Jack Quaid Discusses the Political Undertones of ‘The Boys’: “I think the intent of it is leaning more towards the liberal side”
Jack Quaid is widely recognized for his portrayal of Hugh “Hughie” Campbell in The Boys, along with his extensive voice work including Brad Boimler in Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Clark Kent / Superman in My Adventures with Superman, and Earth-65 Peter Parker / Lizard in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
His role in The Boys remains his most prominent, and as we closely follow the series here on Fiction Horizon, we recently came across an intriguing interview Quaid gave for The Daily Beast’s “The Last Laugh” podcast.
During the interview, several intriguing topics were covered. While we’ve previously highlighted Quaid’s response to being labeled a “nepo baby” due to his celebrity parents, he also delved into The Boys and reflected on the political themes of the current season, which have sparked significant controversy.
As mentioned, the interview in question was conducted for The Daily Beast’s “The Last Laugh” podcast, where Jack Quaid discussed various topics. Specifically, he was asked to share his thoughts on the political themes in The Boys. Here’s what he had to say:
How do you think about the politics of the show? It is essentially a satire of Trump’s America, but it does this thing where it really satirizes both sides, and I think can be claimed by either side. I know there are some people on the right who think the show is really just making fun of liberals, and vice versa. There’s obviously Homelander as a Trump-like figure and now we have Victoria Neuman, who is definitely modeled after AOC. And they’re both pretty evil!
You know, I always hesitate to be like, “No, this is the subtext,” because art is interpretive. I think the intent of it is leaning more towards the liberal side. At least, I’d like to think that, absolutely. I think that the true message of the show that [creator] Eric [Kripke] is trying to get across is that anyone who claims that they have all the answers, and that only they can help everyone and save everyone, is lying to you.
“I alone can fix it.”
Yeah, there happens to be a very orange man with hair that is the color of hay—whatever, I’m talking about Donald Trump, this metaphor is falling apart—but people like him come along and try to sell that to you. And anyone who’s trying to say that they’re the strongest is lying to you, and does not have your best interest at heart. And I think the real lesson of the show that Eric tries to get out there is that it’s really not about one person saving the world. It’s really about everyday people just doing little, almost boring things every day to make the world a better place. That’s how we save each other.
Yeah, it’s crazy how many one-to-one parallels there are to our reality. There’s a scene in the first episode of this new season where everyone’s waiting for the verdict in Homelander’s murder trial that felt so similar to what everyone just went through watching the Trump verdict.
It’s really, really weird. And I don’t love it, actually. It almost feels like a Simpsons thing where we’re predicting the future. And I don’t love it because it’s usually something horrible. Sometimes I’m like, oh shit, a new season’s coming out, what’s going to happen in the real world?
That’s why the final season is just going to be totally peaceful and everything gets fixed, right?
It better be. Please, please let that happen.
Source: The Daily Beast
As you can see, Quaid confirmed our expectations, expressing optimism that everything would resolve positively by the end of the show. What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments below!
Liked this article? Follow us on Facebook, Threads, and X to stay updated with the latest news.
