Well, well, well, if it ain't Karl Urban.
The Kiwi actor, who started out with local productions like Xena: Warrior Princess and went on to roles in Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Doom, Thor: Ragnarok, Riddick, and Dredd, is currently living his best life as ‘Butcher’ in The Boys.
Think about the biggest jerks you know... Now imagine them with super powers. That’s basically the idea behind the show. The world’s greatest superhero team are a bunch of corporate celebrity assholes who abuse their powers to keep themselves rich.
But truly if you haven’t seen the first season, don’t read on. If you haven’t seen the second season, there’s no spoilers ahead that aren’t in the trailer.
“We benefit from some pretty amazing writing on the show,” Karl tells triple j. “Showrunner Eric Kripke has designed this world where the superheroes are these morally bankrupt, reprehensible, loathsome types but you still love them and I play the leader of a vigilante group who is trying to bring them down, so we have a lot of fun.”
(The following interview has been edited for length and clarity).
Your character isn’t one of the superheroes. Are you jealous or relieved you don’t have to wear tights and a cape?
"Actually, I have to say, I’m quite relieved because I know what they go through to wear those suits and it's not pretty. They're always complaining about how hot it is and, you know, whinge and moan, this and that. So being one of The Boys does have its upsides."
The visual effects in the show are really special, in the first season you have a fist fight with an invisible man.. Do they teach you that in acting school?
"Mate, there’s not much they teach you at acting school that can prepare you for fighting an invisible man. Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun and every time you open one of these scripts you come face to face with a scene that you think a) how are we gonna do this? and b) can we legally do this?
"I mean, this show pushes the boundaries on so many different levels. It’s amazing that Amazon has the cojones to actually make this thing."
It seems like the stunts get bigger and bigger in this season, so what was the most fun to do?
"Oh, many things. I mean, it's probably no spoiler because it’s in the trailers but we get to ram a speed boat through his sperm whale [laughs]. So, I mean, that’s something you don’t see too often is it?
"They built this 60 foot animatronic whale on a beach and then and we smash this boat right into it…so yeah, a lot of fun."
That’s surprising. You would have thought most shows would have done that with CGI…
"That is actually one of the unique things about The Boys; wherever possible, we will do things in camera and not rely on CGI. For that whole sequence they had all of the actors in a speedboat driven by myself and we had a helicopter that was doing parallel laps with us as we were shooting all the footage and doing it real old school and I think it's kind of cool. When you see those images there's no slight of hand trickery, it's us out there doing it for real.
"One of the guys, Jack Quaid — bless him, he's lovely guy, really clever — he's the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, he’s Hollywood royalty. He’d never been on a speedboat and his first speedboat he’s on he’s on with me and we’re hooning along, jumping waves. I mean, after a couple of runs he was white as a sheet and freaked out. I thought he was, like, seasick but he was actually in fear of his life."
You can actually drive boats, right?
"Yeah, I do..."
Did the creators write that in specifically for you?
"That is exactly what happened. [They were] looking at my Instagram and saw shots of me out fishing on the Hauraki Gulf and thought ‘huh, that's a skill set we could use in the show’. But thankfully I'm not usually smashing into whales, which would not be so good."
What other Karl Urban specific skills can we expect to see in future seasons?
"I’m very seriously thinking about the activities that I put up on my Instagram now [laughs]. I’m certainly not going to put any rock climbing or, you know, I’ll keep my trip to Everest secret for now."
The Boys is based on a comic book written by Garth Ennis and co-created, designed, and illustrated by Darick Robertson. Have you read it or do you want to keep the end as a surprise for yourself?
“It forms a foundation for the series and we got the characters from that but really tonally it's quite different, and definitely the story is going off in its own different directions. It's a wonderful inspiration but really this is all in the brilliant and deranged mind of Eric Kripke, our showrunner."
Is having that kind of freedom empowering?
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, listen, my first point of contact with The Boys was the three initial scripts that I read and then from there, I went back to have a look at what the inspiration was, but it was pretty clear to me that it's its own beast. There are so many differences between the show that we are doing and the comic; enough that it stands on its own."
It’s a very adult superhero show - in the first season you saw superheroes abusing their super powers for profit and even heroes using their celebrity to pressure less famous superheroes into sex. You’re seeing people who are supposed to be fighting crime committing crime, which is all very current. Are there big themes in this second season that you think are really important and exciting?
"Oh, very much so. I mean, the second season takes a good hard look at right wing agendas, it takes a look at racism and Nazis. It takes a look at the corporate gender and the manipulation of media and then it's also just packed with fun stupid laughs and gregarious humour and just packs a lot of fun."
"There's a lot in this show if you want to mine deeper and it really can hold up a mirror to society. But it can also just be a hell of a fun ride."
Between this, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Dredd, you’ve been in a lot of films with very intense fans. How often do you see someone dressed up as you?
"Every time I look in the mirror, pal. ‘Not him again, geez!’ [laughs]. Yeah, no. Look, I guess it’s a by-product of what we do. I always enjoy seeing fans when they cosplay and take on those characters. At the conventions that I have been to, it’s certainly a lot of fun — it's always a fun, safe environment that celebrates all those things that we love in pop culture."
But you look at them and go ‘Sorry kid, it’s a cute effort but you just don’t have the jaw’…
"[Laughs] Or you look at them and go ‘gee, if they ever learn to talk I’m screwed!’"