How to Get Cast on ‘The Boys’

Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s 2016 adult comic book series, Kripke’s show debuted on Prime in 2019. The story follows the Boys, a group of vigilantes working to bring down Vought International, a powerful company that sponsors an elite team of “Supes” called the Seven.

The group is overseen by Vought exec Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) and led by the self-serving Homelander (Antony Starr), a “hero” in the vein of Captain America. Other current and former members include the Aquamen-esque the Deep (Chace Crawford); A-Train (Jesse T. Usher), who has the power of superspeed; and Starlight (Erin Moriarty), who has the ability to harness electricity.

Standing against the Seven are the Boys, a ragtag team fronted by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a former government operative who harbors a hatred for anyone with superpowers. Among the gang are tech specialist Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid); munitions expert Frenchie (Tomer Capone); and Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara), the sole member of the Boys with superpowers.

The Season 3 ensemble included:

• Karl Urban as Billy Butcher
• Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell
• Antony Starr as Homelander
• Erin Moriarty as Annie January/Starlight
• Jessie T. Usher as A-Train/Reggie Franklin
• Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk
• Chace Crawford as The Deep
• Tomer Capone as Frenchie
• Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro/The Female
• Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir/Earving
• Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
• Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve/Maggie Shaw
• Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman
• Cameron Crovetti as Ryan
• Laila Robins as Grace Mallory
• Aya Cash as Stormfront
• Katy Breier as Cassandra
• Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar
• Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell
• Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher
• Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy/Ben
• Simon Pegg as Hugh Campbell
• Jennifer Esposito as Susan Raynor
• Ann Cusack as Donna January
• Christian Keyes as Nathan

A few new actors are joining Season 4, including Susan Heyward as Sister Sage, Valorie Curry as Firecracker, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a mystery character.

For the first three seasons, the series employed a large casting team from Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, including Eric Dawson (“American Horror Story”), Carol Kritzer (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Alex Newman (“Supernatural”), Robert J. Ulrich (“9-1-1”), and Jackie Davies (“All Rise”).

Ulrich, who began his career as a performer, says he draws from personal experience when it comes to casting; his history has given him an intimate understanding of how weird the audition process can be. 

“For me, having been an actor, I just get it,” he told us. “I think that the whole audition process, especially coming into impersonal auditions, is ridiculous. But it’s the only one we have, because there are people who are incredible auditioners and there are people who fall apart in auditions who are really wonderful actors.

“I think it’s a strange thing that we ask people to wait for two hours and come into a room where you have to be vulnerable. It’s just a strange system. Having been an actor makes me, I think, extremely sensitive to that part of it. I’m very sympathetic to how hard it is to put yourself out there.”

Dawson told us that he’s passionate about discovering new talent. “Just plugging the known talent into the appropriate spaces isn’t the thing that gets you up in the morning. It’s finding that person whom nobody knows. Some days you sit in pre-reads, and you’ll pre-read 75 people. And after the first 70, you go, Have I wasted my day? Not that they aren’t good actors, but they’re not right for whatever reason.

“Then that right person walks in, and you realize that all your hard work has paid off. Also, just seeing people’s careers get started—it’s really neat to be at the forefront of that,” he added. “Seeing them go from starving artists to successful actors is very rewarding.”

In an interview with Metro, Moriarty said that she hates auditioning “almost more than anything.” But when she found out she’d be self-taping for “The Boys,” she was excited to try out the process. “I had to do a mini-monologue, and I wasn’t dreading it; it wasn’t anything but pleasant and fun. The fact [that] I could have fun with the character in the audition was indicative to me how fun this would be and how fun it would be on set.”

Next, Moriarty did a screen test with Kripke. “He’s specific and demanding—and rightly so, because he has such a clear image of what he wants,” she explained. “He likes to play with actors and get a lot of variations. He’s the hardest-working person I’ve ever met; he’s not lazy, and he expects that from his actors, which is great.

“But I walked out, and I kind of blacked out. I [had] no idea how [it] went,” she continued. “I walked out of the screen test and he took me outside privately and said, ‘Just so you know, no matter what happens, no matter what the studio decides, creatively, we’re rooting for you; and I’m rooting for you, and I want you for this.’ ”

Former “Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles told Discussing Film that he worked hard to land the role of Season 3 antagonist Soldier Boy. It certainly helped his chances that he was close friends with Kripke, who created “Supernatural”; when Ackles expressed interest in “The Boys,” the showrunner brought him into the loop.

