Erin Moriarty (‘The Boys’) on Starlight’s powerful 3rd season: ‘The pain is going to be worth it’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

When Erin Moriarty reflects on “The Boys'” third season as a whole, the first thing that comes to mind is the powerful scene when her character, Starlight/Annie January, quits the superhero team known as The Seven. “Playing that character gave me so much … sympathy for everyone that we judge when we look at situations they’re in and come to harsh conclusions,” she tells me. “I think that you’ve got to respect the process she’s been through, even if it includes things that one would deem amoral.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

Season 3 streamed last summer on Amazon Prime Video, and is eligible at the upcoming 2023 Emmys. The last time it was eligible in 2021, “The Boys” nabbed five Emmy nominations, including for Best Drama Series and Best Drama Writing (Rebecca Sonnenshine).

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Speaking about another big twist for Starlight this year, Moriarty reveals, “One of my favorite things to happen was that she was made co-captain” alongside Homelander (Antony Starr). “And that moment she finally thinks, oh my God, this is it. This is the moment where the pain is going to be worth it. There’s gonna be a woman in a position of power. This is gonna be historical in terms of Vought. And who am I to deny that? Who am I to not try?”

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Addressing Starlight’s promotion, the actress wonders aloud, “Is Stan Edgar [Giancarlo Esposito] genuinely giving her this role because of his belief in her, because of his desire to give a woman a position of power? Or is it being driven by consumerism and is it just feminism for the sake of being exhibitionist and being ‘woke’? I think that’s almost more infuriating than if there were outward misogyny and she were able to just leave, which there has been.”

Moriarty adds, “I think that women are getting really fed up now with this concept of exhibitionist feminism for the sake of catering to certain people that are dominating consumerism. So I think when she realizes how much she said that, she refuses to participate anymore, but it’s a complicated storyline that involves mistakes.” Despite her character being deemed the “moral compass” of the comic book show, she states, “The mistakes are my favorite things to play because it also poses the concept that you can be a moral compass and also be nuanced and flawed, and there is no such thing as that perfect good girl that we’ve often portrayed and put in a box for so long.”

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One of the most viral moments this season was the “Herogasm” episode, which involved “30 orgy-centric super suits,” as costume designer Michael Ground previously explained. What was it like for Moriarty to take part in that highly anticipated outing? “It was shocking at first and then hilarious,” she concedes. “And then weirdly, I just became completely desensitized to all of it. But honestly, it was so many things at once. I felt weirdly educated by it, but I also at the same time felt like I was informed of things that I could never unsee and I just didn’t need to know about.” She notes, “I just developed so much respect for people who were working on that set because the things that were asked of them in terms of noises and ad libs, I just thought, you guys are amazing.”

Also in our exclusive video interview, Moriarty talks about the season-long power games between Starlight and Homelander, her reaction to The Deep (Chace Crawford) returning to The Seven after he assaulted her character the prior year, and the “different dynamics” involved with working with the two groups of actors, the superheroes and the boys. She also teases what she can about the upcoming fourth season — spoiler alert!

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