‘The Boys’ on Prime Video: Karl Urban and Jack Quaid Built Their Bond at the Dog’s Bollocks

The superhero genre is filled with many iconic partnerships. There’s Batman and Robin, who typify the hero/sidekick dynamic. Captain America and Bucky have shifted from mentor/mentee in the World War II-era comics to star-crossed peers in the Marvel movies. The X-Men films have gotten a lot of mileage out of tragic frenemies Professor X and Magneto. Even duos created to lampoon the archetype have become their own kind of iconic, like The Tick and Arthur. And then there’s Billy Butcher and Hughie, a different kind of duo for a different kind of superhero show.

Originally introduced in The Boys, a the Dynamite Entertainment series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Hughie and Billy’s camaraderie is every bit as surprising and shocking as the comic that created them. Now a Prime Video original television series, The Boys is set in a world much like our own, with the same corporate greed, inequality, and idol worship–except this world also has superheroes. And unlike the caped crusaders that populate the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the CW’s primetime lineup, the heroes in the Boys-verse are assholes. Like, major assholes.

Standing apart from phony do-gooders like Homelander, Queen Maeve, and A-Train are Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), a pair of normal humans determined to off corrupt corporate heroes by any means necessary. Butcher’s an old pro when it comes to this dirty work, having taken down a bunch back in the day with the help of his crew, The Boys. Hughie is a newbie, though, and gets involved after a bloody encounter with a reckless super.

With an entire series depending on the chemistry between them, Urban and Quaid set out to build a bond in a way the Boys would approve: by drinking lots of beer. Here’s what this dastardly dynamic duo told Decider about the boozy, bloody world of The Boys.

Decider: The Boys is built around the relationship between Hughie and Billy Butcher, with Butcher guiding Hughie into this violent world. How did you guys build that relationship off set?

Karl Urban: Went and drank beer, man. This one time, when we first started, we went to a pub in Toronto called the Dog’s Bollocks and we sat down and had a few beers. Jack actually found it and he was drawn to it, A: Because it was an English pub and you know the origins of Butcher steeped in English culture, but also because it had a dog on it that was exactly the same as Terror, which is the dog that Butcher has in the comics.

Quaid: I was just walking around Toronto one day and I as like, well, I’m pretty sure this isn’t a set for our show, even though it looks like it.

Urban: Totally could have been though.

Quaid: It totally could have been. But if it’s not, if it’s a real bar, then we should go in there.

Urban: They closed it down while we were there.

Quaid: They did, actually. We went in there I think once or twice, and then I think it wasn’t there anymore. Or maybe it moved or something, but I remember I would walk down that street again and be like, where is the Dog’s Bollocks? I miss it.

That’s such bad timing, because I’m sure it would get a bump from y’all mentioning it.

Quaid: We have been plugging the Dog’s Bollocks all day. I mean, I hope they’re still in business because–

Urban: If they’re not they should open up.

Quaid: They should open up again. Bring it back.

Karl, you’ve been involved in so many big franchises, like Star Trek, the Marvel movies, also Dredd. What separates The Boys from all of the other comic book, sci-fi projects that you’ve done before?

Urban: Well, for me, the opportunity that The Boys presented was, one, to showcase an ultimate narrative on the whole superhero genre, one that I hadn’t seen before to this degree. And secondly, it was the character of Billy Butcher. I read the script and immediately recognized what a fun opportunity this would be to play this character. He’s sort of this Machiavellian scoundrel who kind of lies and cheats, deceives. He also has layers that you come to see in the series of quite a lot of pain and anguish of the events that have happened to him.

And he’s also, he’s a tough bastard and he can be very very brutal and dangerous. So there’s a lot of great traits to play with and, you know, the relationship that he has with Jack’s character. He initially goes to use him for his ends and purposes, but pretty quickly forms a bond with him that’s quite brotherly. It’s a very kind of sweet and endearing relationship.

Did you guys know going into The Boys that it was going to be a hard TV-MA show? Did the comics tip you off?

Quaid: Well when I first read the script, I actually wasn’t aware that it was a comic book series. I just thought Eric Kripke, our showrunner, wrote a script about the real world as it is today, and then just peppered some superheroes in there, and I thought it was amazing. But once I got the role, I went to Golden Apple Comics in LA–I’m plugging Dog’s Bollocks and Golden Apple–

Urban: They’re still in existence though.

Quaid: Yeah, it’s still there. But, yeah, I just burned through all the comics and then….I mean the script was pretty TV-MA and then the comics, there were moments when I had to take a knee and then regroup. But I loved them and it was just such a…it was like the Bible for me for the show. We weren’t in Toronto [filming] yet. I wasn’t really seeing what the world looked like visually, so it was a great way to exist in that space without actually being there.

The crazy things that happen on The Boys also look so real, like a lot of the effects are practical. These are real costumes, this is real blood–well not real blood or real brains–

Quaid: Oh no, it’s from someone, for sure.

[Laughs] What was the most shocking thing that you saw on set?

Urban: I think it was a man’s skull that was crushed between the thighs of a woman as he was performing cunnilingus.

Quaid: This show [premiered at the] Tribeca [Film Festival] and that’s a scene in the show. I’m just saying, we’re living in the same world. That was pretty shocking. God, without giving too much away, I mean in the opening episode, what happens to my girlfriend. A lot of that blood was fake, but the air cannon was very much real and that was just, like, shot at my face and that was super scary. Yeah, I’m utterly traumatized by filming this show for sure.

Jack, you also got to work with Simon Pegg. That’s a bit wild because your character, Hughie, was originally based on Simon Pegg when the comic debuted in 2006.

Quaid: Yes.

Urban: Visually, yes.

Visually, yeah, Hughie looks just like him in the comics. Was it daunting being in scenes with the guy who looked just like the character in the comics?

Quaid: Yes!

Urban: We’ve both been fans of Simon Pegg for many weeks now–at least four.

Quaid: Since I saw Shaun of the Dead, hugest fan of Simon Pegg. I was so intimidated, man, once I figured out that Simon–well, I guess he never played the role, but he kind of did in a way. So I felt like it was huge shoes to fill. The fact that I got to work with him and he was so incredibly nice and so amazing on set, I mean that was like, that was it for me, man. I mean, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World’s End, those are some of my favorite movies of all time. He’s amazing, he really is.

And Karl, I have to ask about the fight you have with the superhero Translucent, who was invisible during the whole scene. What was it like filming a fight scene where you’re really fighting no one?

Urban: What happened was I got together with the stunt coordinator Tig [Fong], who was fantastic. We worked out a fighting style for Butcher that would be not overly martial arts oriented, but very effective, brutal street fighting, with a bit of knowledge. He’s definitely trained. And then from there, we went back and forth on the fight in terms of designing it, and then it was just a process of getting together and choreographing it and figuring out the moves.

When we shot it, we shot two versions, one with [Transluscent actor] Alex [Hassell] and me actually fighting and having a real person there. The difficult part was when you take him out. because I’m fighting an invisible man, and then I have to fight with nobody, so I’m just fighting air. And that’s really tricky because you have to imagine the blows coming at you and react with all these moves that aren’t coming at you. It’s tricky to remember not only your choreography, but everybody else’s–well, the other person’s.

Quaid: I was so impressed when I saw that. Just watching Karl fighting no one was just so cool.

It’s really convincing! You can see invisible hits making a connection. I mean, did you ever train as a mime or anything?

Urban: [Laughs] No.

Season 1 of The Boys arrives on Amazon’s Prime Video on Friday, July 26.

Stream The Boys Season 1 on Prime Video