The Boys: Nick Wechsler Talks Herogasm and That Gruesome Blue Hawk Scene [Interview]

Please note this interview contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3 Episode 6, “Herogasm.”

The highly-anticipated “Herogasm” episode of The Boys held absolutely nothing back, and Nick Wechsler, who can be seen as Blue Hawk this season, says it was one of the most elaborate sets he’s ever been on.

I had the chance to chat with Wechsler about the filming of the sexually graphic episode and that gruesome scene with A-Train and Blue Hawk near the end.

“I feel blessed that I get to be even just a tiny part of it, because it’s a big deal to people who know [the comics],” Wechsler said of the “Herogasm” episode. 

During Herogasm, we see Wechsler as Blue Hawk, dressed in just underwear, boots, and his helmet. Wechsler said there was some discussion of him wearing a robe instead, which he had mixed feelings about. “For my ego, [the robe] was better. Part of me was relieved.”

“I didn’t want to have to, because I had gained some weight during the pandemic,” he said. “Not a big deal, but [I was] not looking forward to being shirtless in front of everybody in the entire world on probably my favorite job.”

“Even though my ego was like, ‘please can it be a robe?’ I thought, ‘it shouldn’t be, though. It’s so much funnier if it’s underwear,'” Wechsler said. “So when I went and it was the underwear, I was like, thank God. Underwear and boots? It’s so ridiculous — so amazingly ridiculous, that I couldn’t believe it. I’m so glad I got to do this. It’s so doofy. He’s such a dork, and he thinks he’s cooler than he is.”

Wechsler then went on to discuss what it was like filming Herogasm itself. 

“The lengths they go to just for stuff that happens in the background of a conversation I’m having with Starlight is mindblowing. It’s the most elaborate set I’ve ever been on, with the set decoration and everything — one of them anyway — and the most over the top. [There are] dildos suctioned to every surface, and just like coke everywhere, and naked people undulating in the background of a conversation where I’m being like, ‘Nope, that’s fake news!’ It’s so much work for the joke.”

“And the other thing is, on any other show, they would not actually have it happening in the background during your scene, because they’d just be like, we can spare them that trouble. But here they’re like, ‘No, it’s got to be happening!'” he laughed.

He added that he appreciated the show for “treating such bonkers bullshit so casually.” 

“They went through a lot of trouble to make this moment. And that’s not even to comment on all the horror that unfolds.”

Speaking of that horror, while Blue Hawk escapes quickly enough from the devastating explosion caused by Soldier Boy, that doesn’t mean things end well for him.

A-Train confronts him amidst the chaos, still angry about Blue Hawk’s lack of accountability and, worse, that he’s the reason his brother is now paralyzed.

A-Train throws him to the ground, then grabs him and drags him to death, leaving his body torn to shreds before collapsing himself. (Things don’t look great for A-Train at this point, either.)

Wechsler described what went into the filming of Blue Hawk’s death scene.

“I had a rehearsal with stunt people where it was a pad — several layers of folded mat — and they had me in a harness around my waist. Basically, my feet are up, and they have Jessie [Usher] on a treadmill, and he grabs onto one of my legs, and I’m suspended, but I don’t have anything holding my feet up. And I have my arms out in front of me and I’m bouncing around, and I start to get a headache.”

“I could have done it without… when the stunt guy showed me, he didn’t bounce his head around. But I thought, ‘Yeah… but if this is happening, his head should bounce around.’ So it’s not their fault. I just started doing it because I thought it would look better.”

What’s left of Blue Hawk after A-Train drags him is, of course, incredibly gruesome. Wechsler said that process started with him getting a life cast. 

“You have to go lay still while they slather you with plaster until it dries. Well, I think at first it’s silicone, and before that, it’s Vaseline.”

“I was in so much pain from laying still,” Wechsler continued. “I did not anticipate feeling that. I was like, I just have to lay there; it’s great. But laying on my stomach, because they cast my back first, with my arms up, and they gave me something to rest my head on — you just don’t think about it. But after a while, the pain is intense. So it seems like just a benign thing, but I did not anticipate that.”

From there, he said the crew “worked their magic” on the body, and he praised the gory details that went into it. 

“They had me go out to the scene where he dropped me — and they ended up not using me in it — but that’s when I saw the body. And I was like, ‘Oh my God. This is gory as f*ck!’ I was so proud of them.”

“[On] any show where they do gore really well or something, I never get grossed out because I know it’s fake. I just marvel at how… like I’m proud of [them] for being able to gross everyone out and that it was effective,” he said. “I was just marveling at their work.”

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