Spoiler alert: The following story contains frank discussion of “The Boys” Season 4 Episodes 1-3.
The first three episodes of “The Boys” Season 4, which dropped Thursday, feature a pair of A-list surprise cameos — and according to showrunner Eric Kripke, one of them led to an unscripted (and ultimately unaired) make-out scene.
That’s right, Will Ferrell, playing an actor in a parody movie with A0Train, made out with “The Boys” recurring guest star P.J. Byrne in his scene, but the footage didn’t make the final cut.
“As you can imagine, both of those guys are world-class improvisers. We have so much film of them riffing and trying different things,” Kripke said of the two, who appear in Episode 2 of “The Boys’” fourth season, titled “Life Among the Septics.” “At one point, they make out. There’s just so much material there, that we couldn’t use it all as much as I wanted to. But, hopefully in the special features or deleted scenes, because they have a lot of really good s—t.”
Ferrell makes his debut in the “The Boys” universe as an, who’s working on a movie starring Vought’s speedy Supe, A-Train/Reggie Franklin (Jesse T. Usher). In the fictional movie, Ferrell plays a sports coach named Coach Brink (a nod to GodU professor Richard “Brink” Brinkerhoff), who is determined to turn A-Train’s character away from a gang-banging lifestyle and bring him “to the suburbs” with him. The entire scene is throwing a jab at Hollywood’s history of white savior tropes like “The Blind Side.”
Suddenly, Byrne’s character Adam Bourke (who’s directing the film) yells cut and he begins applauding Ferrell’s performance.
“Holy f—k, we’re not going to beat that. That was f–king perfect!” Byrne’s character says. “Literal tears. Who’s happy they spent two weekends at the Compton Youth Center now, huh?
“I’m not giving off too much of a ‘Blind Side’ vibe am I?’” Ferrell asks.
“As if that’s a bad thing. Wait, what is that smell? Everyone stop! What is that smell?! Is it, is that you?” Byrne asks Ferrell.
“I had falafel for lunch,” Ferrell responds. “What?”
“I smell an Oscar nomination,” Byrne says.
“Shut up, man,” Ferrell exclaims.
“No, I won’t,” Byrne says.
Kripke, who spoke to TheWrap virtually, said the actors’ smooch fest happened as they were improvising back and forth.
“It was just him psyching him up that he’s going to be an Oscar winner, and at one point, he’s like, ‘You’re just the best, so talented,’” Kripke said. “And then they look at each other and then they just start making out. They didn’t plan it ahead of time, they just both felt it in the moment and went for it. When you have two truly unbelievable improvisers, that’s the kind of stuff you get.”
The showrunner and executive producer said the idea to have Ferrell appear in “The Boys” came about when he was in talks to pen a project for Ferrell and his team.
“I was talking to Will and his producing partner around that time, potentially writing a screenplay for them. So we had a meeting, and we were emailing,” Kripke said. “I emailed him and said, ‘You want to come up to Toronto for 30 hours and bang this thing out?’ And he did, and it was miserable shooting conditions. It was like, sideways freezing rain. I felt so bad that we dragged him out there and he’s outside freezing his ass off, but he could not have been kinder or more gracious and [he’s] such a nice dude. I always find that the biggest stars are always the kindest people.”
“The Boys” flew back onto Amazon’s Prime Video screens for Season 4 on Thursday with a three-episode premiere. The remainder of the eight-episode season drops every Thursday.
