“I had to get naked for a lot of it, but it’s a solid trade-off”: Jack Quaid on exploring Hughie’s character in The Boys season 3

Actor Jack Quaid's performance in Amazon Prime Video's latest action series, The Boys, has yet again caught everyone's attention, with the apparent change in Quaid's character, Hughie Campbell, in season 3. In a recent interview with Discussing Film, the actor addressed the challenges he faced, among which was getting naked for the part.

"Granted, I had to get naked for a lot of it, but it's a solid trade-off because Nightcrawler is one of my favorite X-Men, and I got naked for Nightcrawler powers!," he said.

The Boys is an adaptation of a comic book series of the same name. It is centered around a group of vigilantes combatting superpowered individuals who abuse their abilities. In the series, Hughie Campbell joins The Boys after a careless superhero and his archenemy, A-train, kills his girlfriend, Robin.

Jack Quaid is the son of esteemed actors Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. He debuted in the year 2012 with The Hunger Games. He is known for films like Plus One, Scream, and Tragedy Girls. He has also lent his voice to exciting projects like Smallfoot, Batman: The Long Halloween, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. He will next be seen in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

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"He’s sick of feeling weak": Jack Quaid talks about the darker side of Hughie in The Boys season 3

In the interview, Jack Quaid opened up on the transition of his character Hughie Campbell in season 3 of The Boys. He spoke of how it was a welcome change for his character, who had always been the moral compass, in contrast to the other characters on the show.

Jack Quaid believes that allowing Hughie to make mistakes in the latest season makes him more relatable to the audience, increasing their likening to him. In season 3, instead of being a goody two shoes always, he is seen accepting negative temptations because of Temp V, a modified version of Compound V. This serum provides an ordinary person with superpowers for approximately 24 hours, as seen on the show.

He also mentioned the challenges behind accepting the change in his character's story arc, the toughest of which was getting naked. However, he believes that it was a solid trade-off.

For the uninitiated, Nightcrawler is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. He has the abilities of teleportation, enhanced agility, flexibility, night vision, a prehensile tail, ability to cling to surfaces and camouflage in shadows. Besides, he is also a commendable acrobat, fencer, and hand-to-hand combatant.

Speaking further about how the sudden affinity for negative power affected Hughie Campbell, Quaid said:

"Hughie hasn’t really had a lot of agency as a character, and he finally felt at the beginning of the season like he had some sort of power and that he could do it the right way...taking the temporary V gives him a jolt of that power. He’s sick of feeling weak. Ultimately, that’s his ego talking."

Jack Quaid further remarked that Hughie's transformative journey could also be seen as his struggle of dealing with toxic masculinity, defying the notion that many things that traditionally appear as "weaknesses," like vulnerability and willingness to change your mind, are one's strength.

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Developed by Eric Kripke, The Boys is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.