Nick Wechsler Discusses His Portrayal of Blue Hawk in ‘The Boys’ Season 3 [Interview]

Please note this interview contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3 Episode 5.

Playing the role of Blue Hawk on The Boys is the kind of thing Nick Wechsler says he’s always wanted to do. Not only is the character part of a topical storyline on a series he was already a fan of, but it also gave Wechsler the chance to do something completely different.

I recently spoke with Wechsler to discuss his portrayal of Blue Hawk, the poignancy of the police brutality storyline, and filming that violent community center scene on The Boys Season 3 Episode 5.

On that episode, the audience gets the chance to see just what kind of Supe Blue Hawk really is. After giving a disingenuous public apology for over-policing Black neighborhoods, Blue Hawk loses his temper when he’s called out for his racism, screaming “All lives matter” and “Supe lives matter” and then becoming so violent that several civilians are hurt — including A-Train’s brother, Nathan.

“All of these characters represent not only characters that are not only analogous to other superheroes — Termite / Ant-Man, stuff like that, but they represent some angle on corruption,” Wechsler said. “He’s repping police brutality, certainly. And it’s interesting that I almost feel like the easier thing to do, the more predictable thing, would have been to have him be overtly racist.”

Blue Hawk isn’t quite as obvious in that way, though.

“[It’s] another credit to the writing. He doesn’t seem to know he’s racist, you know? It’s just — it’s in the stats of who he attacks and who he metes out a little extra justice to. But he doesn’t seem to believe that he’s doing that. And I like that restraint. I like not giving him that dialogue because that’s the way this operates,” Wechsler said. “That’s smart that [the writers] resisted the temptation to just give him a moment where he admits he’s racist.” 

“There are overt racists, but then there are the people they infect, and we don’t know which one this guy is. But I love that we don’t know because of the way they wrote it. It’s great.”

Wechsler also made it clear he’s nothing like Blue Hawk when it comes to those values, which did make saying some of those lines feel a little uncomfortable for him. “It feels f*ckin’ weird, as a white guy who’s anti-racist, to say to a room full of Black people the things that he’s saying. Thankfully he wasn’t worse. He wasn’t being overt. He was just ignorant of his own racism, at least according to what he was saying.”

While most of Wechsler’s more recent roles have been what you’d consider “good guys,” Wechsler has plenty of experience playing a villain. Just not quite like this one. 

“My career, pretty much exclusively prior to getting Revenge was playing bad guys,” Wechsler noted.

“I’m no stranger to playing bad guys, but I’ve certainly never been a part of something that’s this sharply topical. I’ve never been a part of a superhero thing, which is cool, and something that I was already a fan of,” he said.

“So all that stuff is different, but also, [it’s] just a totally different type of character. I’ve always played people who just talk like me or whatever, even if they believe different stuff. But this guy — I don’t know how much of it comes out in the edit — but he’s from Jersey, he’s a local Jersey Supe, so there’s an accent.”

“It was like getting to do, what to me, felt like comedy, even though it’s got a ton of drama,” he continued.

In an earlier interview with Wechsler where he first spoke to me a little about this character, he alluded to the fact that he had some similarities with Blue Hawk — at least when it comes to his humor. But he explained that a little further in relation to his character on Revenge.

“I would argue that people who know me really well, that this character, Blue Hawk, is more like me than Jack Porter was. Jack Porter, his day-to-day come across is more like mine, because he’s just a nice genuine guy. But there’s a whole side of me, which is like — my sense of humor is dark and uncomfortable — that you just never got to see with Jack or any other characters. That is one of the biggest parts of my personality.”

“I loved Jack, and I loved being on that show, but this is still probably my favorite character I’ve played,” Wechsler continued. “It’s the kind of thing I’ve always wanted to do.”

Of course, I also had to ask Wechsler about filming that violent community center scene on The Boys Season 3 Episode 5. 

“The stunt people are amazing. Stunt people, in general, are amazing and unsung,” Wechsler said.

He then went on to describe the many rehearsals and planning that took place for such a scene. He described stunt doubles wearing similar costumes to the characters “for the sake of shot on an iPhone mock-up of what the thing is gonna look like.” Wechsler remembered being shown an example of this before beginning his own rehearsals.

“So I was already impressed,” he recalled. “I rehearsed with them a lot. They’re great, and patient, and fun, and funny.”

“We get to set and it’s harnesses and all this stuff,” he continued. “Then I have to get in the face of some person and chuck ’em.”

“They planted stunt people in the audience. It’s crazy. I throw the guy to my right against the wall, and I’m like, how does this not actually kill the guy?!” Wechsler laughed. “He’s on a line that zips him into the wall, and he hits it hard. He falls and breaks a table, and he cracks the wall and stuff. It’s mind-blowing what they did.”

“And it’s great because it’s all just telling the story of this guy and police brutality,” Wechsler said. “You lose control of your anger, fly off the handle, and punish someone for a personal vendetta of like, ‘Hey I said listen to me,’ or ‘I said to shut up,’ or I said to comply somehow, and then they don’t do it. And it’s like, well now I want to punish you.”

“It happens all the time, and he knows he’s going to be in trouble with his boss because it makes the Supes look bad, but he also knows he’s going to get away with it.”

—

New episodes of The Boys stream Fridays on Prime Video.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Nick Wechsler on Joining the Cast of ‘The Boys’ for Season 3 [Interview]