Valorie Curry has opened up about playing a right-winged superhero in The Boys.
Spoilers ahead.
Since 2019, TV viewers around the world have immersed themselves in the action-packed comedy, which streams on Prime Video.
Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book of the same name, the series focuses on a team of vigilantes who aim to take down the corrupt members of ‘The Seven’; the world’s supreme superhero team (think Justice League or The Avengers).
Back in August 2022, showrunner Eric Kripke announced that Curry – known for her previous roles in Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and The Tick –would be joining the fourth season of The Boys as a new Supe named Firecracker.
While he refrained from giving specifics about her character, he did tease that she was one of the “best and craziest superheroes ever written” for the show.
“You are going to love them. And by love, I mean be absolutely horrified & a tiny bit nauseous,” he wrote when discussing Firecracker and another new character, Sister Sage (Susan Heyward).
After nearly two years of waiting, fans were officially introduced to Firecracker when the first three episodes of the fourth season premiered on 13 June.
Like Kripke teased, the red-headed character is horrifying due to her being an alt-right superhero celebrity who uses her platform to spew outlandish conspiracy theories and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric.
In a recent interview with The Advocate, Curry spilt the tea on her role and why she enjoys stepping into Firecracker’s shoes as a lesbian actor.
“I love that I get to play her because I think it should be one of our own that gets to make an ass out of her, that gets to satirize her and make a clown out of her,” she explained to the news outlet.
“And also, to lampoon these people and their absurdity and their ignorance and their violence, I’m glad that it’s coming from within the community, getting to take those shots.”
Elsewhere in her interview, Curry praised the show’s writers for not holding back on Firecracker’s right-winged extremism and viewpoints – adding that the character’s dialogue is nearly identical to rhetoric spewed by real-life political figures.
“I was happy that the writers chose to go as far as they did with her rhetoric because that’s the rhetoric we actually see that is truth,” she said.
“Often, some of the worst things that Firecracker says are quotes from elected officials. And so I’m glad that they didn’t make it general, and they didn’t soften it.”
Curry’s recent interview came a few days after Kripke revealed to Variety that far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene heavily inspired Firecracker.
“Firecracker came from like, ‘Hey, isn’t Marjorie Taylor Greene scary?’ And just that type of personality,” he explained.
“Like you had Trump, but now you have these Trump spawn that are trying to outdo each other for how outrageous and sexualized and gun-totting and slavishly obedient they can be.”
The first three episodes of The Boys season four are now avaialble on Prime Video.
