The MVP: Antony Starr Makes The Boys Stronger, Smarter, and Better

Editor’s Note: Welcome to The MVP, a column where we celebrate the best performances TV has to offer. Whether it be through heart-wrenching outbursts, powerful looks, or perfectly-timed comedy, TV’s most memorable moments are made by the medium’s greatest players—top-billed or otherwise. Join us as we dive deep on our favorite TV performances, past and present:

When The Boys aired in 2019, Avengers: Endgame was just leaving theaters and it felt like the grip superheroes had over the entertainment industry could never be toppled. The comic book adaptation’s dark and gory take on superheroes was one of the first major protests against the consumer-friendly popcorn fodder that was superhero franchises.

But just as soon as The Boys came out, there was a clear breakout star (pun intended) in Antony Starr as Homelander. The leader of fictional superhero group The Seven, Homelander is most obviously a parody of Superman, but also the vehicle for a wider critique on American ideals to fit alongside a country that is slowly embracing fascist ideologies.

Immediately, Homelander jumped off the screen as a not-your-average TV show villain. Just as the audience thinks they understand him as a murderous psychopath, you see a grown man breastfeeding off his boss and know there is a much stranger character portrait being crafted. He’s a character that’s easy to be seen as an absurd joke (and a popular meme-originator) but Starr brings an intensity to Homelander that doesn’t just make him a better character, it makes The Boys a better show.

Homelander is a narcissist with a disregard for human life and a massive superiority complex. He is the most famous person in the world. He is also virtually unkillable while being able to murder anyone he wants in half a second. On paper, he is overpowered, too evil and all-encompassing to ever be a fair fight. He is the unstoppable force to The Boys’ immovable object: Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his titular ragtag gang of superhero assassins. 

Starr plays the character as someone with a complete lack of inhibition, and through the series he becomes more rooted in his knowledge that he is untouchable. While at first controlled by the higher ups at Vought and his desire for approval, every act of violence further boosts his perspective of his own righteousness and God-like role in the world. 

A high point of Starr’s tenure as Homelander came in Episode 2 of Season 3. Homelander, for so long puppeteered by capitalist agendas and marketability, proudly declares himself, in front of a live audience, a superior being. “I’m stronger. I’m smarter. I’m better! I am better!” It’s a conclusion he comes to after being praised by a literal Nazi—that he is the epitome of both the white race and the human race. Homelander, unlike most of the other supes in the series, was literally born and raised in a laboratory to become the most powerful being in the world and a perfect advertisement for capitalism.

But Starr portrays Homelander’s narcissism as riddled with fractures. A part of him believes himself to be better, but another part berates himself for his shortcomings. In Season 4, The Boys doubles down on his broken psyche by having these versions of himself literally appear in fractures of a mirror. His weakness in his need for love is depicted as a person that needs to be killed, just like Homelander can kill anyone else.

Season 4 enhances the political allegory of Homelander’s character as well. At the end of Season 3, Homelander kills a protester in front of hundreds of witnesses, a clear reference to Trump’s infamous “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters” quote that references the invulnerability of having wealth and power. The election storyline of Season 4 is meant to mirror our current day politics, but Homelander also carries the weight of our current American feelings of powerlessness against a system that will protect those that feed it (capitalism and fascism often become close friends). The Boys’ political allusions are blatant and not always very layered, but Starr’s depiction of Homelander hammers in the evil that is lurking in individuals bolstered by right-wing reactionary ideals.

Unfortunately, Starr is so committed and skilled at his depiction of Homelander that he has joined the pantheon of characters who are criticisms of a certain kind of person being embraced by said person. It’s a treasured group including Alex deLarge in A Clockwork Orange, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders. All of them show the faults and doomed nature of misogynist, violent men, and yet are celebrated by those who are distracted by their suave and confident natures. 

But what these viewers are ignoring is the amount of nuance and fear in Starr’s portrayal. Starr is playing Homelander as a rapist. As a white supremacist and eugenicist. But like these people in real life, Homelander can craft a different image of himself: an American hero with a winning smile. He’s the greatest exercise in branding in the universe of The Boys. They cheer on his funny expressions and brutal killings without a care in the world because, to them, Homelander is an aspiration. Someone who can never face consequences.

The trick is that Starr plays Homelander as a multifaceted prestige TV villain while maintaining a cartoonish comic book facade. He’s almost never seen without his patriotic suit with an American flag cape. His facial expressions are sharp and he poses like he’s an actual action figure. But then there are the moments when he starts to fracture. His face twitches or his eyes go blank and you can see what little humanity there is behind him. He’s ultimately pathetic, bored by his own villainy, looking for a loving embrace he will never deserve because those that support him only see the image, not the man underneath. They, like the viewers who misread his every action, see the symbol they’ve been taught to respect and not the critique it’s representing.

Starr’s masterful performance is what drives The Boys to be a more interesting show. The Boys could rest on its shock value alone, but Starr’s talent adds a level of urgency to the plot. When other aspects of its criticism falter, they always have Homelander to bring it back home. He is the embodiment of everything the show wants to say while always being an incredibly watchable character. He’s addicting to hate. He makes you on edge while also begging any character to punch that stupid grin off his face. The Boys is building towards Homelander’s death, and every episode heightens how satisfying it will be.

Starr also elevates the performances of everyone around him. Giancarlo Esposito is great on his own as Vought CEO Stan Edgar, but he’s even better when you can see how much control he has over someone who can kill him in an instant. Homelander’s crimes and horrid acts make every other character well up with hatred when they have to interact with him. I get excited whenever a new character meets Homelander because I’m on the edge of my seat, anticipating what kind of deranged and tension-filled interaction they might have. Being a good actor isn’t just delivering great monologues and twitching your eyelids, it’s giving every other actor something excellent to work with. And in that regard, there’s no greater MVP on The Boys.

Why Starr has never gotten mainstream Emmys consideration is beyond me. After a Best Drama and Writing nomination for Season 2, The Boys has dropped from the TV Academy’s radar for major category nominations, even though Starr’s performance has only gotten stronger with more time with the character. But Starr is putting in all-timer work. It’s easy to make a character hateable; it’s hard to make a character hateable and watchable. But Starr does it. And he does it better than anyone else.

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Leila Jordan is a writer and former jigsaw puzzle world record holder. Her work has appeared in Paste Magazine, the LA Times, Business Insider, Gold Derby, TheWrap, FOX Digital, The Spool, and Awards Radar. To talk about all things movies, TV, and useless trivia you can find her @galaxyleila

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