki. She was invaluable to me within the course of. So once we received to set, we knew precisely what each single shot was going to be. It was very clearly storyboarded.
Is there a bottle or one thing simply off-camera?
No! That is all sightline gags, so two issues need to occur—and credit score to the crew to make this work. Considered one of them was that the wardrobe division had a weekend to construct some form of undergarment construction that might permit me to unzip the entrance and nonetheless have the cleavage nonetheless be perky. I’m actually carrying two cutlets per breast [laughs], there may be a lot padding.
They went by means of three or 4 totally different phases of corsets, after which I feel it was Casey’s concept—as a result of she’s a fencer—to make use of a fencing breastplate. Then, in the event you can image a microphone stand with a tube working from the opposite facet of Homelander’s condo, there’s this little nozzle that they saved having to regulate so it was on the proper peak for me to get the proper trajectory and the correct amount of milk. Anthony did take almond milk straight within the eye in a single shot.
You’d assume that this very sexualized character goes to be the one who’s doing very sexually express issues. Though the scene is excessive in its content material, it’s not sexual by nature.
Valorie Curry
I used to be going to ask if it was actual milk or simply milky water.
Yeah, I feel it was almond. And I feel I used to be a minimum of two and a half toes away from him.
His response is simply so good, too.
Yeah, the timing and the edit of it, it’s simply stunning.
It’s an attention-grabbing distinction, too, as a result of we’ve seen Homelander grapple with ageing this season—he’s actually plucking his grey pubes out and maintaining them in a jar. Then you definitely see him with you and he turns into an toddler once more.
Yeah. The opposite factor I wish to communicate to about this scene specifically is that it may have been very sexual and it may have been a joke. I like that the place we received—and Antony and I had been nonetheless on the identical web page about it—that it’s so weak and never sexual.
You’d assume that this very sexualized character goes to be the one who’s doing very sexually express issues. Though the scene is excessive in its content material, it’s not sexual by nature. In distinction, you’ve received characters like Sister Sage and Ashley…
This episode is INSANE.
Ashely’s stuff within the dungeon! Everyone seems to be discovering a brand new restrict that we didn’t know existed [laughs].
Are you able to discuss how this second adjustments Firecracker’s trajectory?
A lot of this episode is about Firecracker and her trauma of being dismissed or being marginalized or being handled like she’s trash. That is lastly the second the place she thinks she’s in, and even then, she’s not actually in. I feel she’s additionally pushed to this second with this alternative as a result of she’s lastly displaying that she shouldn’t be underestimated.
There’s even this joke about being in The Seven and what powers she actually has, however it’s an actual flip in that jostle for energy. I don’t assume Sage noticed Firecracker coming, which serves her as a result of typically it’s actually cool to be underestimated.
I wish to contact on one thing you mentioned in a earlier interview about being a queer particular person your self enjoying this character who’s aggressively anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQIA, and so on. You mentioned that it needs to be considered one of our personal that will get to make an ass out of Firecracker. I liked that.
Thanks. Yeah, I’ve a pet peeve with actors who’re on reveals that clearly have political themes or have one thing to say, after which after they’re requested to talk to it, they equivocate. I perceive the will to not alienate anybody, however with a personality like Firecracker, she needs to be handled delicately as a result of there’s an actual hazard there.
She’s representing actual risks with actual people who find themselves committing actual violence in opposition to marginalized communities, and in the event you play the function in a means that minimizes that violence, and that hazard, that may be a drawback. I’m not saying that an actor who isn’t queer wouldn’t try this, however I’m excited to get to play her and get to have conversations like these the place I get to make the politics express.
The present is unapologetic, I like working for a showrunner like Kripke the place his politics are express. I felt like I used to be on a present the place I may belief that this character might be dealt with responsibly. I do discover it cathartic, and it’s what I hope for queer audiences, for any viewers, that in watching the present, it’s kind of a reverse gaslighting. One other interviewer known as it “spotlighting.”
There could be a catharsis in saying, “That is actual, that is taking place, and we’re going to point out it and we’re going to point out it as ugly and villainous, and absurd and silly,” but additionally not undermining the true hazard of it.
The Boys is obtainable to stream on Prime Video with new episodes dropping every Thursday.