‘The Boys’: Chace Crawford Dives Into The Deep’s Dark Turn
Q&A
What To Know
- The Deep, previously seen as a comic-relief and submissive member of The Seven, takes a dark turn in the final season of The Boys.
- Chace Crawford discusses his character, the end of the series, and more.
While we all knew death would flood the final season of The Boys, it was still a shock to see The Deep (Chace Crawford) join the parade of people doing the killing. For most of the show’s run, Vought’s answer to Aquaman has been a relatively innocuous foot-soldier for Homelander (Antony Starr), readily sucking up and taking disrespectful hit after hit, all in the name of maintaining his place in The Seven. Along the way, his sexual harassment of Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and secret octopus lover Ambrosius have made waves, but he’s always been treated by his colleagues as a dim pretty boy incapable of true villainy.
Boy have the tides turned. In this week’s episode, the King of the Seven Seas saw red after his antagonistic podcast co-host Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) admitted to framing him for a marine-life catastrophe involving a faulty oil pipeline Homelander forced The Deep to champion. What had began as a tit-for-tat battle after The Deep deployed some eels to fatally um, penetrate, the toilet-straddling director of a play that could have made Noir more famous than him ended with The Deep plunging a blade straight up into Noir’s bottom jaw, forever silencing the supe known for being silent.
Prime Video
With that turn of events, we have a sinking feeling that The Deep is now firmly on the short list of characters who may be faced with a similar fate before the series finale. For his part, Crawford, having killed it for five seasons without earning as much applause as he deserves — those effin’ arms alone deserve a People’s Choice Award! — is keeping mum about what is to come, but the Gossip Girl icon sure is thrilled to have been part of a show that has allowed him to go beneath the surface of a superhero who could have been just been comic relief in lesser gloved hands.
The Deep has been one of the show’s stealth weapons for comedy. He’s dumb, he’s sweet, and I feel like he’s very misguided…but he also has a pretty dark side and it’s developed even more this season. And you’ve hit these notes so well where you can’t help but love this guy.
Chace Crawford: I love that, man. Thank you. That was kind of what I was hoping to go for is to toe that line of [viewers] being interested in this guy, what makes him tick and kind of feeling for him a little bit, that gray area of, ‘OK, he’s dumb, but also why is he doing these things? Why is he the way he is?’ I really appreciate that, man.
Prime Video
With the amount of fatalities so far, he’s one of the few still standing. But he has blood — and oil — on his hands now, so when’s the other shoe going to drop on this guy?
I know. Hey, listen, I don’t think anyone’s going to be disappointed by the finale. I know Eric [Kripke, showrunner] and the writers had an absolute blast writing it. And I remember him pitching me The Deep’s full storyline before the season started — he did that with everyone — to say, this is what’s going to happen and all that. And I’m going to miss that, opening up the scripts and seeing what the hell is The Deep’s arc this year and the podcast, the whole thing. I haven’t seen the finale, but I know what goes down and I just cannot wait to see it.
When you’re out at a restaurant, do people send you octopus?
Oh, it’s happened before! [Laughs] Yeah, it’s definitely happened. I’ve gotten such a great response on this show. Every time the show comes out, it’s like the TSA guys and the flight attendants, they’re all watching and they all really love The Deep.
What did you take from set?
I didn’t get to take anything from set, except my chairback with my name on it. I wanted The Deep’s gloves, but they’ll be around. It might not be the last time we’re putting them on.
Oh, really?
No, I’m teasing. I didn’t take anything from set. I wanted the gloves. That’s it. So, maybe I’ll have to circle back and get those.
Can we discuss the fact that’s been 20 years since The Covenant...
20 years! [Laughs] That’s insane.
That movie has such an incredible cast, but were you guys aware when you were filming that this was going to click with a certain audience?
No, I was not aware. [Laughs] And I’m still friends with Sebastian Stan, Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway…and I see Steven Strait now and then. We had no idea. And they don’t make movies like that anymore. That 20 to 30 million dollar budget, whatever it was with special effects that were like, oh God, you go back and watch those special effects now. I think Sebastian had to seriously answer and say, “No, we are not doing another one.” But I always joke and say [we should do] The Covenant 2 as a boy-band comedy. But that’s due for a rewatch for me.
You know that it’s memed all over the place.
Still?
A hot high-school swim team who are also warlocks? Dude, that movie is an entire generation’s gay awakening.
That’s amazing. I love it. I haven’t seen any of the memes. I would love to. I’d love to see some of that stuff.
Before I wrap you, how did you sort of shed The Deep once the show ended?
Oh my God, I couldn’t. I mean, I remember the finale episode, I shot the final day on July 4, last summer in Toronto, and I came down the stairs from this platform we were shooting on it. Everyone in the crew was just standing around clapping and I lost it and we were all kind of crying. I had that great moment of getting to say goodbye to everyone.
Honestly, that last day felt like an out-of-body experience. It was really weird. Going through that kind of type of change was tough. And it was always that thing where, like, I was just sitting here doing interviews in 2020 during the pandemic and being like, “Oh, it’s going to be so far away. That day is so far away. I don’t have to think about it. We got so much time.” And now it’s here. I feel like I did savor it more than in the past… There will never be another one like it.
The Boys, Season 5, Wednesdays, Prime Video
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