Erin Moriarty tells THR at San Diego Comic-Con what it means for her character Annie to officially join 'The Boys.' Plus, she speaks on the impact of the responses she gets from fans of 'The Boys.'
00:00What has it been like returning to Comic-Con and getting to see your fans and address them from the hall each stage?
00:05Surreal. Like, it is impossible to be immune to the fact that we came here five years ago.
00:10We were bribing people with food to get them into that audience or an audience in a hall.
00:15And to be here five years later is just like, honestly, we don't, I don't work in an industry where meritocracy is as applicable or relevant as I would like.
00:24But it is a situation that is an anomaly to a degree that feels like, God, sometimes you can put in work that yields results, that correlates to the amount of effort that you put into it.
00:34And that's not always the case. So this is pretty surreal and pretty magical and unique.
00:39And I wish it wasn't as unique as it is, but it is. So I'm not taking a second for granted.
00:43Starlight really puts in the work in season four. What was it like doing scenes with yourself and fighting yourself?
00:49Interesting. So basically, from the, I always look at it from the character's perspective and what will make it work the most in that moment.
00:56And both characters are not looking at it from the perspective of working with themselves.
01:01You know, like the shapeshifter is not Annie and Annie is not the shapeshifter.
01:05So from the shifter's perspective, I'm not looking at Annie like that's me.
01:08So I didn't work with myself. I did. I knew what I was going to do.
01:12But I worked with like a body double or an acting double, Amelia, who's amazing, who would emulate what I was going to do.
01:17But I had to not, I had to not project into the future and look at this other entity as myself.
01:25So I think it was, the trip was like the amount of work it took to differentiate the characters enough to make it just like, here's the thing.
01:36It's ultimately a metaphor for identity crisis.
01:39And that for me, for Annie, is something that I will never not do my best to do justice.
01:44In terms of her storyline, that's all I want to do is I want to portray it as best I can.
01:48So that requires going the extra mile in terms of preparation, in terms of everything I can do to carve out every granular detail that will make the two be different and will make this storyline come to life as best it can.
02:00So it was challenging, but ultimately I didn't look at it from that perspective.
02:03What was it like having Annie be an official member of the boys this season?
02:08I mean, we've all been waiting for it, right?
02:10It was so good.
02:10It was so much fun.
02:11Also, I'm not going to lie, like, I love my super suit.
02:14I love it.
02:15It's beautiful.
02:15It's like the most brilliantly made super suit, or these are the most brilliantly made super suits I've ever seen.
02:22And our costume designer, LJ, is an artist.
02:25However, wearing art every day lends itself to a hyper-awareness that meant that being in the boys was not just liberating from a character's perspective, but from Aaron's perspective.
02:36It was, like, very comfortable.
02:38So all around, it was great.
02:40Heading into the final season, how do you think or hope this all ends for Annie?
02:44Honestly, okay, so I look at the previous season, and I look at the situation with The Deep, which was kind of brilliant because she gets to approach a situation where she gets to enact revenge on someone who is the person that is initiating and perpetuating violence to begin with.
02:59So she's not walking up to The Deep and throwing a punch.
03:01He is attacking her, and out of defense, she beats him down, and she beats him.
03:07And we have this cathartic, karmic moment that we all, or that I have been waiting for that happens as a result of no moral or character deficits in Annie.
03:18I want to see her enact more revenge, and I want to see it in the way that she would do it, which is a situation that would entail her being put in an uncomfortable position because she would never perpetuate violence in the way that, like, someone like The Deep would, obviously.
03:30But that entails us experiencing cathartic karma once again because it does send this subliminal message out that basically says good guys sometimes do win, and I need that.
03:42I think we all do.
03:43Throughout the seasons, your character has been a vessel of addressing these sort of real-world problems that women deal with, from sexual assault to also then the abortion storyline this past season.
03:54For you, what has the fan response been like to sort of spreading these messages via your character?
03:58I think the most important thing for me has been to hear that people have felt less alone when watching these storylines be depicted, which is exactly why I became an actor to begin with.
04:10Like, I would watch things as a young girl, and I would feel lonely with certain issues I was feeling or going through, and I hope that it's made one less person feel lonely.
04:19Even if it happened for a millisecond, that's enough.
04:21And that feedback, whenever I get it, which has been, you know, present, and it's been present enough to just feel like that in itself makes it worth it.
04:31And it's just a very lucky and awesome moment of connection that I feel like I get to benefit from, even though I'm not writing the material, you know?
04:40Eric announced the spinoff Vought Rising here at Comic-Con today.
04:43What are you excited to see in that spinoff?
04:45Honestly, Aya Cash is so brilliant.
04:48Like, she is just the best person.
04:50She's a brilliant actress.
04:51I want to see her at large in this universe in some way, so the fact that that's happening.
04:55And then Jensen, of course, is not hard to look at, and he's a brilliant actor.
04:58So those two, it's like, I'm going to be fan-watching something that, like, came from my universe.
05:03And as an only child, I'm probably going to experience only child syndrome at first.
05:07But I'm so excited, and it's those two.
05:10It's the talent involved.
05:10It's Kripke, Jensen, and Aya.
05:12That team-up is, like, unparalleled.
05:15I mean, Annie's an only child.
05:16Are you one in real life, too?
05:17Yeah, I am.
05:17I mean, I have two little half-sisters who are my sisters, but I was raised as an only child, and so I definitely suffer from that.
05:25I'm an only child, too, so I am, yes.
05:28That's the thing.
05:28Like, I have moments where I'm like, I don't know about that.
05:30And then moments where I'm like, oh, no, no, no, 100%.
05:32You can spot us in a crowd, I feel like, in certain moments, like the announcement of the spinoff.
05:37How have you used that experience to, you know, portray Annie, who's also an only child?
05:43Oh, man.
05:43I mean, I try and use all my personal insights into what might make Annie more of a human.
05:48You know, I feel like that's just my job is to, like, find her nuances and make her breathe life in a way that you might not be able to see on paper.
05:56And so every personal experience I've had, be it being an only child, may infuse her in a way that I'm not even aware of because I think about that, and I'm like, okay, well, that's something I'm familiar with.
06:07Therefore, I'm going to focus on other areas to really get granular and really make sure that she is not dropping any moment in a very emotionally honest way.
06:17So I feel like it's something that I didn't think of as much as other areas of her life, and that's something that, like, is a testament to the fact that everything that you go through, whether it's hard, whether it's amazing and positive, you can use in a way that's, like, not to glorify the bad bits, but in a way that can kind of be beneficial for ourselves.
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