Amazon Prime's The Boys has been quite a ride in its second season, and two of the characters who have had to confront especially difficult challenges are Erin Moriarty's Starlight and Karen Fukuhara's Kimiko. Not only has Starlight, aka Annie January, been working as a double agent within the Seven to expose Vought Industries, she was recently caught and imprisoned, but escaped with the surprise help of fellow supe, Queen Maeve. Meanwhile, Kimiko reunited with her brother, only to see him mercilessly killed by Stormfront, a devastating development that has driven her actions ever since.
In an exclusive interview, CBR spoke with Moriarty and Fukuhara about their character's Season 2 journeys, a possible team-up against Stormfront and the joy of working together on a show with so many male characters.
CBR: Both of your characters have been on quite a journey in The Boys Season 2. Starlight is becoming a little more comfortable with death and destruction, and Kimiko’s now taking some assassin-for-hire jobs. Do you both feel that your characters are becoming more morally compromised, both because of your exposure to The Seven and also to The Boys?
Erin Moriarty: I think Starlight is becoming maybe more morally complex, but I think that it's an inherent quality that one develops when they really enter true adulthood. Because I do think and [the] reality is [in] the adult world -- as much as we don't like to believe this -- most moralities, most things lie in a gray area. And we like to deem things black and white and good and bad, but what we learned from the show especially with guys that we think are bad, and then, we learn about their past traumas and we realize why they are the way they are.
The position that Starlight is put in is she either needs to claim defeat and no longer be a superhero, or she needs to adapt to the world and in doing so and in achieving her mission to take down Vought…, death and destruction becomes the inevitable and the unavoidable. And so while I think that maybe it could be perceived as a compromise in morals, I do think that she is ultimately, like a lot of us, trying her best, still a good human being. And I think that the older you get, the more that gray gap widens, and she's just more and more realizing that and adapting to it.
Karen Fukuhara: Yeah. I think I wouldn't call Kimiko a perfect, good human being. She's definitely had some moments of violence [Laughs], if you want to call it that. So especially for that scene where I peel off the Russian [mobster]'s face and that hit that she does for Cherie, half of it is her taking out her anger and her grief and not being able to get vengeance against the one person that she actually wants vengeance. She's really taking out her frustrations on this hit.
Is she morally compromised? I don't know. I would like to stand behind Kimiko and say that she wouldn't just kill anyone that's innocent. If they were pure human beings that did no wrong, I don't think Kimiko would feel like she could kill any of those people, but the Russian mob, I think perhaps they have done some bad things and so maybe they deserve to go. I don't know. I’m just trying to justify her actions at this point.
CBR: The other thing we learned about your character, Karen, was that she has a means of communicating through a sign language she created. What are the challenges for you not being able to speak as your character and then also using this made-up sign language?
Fukuhara: It was amazing. I'm doing Season 1, I didn't think that Kimiko was going to be able to communicate, and that has changed drastically in Season 2. And getting to do those scenes with my co-star Abraham Lim [who played Kimiko’s brother, Kenji] was absolutely amazing and being able to be vulnerable with someone through this language was a new experience and really fulfilling in the end. And then, now, we have kind of opened up this way of communication with maybe Frenchie in the future. We'll see. But having that is really hopeful playing the character. It adds layers and it opens up the door for even more of Kimiko’s storyline expanding. So, that's exciting to me.
CBR: Both of your characters have had some conflict with Stormfront. Is there something we can expect where there will be a team-up where you’ll ally to perhaps take her out?
Moriarty: …What I will say to your question is anyone who's curious about that will not be left unsatisfied by the end of this season.
Fukuhara: Well said.
CBR: In many of your scenes you both act opposite a lot of men, but just recently we've seen you in scenes together. What's it like working together within those very male-centric scenes?
Fukuhara: Being the Female of the Boys, I think from the beginning, I've had so many scenes with the Boys, and it's always fun. We have a ball shooting together and they’re family. But the scenes where Kimiko gets to meet Annie, interact with Annie and then also Becca has been a new experience because she's never really had a female ally throughout Season 1 and 2.
And seeing these female characters, aside from herself, tackle these issues and how they act, it's as if she's encountering a new species or seeing an animal at a zoo or something where she's like, "Oh, I've never seen this before. She's kind of like me, but we're different. And that's so interesting that she acts this way and does certain movements in a way that I never thought to do." Because I think a lot of Kimiko's movements are a reflection of her seeing the world in a male's eye. So the way she walks, I purposely make it a man's walk rather than a feminine walk. So seeing Annie and how they present themselves has been really interesting to see through the eyes of Kimiko.
Moriarty: Yeah, I think for Annie, I also love that she's now kind of joining forces with Kimiko towards the end of the season, and we worked a lot together. And I love how in the Boys -- Kimiko being a proper member and Annie slowly becoming kind of an honorary member -- they're the only characters in the Boys who have powers as well are the two women who are in the Boys. And I just think there's this whole mutual understanding between the two of them, like, if shit's about to go down, the boys are going to go in the back, and we're going to go in the front, and we’re going to take out our earrings and roll up our sleeves and we're going to take them on. You know what I mean? And that feeling is so cool, and that ultimately, Kimiko and Annie would be the ones who would be relied on if they were to ever need fighting or strength or true physical strength, which I think is so cool.
But you know, it's great. It's really great, because while the men on our show are so freaking wonderful, and there’s never, ever a feeling that, while there's a lot of testosterone, that they're dominating at all; it's always felt like we're all on equal terms. But at the same time, because the show is called The Boys and there’s so many guys in it, it's really freaking nice to be in a scene where you're allying up with another woman on the show. Of course it is. So it's just been really fun, and I also just think Kimiko and Annie have a really interesting, really cute relationship and friendship, and I know we're going to get to keep exploring the dynamics of it, and I'm excited. I'm really excited.
Amazon Studios' The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as the Female, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander, Aya Cash as Stormfront and Simon Pegg as Hughie's dad. New episodes of Season 2 release Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.