In season five of The Boys, Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) is a supe pastor who’s both a romantic and political partner for Ashley (Colby Minifie) and an evangelist supporter of Homelander (Antony Starr), ready to spread the not-so-good word of this self-proclaimed deity to the masses.
Awards Buzz spoke with Diggs, who is celebrating his second career Emmy nomination for the music and lyrics to “Raise Him Up,” about the appeal of joining this show and playing this very specific – and religious – character:
“The Boys has always been great at having a pulse on the way that our current government and the vibe of American capitalism is completely insane. It’s always felt a little bit ahead of it, predictive in a way. When Kripke told me they were focusing a lot of this season on religion and on trying to make Homelander into a god, I just thought it was so smart and, again, so prescient. It’s not even prescient because the writing’s been on the walls, but they didn’t know that we were also going to get AI photos of Trump as ripped Jesus. They didn’t know that was going to happen the same year. They just have always managed to see the madness for what it is, and so, when he pitched the idea of this character to me, I also thought it was just interesting. It was an interesting challenge to try and figure out what mental gymnastics he would have to do as an actual Southern Baptist-raised preacher, to decide that this was the right thing for him to do, and I thought that was a great character to try and play with.”
Watch the video above to hear more about how he views Oh Father’s faith, that epic death scene, and reflections on his recent time on the film festival circuit.
All five seasons of The Boys are streaming on Prime Video.