“He sent over an audition scene for Soldier Boy and said, ‘Take a read and tell me what you think.’ I read it and immediately called him and was like, ‘Who do I have to kill to get this role?’ He said, ‘I’m going to warn you, this isn’t going to be easy,’ ” the actor explained. “Apparently, there was a shortlist of names they were talking about at the studio. I certainly wasn’t on that list, and it consisted of names that were far more recognizable than mine. But I said that I was willing to fight, and he said, ‘If you’re willing to fight for it, then I might be able to help you.’ And so, he did.

“I had to put myself on tape. This was during peak COVID, so I didn’t really have help in doing so,” Ackles continued. “I had to pre-record the other person’s lines, which happened to be Butcher’s. So I had to do my best Butcher impression, and then I would play those lines back; and, finally, I would give the Soldier Boy performance.

“Luckily, I had Kripke coaching me, and he was able to put the best tape forward that I could muster. He sent it up the ladder, got all the checkmarks, and that’s how it happened. But I fought for it, man. I fought for it pretty hard.”

Prime renewed the series for a fifth season in February, before the fourth even premiered. The Film & Television Industry Alliance’s production list indicates that Season 5 is filming between April 8 and Aug. 22 of this year.

Currently, there are no audition postings for Season 5. In the meantime, if you’re a fan of the superhero genre, check out our guides on getting cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or in a DC Comics project. You can also read up on auditioning for Prime Video.

Failure can clear a path to opportunity. Moriarty believes that you “should trust that the jobs that you don’t get were not meant for you,” she told us. “I do, in retrospect, realize that a lot of the jobs that I wanted so badly and didn’t get were simply not meant to be mine. The actresses who got the roles always killed it. The roles that were meant to be mine were waiting for me.

“There were some roles when I was really young that would’ve been ‘star-making’ roles I thought were my goals; but in reality, I wasn’t ready for that level of notoriety yet,” she continued. “So, really trust the process and know that you’re meant to book what you’re meant to book. And try, to your best ability, to let the rest go and let the rest be determined by fate and casting directors, frankly.”

Moriarty said that the casting process can make even the most confident, talented actors feel like hacks. “I don’t like auditioning. I find the environment to be really sterile and not conducive to being able to put on a good performance, or even have fun…. I would say I’ve blown half of the auditions I’ve been on…. I’ve walked out of so many auditions feeling like a bad actor.

“I think you have to keep in mind that is not reflective of your ability to act. You can be a brilliant actor and not be able to nail it. You need to keep in mind that everyone is in the same boat as you, and the majority of people have everything working against them that’s also working against you in those very sterile environments.”

Trust yourself. Shantel VanSanten, who plays Billy’s wife, Becca, believes that hard work and self-belief will help you excel in the room.

“I’m the girl who had to study really hard in school to get good grades. I wasn’t naturally as smart,” she told us. “I was shooting a television show, and during the first season that I was on, [a producer] came up to me and said, ‘You don’t have to try so hard. You’re so talented.’ I didn’t know what that meant. I thought, No, of course I have to try hard; of course I have to fight. How else would I be here?

“Now that I’ve been living in Los Angeles for a very long time and [have spent a lot of time] in the industry, I would tell my [younger self] to do the work—and then the minute I step on set, trust that it’s there. I’ve laid the foundation and the framework for something to blossom [so that I can] just surrender to the process—to trust myself more often than question and sabotage.”

Do your homework. According to Dawson, the best way to get work on TV is to watch TV. “I don’t think there’s any room for snobbery,” he told us.

“The one thing I find that so many actors proudly say when they come in to audition is that they don’t watch television; and I just think that’s so wrong,” the CD said. “If you want to act in television, I think you should watch it. It’s important to know the shows that you’re auditioning for and the characters that you’re auditioning against. And now, with IMDb, it’s really possible for actors to get a lot of information quickly about who the rest of the people in the scene are, even on shows they’ve never seen.

“You have to believe that you’ve done your homework and you’ve made strong choices. You have to come in and do it and not apologize at the end or make excuses, or ask on and on, you know, ‘Give me direction.’ I think that takes away your confidence—and so much of what producers and directors are looking for is that confidence that people carry with them. You just can’t look too needy, because often that reads. So it’s important to come in, not talk too much, do what you’re there to do, feel good about it, say a nice goodbye, and leave the room.”