Laz Alonso – The Boys

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What can you tease is in store for Season 2 of “The Boys?”

A) It’s just been one of those years where whatever you thought couldn’t happen has happened and in our world it doesn’t disappoint. If you liked Season 1, Season 2 takes everything up a notch. Everything gets more intense, crazier and bigger. And it gets a little darker. I wish I could give people a little sense of hope, but nah… [laughs] Who you think might win might not win and vice versa. It’s one of those things.

Q) Season 2 finds The Boys on the run. What does that mean for Mother’s Milk who prides himself on being a devoted family man?

A) Season 2, when we are on the run, it’s difficult for Mother’s Milk because we are literally living in a basement hideout in some part of Brooklyn. So, A) We know that he is tremendously OCD and living in a rat-infested gang hideout is not his idea of a Club Med getaway. But then B) Like you said, he’s been separated from his family. Something unlike the other Boys, from what we know of, he’s the only one left with a family. It kind of makes you think, “Why would he do that? Why would he risk all of that to get back on this mission with all of these guys? We get why they would do it, but why would he do it?” In Season 2, he’ll actually reveal it – just what it is about The Boys, Vaught and his background and his history with Vaught as to why he can’t just walk away from this. And it will let you in a little bit deeper about his backstory and his origin.

Q) Mother’s Milk and Kimiko share a sweet scene this season. What is it about the women in his life that really makes him so protective of them?

A) You know, I’ll tell you. It kind of goes back to his origin story. His mother, unfortunately, was a victim of one of Vaught’s victims. I think it left him feeling like we are each other’s keeper. It’s our responsibility to take care of each other. Really that’s why I think Butcher (Karl Urban) brought him on board, more than anything. It wasn’t just to help him blow stuff up. It was to keep him from blowing stuff up and keep him from losing sight of the mission – to keep them on the rails. This season, unlike last, you do see Mother’s Milk really open up to The Female (Karen Fukuhara). It’s just a lot of pairings that you didn’t see last season you’ll see this season and vice versa. The relationship between her and Frenchie (Tomer Capon) might not be the same either. It might not be as loving as we once got used to seeing last season.

Q) Were you looking forward to working with someone(s) more this season?

A) I got to work with Erin Moriarty this season. Mother’s Milk got to get to know Starlight and Starlight got to know him a lot better. I think it’s a really sweet episode because those two normally wouldn’t have crossed paths and because of a particular mission that we’re on and where she is at her stage of the story, we end up kind of being forced to hangout together. And it was a really, really cool episode because the first season I didn’t work with any supes and in Season 2 now our worlds start to slowly collide together. So, you’re going to see a lot more of that as Season 2 progresses – where it’s just like people you would never think would be in the same room talking are.

Q) What have been some of your favorite lines from this season of “The Boys?”

A) Well, unfortunately, the one line that I think is going to define Mother’s Milk this season and might even turn him into a meme – Laz is not going to be happy. [laughs] Laz, the actor, is not going to be happy. What the internet is about to find out about what happens to Mother’s Milk at some point in this season and it is going to go with the one line that defines what happens to him. It’s a really, really ridiculous thing and I am dreading that episode. I was not looking forward to that episode when we shot it and I am not looking forward to that episode when it airs. But I promise you, you have never seen anything like this happen in television. [laughs] I think that Eric Kripke and the writers love crazy things happening to Mother’s Milk. Mother’s Milk and Hughie (Jack Quaid)! I think we’re the two that they just love to see crazy crap happen to us. Luckily, Hughie gets a lot more blood than I do. But this season I think I might have topped him with what happens to me. I will be immortalized as a meme. I already see it coming.

Q) What episodes should fans of the show look out for this season?

A) Without giving too much away, I felt personally like the whale episode is usually a season finale. Something that big…We had a fifty-foot animatronic whale that moved and made noise and even inside the whale the organs moved and squirted blood and all that stuff. It was a pretty impressive episode, but we have probably two more big episodes on the same scale as the whale that are going to really blow peoples’ minds away. I can’t say too much about it, but I will say it has to do with more supes. More supes. Yeah, there is a whole lot more where that comes from.

Q) What kind of fan feedback have you received to the show?

A) Listen, we have some amazing, amazing diabolically psychotic fans. I love it! They are crazy! No matter what we give them, they want more. There are sometimes where we think, “Oh God! How are they going to receive it?” And they are just like, “Yeah!” The thirst for blood is insane. But I love our fanbase. One of the biggest things that I was worried about when we were filming the show was, “Are people going to think that we are bootleg superheroes or superhero knockoffs versus the real deal?” And people have really embraced our superhero universe and they love it. You see all these epic battles like who would win Superman versus Homelander? They are always pair us up against other cinematic universes like DC and Marvel and it feels good to have that genre itself accepted and give you that validation. Like, “We view you on the same level as all the other hero universes that we know.” That, in and of itself, feels really good.

Q) How did you feel that the show was already renewed for a Season 3?

A) Man, it makes me feel like Amazon is really in it to win it. That’s what it says. It says Sony, our studio, and Amazon, our network, are not playing around. They really want to see this show win. When you do that, when you renew a show before it even airs, what it says to you is that they really, truly believe in it. They really believe in it and nothing feels better than to have the studio you are partnered with really believe in what you’re doing. It just makes you fight so much harder, work harder and push harder just to do a better job and give a better product.

Q) What is it that you think fans really enjoy about watching this series?

A) These guys have a very sick and twisted sense of humor and they are unapologetic. That’s what I love about it. Our show is unapologetic, in every sense of the word. And we don’t fear controversy or possibly ruffling peoples’ feathers. That’s the purpose of the show – to put a mirror to us and show us you know what? We’re all pretty fucked up. So, don’t come over trying to act all high and mighty. This is what it is.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about Season of “The Boys?”

A) Season 2 – there will be blood. We definitely got an increase in our blood budget for Season 2. There is going to be bigger action and deeper character moments. So, you’re not only going to go bigger, but you’re going to find out more about us. More about our backstories. More about who we were before we were The Boys. You’re also going to get glimpses of who we were before we broke up and rebanded together. You’ll see glimpses of that, too. Back when Frenchie and Mother’s Milk were best friends and really liked each other and hung out. That, in and of itself, is weird to see – seeing us get along. It will take you deeper into the characters’ backstory and you’re going to see a lot more connections to the characters. Also, now we have an after show, which we didn’t have last year! Now, after every episode Aisha Tyler is hosting an after show which talks about the episode. It gets more in depth about the episode and has some of the actors from the episode. They show up and give our analysis and our perspective of what we were doing and talked about and thought about. And a whole bunch of behind the scenes stuff. So, that is something that your fans are really going to love about the show this year. Now there is an after show that is going to kind of summarize what we saw and give us some more behind the scenes stuff.