The Boys Boss on the ‘Herogasm’ Scene That Set Off Alarm Bells: Amazon ‘Has a Policy Against [Spoiler]’
Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3, Episode 6. Proceed at your own risk!
In addition to being “one of the more graphic hours of mainstream television,” as The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke called it, the Prime Video drama’s “Herogasm” episode also earned another distinct honor: It gave Amazon execs pause for the first time because of a certain moment involving two unlikely fornicators at the supes orgy. (Unrelated, but: Did you also catch the episode’s stealth cameo?)
“We had a lot of discussion this season about the scene with Deep and the octopus,” who are caught getting it on by Annie, Kripke tells TVLine.
“For some crazy reason, Standards has a policy against bestiality. They’re so uptight, really,” Kripke says with a laugh. “The discussion of that scene and how we pulled off that scene actually triggered a lot of alarm bells at a lot of different levels at Amazon because you’re not supposed to show people f–king animals, and I get it. But my pitch to them was always like it’s so absurd [that] it wouldn’t be out of place in a Farrelly brothers movie. So it’s hard to call it prurient bestiality. It’s ridiculous. To my knowledge, I don’t even think octopi have orifices down there. So there was a lot of discussion of like what are the shots, and what can we do and what can we get away with?” (According to Prime Video’s X-Ray trivia feature, the scene was actually filmed with a puppet, then replaced with CGI by the VFX team.)
“But that was really the first time it ever became conversations where they had to run it up the ladder,” Kripke continues. In fact, according to the showrunner, The Boys is partially responsible for the streaming giant even having a Standards & Practices department, which is more typical of a broadcast network.
“I still remember the call, which [was] like, ‘Can you guys come in? Because we have to start a Standards & Practices department,’ in part because of us,” Kripke shares. “It was [our] Season 1 and then I think there was like one other show that caused a problem for them. I’ll wear it as a badge of honor that I helped start their Standards department.”
While The Deep’s sexy times with his mollusk friend raised eyebrows, nothing was excluded from the episode due to it being deemed too risqué, Kripke insists. Instead, certain ideas had to be cut purely because of time and money.
“We just couldn’t pull off all the gags we wanted to pull off,” Kripke laments. “I remember at some point there was discussion about some kind of aquatic, Creature from the Black Lagoon-type supe in the pool, having sex underwater. That was discussed at one point, and I don’t think we could pull that off. We were going to make a running joke out of these massive firehoses of fluid that get sprayed. There was going to be a female one that was going to get sprayed all over Hughie and that was going to be a running joke. Then we just sort of ran out of time, and so it all kind of combined to the one on poor Mother’s Milk.”
Given the sexually graphic nature of the episode, Kripke also notes that “several” intimacy coordinators were on set during filming and every precaution was taken to make sure everyone felt protected.
“Honestly, I was f–king terrified that whole shoot because you have so many actors who are nude and simulating sex,” Kripke admits. “The chances of something going really wrong were so scary to me that everyone from top down in the production said, ‘We have to be so correct about this and so professional and be like cops in every aspect of it to make sure that it’s a safe space for everyone.’ So we did.”
Kripke credits the intimacy coordinators and the show’s “brilliant assistant director [who was] very on top of it” with “just really making sure that everyone was comfortable and we were doing it right.”
The Boys fans, what did you think of The Deep’s sexual exploits? Grade the episode below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!
they hyped it up so much about the herogasm orgy, but I’ve seen worse in other shows and movies. This was actually on the tamer side. Overall, the episode was great.
True. The episode was great fun with laughs and superb action what we have been waiting. I feel bad for those wussies who were too afraid to watch it cause “too much sex” believing the PR talk. I can only imagine how horrible their real lives are.
They’ve admitted it was deliberate to oversell that, because of everything else that happened. MM finally getting to confront Soldier Boy, Butcher and Homelander finally throwing down, Hughie and Starlight’s issues, Frenchie and Kimiko and Cherie escaping Little Nina. There was a lot going on in this episode.
I agree…there have been worse graphic sex scenes in other series/movies.
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I laughed so hard when MM opened that door…it gave new meaning to his name, Mother’s Milk🤣🤣🤣
It had nothing on Euphoria, for example. This was funny, but I didn’t find it particularly ribald.
The sex scene in Season 1 was much more graphic than this. What a letdown.
There have been so many articles on the sex stuff, which was the least interesting part of the show. How about something on the big fight, A-Train, Frenchie & Kimiko, or what happened at the end of the show? This is the stuff that will move the story forward.
OK just saw another article on this site on some of those storylines so thanks. If I could delete this I would.
The episode was brilliant. Loved the main storylines. I was indifferent to the herogasm scenes. I wouldnt even know it is suppose to be a big deal if I didn’t visit this site.
Thought it was a great episode in all aspects.
In relation to the comic it was way over-hyped, and not comic accurate but as a episode of the boys it was fantastic. But I think everyone knew Amazon would never let them go all the way like in the comics.
How come they can cuss on the show but we can’t dis-cuss it?
I haven’t watched it and likely won’t start now. Animals and children can not give consent. Basically it’s a raping an octopus scene. TV is such a pool of filth. Even Star Trek is full of F bombs.
It was a CG octopus. And his superpower is he talks to sea creatures, so in this one case, yeah, the octopus was a consenting player.
Someone needs to interview Chace Crawford and ask him if he had more fun simulating sex with an octopus on Boys or with Leighton Meister on Gossip Girl.
He can talk to aquatic life. He’s been shown to be dear friends with them. He probably DID get consent.
“uptight with bestiality” coming from the same man who said the coerced sex between Homelander and Soldier Boy in the comics is “hilarious”…
It makes it even funnier to know they almost got shot down because of a man and his puppet.
A whole roomful of naked people simulating sex and that’s fine. A puppet? Alarms 🚨 go off!
I actually felt bad for Annie, who was aghast at Deep’s lack of shame. And he humiliated her sexually in the first episode.
It was way overhyped, but like everyone else has already commented: It was a good episode nonetheless.
Also, “s******y humiliated”? I haven’t even had breakfast yet and I’m already weirded out by someone online.