[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Season 4 of The Boys.]
Listening toClaudia Doumittalk about Victoria Neuman, her character in thePrime VideoseriesThe Boys, you would feel sympathy for a mother who just wants the best for her child at a challenging time and who would do anything it took to keep her from being forced to grow up the same way she did. But from another perspective, she’s a shrewd and calculating villain who could blow anyone’s head up at any moment. Throughout Season 4, Victoria kept trying to maneuver herself into a position of more power, but when Homelander (Antony Starr) is involved, his help only lasts as long as it works in his favor.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Doumit discussed the wild journey she’s gone on with Victoria Neuman, getting to play onGen V, that butthole text, the decision she made to turn her own daughter into a supe, the ultimate cost of working with Homelander, the joy of working with a co-star like Starr, shooting her final scene of Season 4 and what made her cry, what could be in store for Zoe (Olivia Morandin) in Season 5, what she took home from the set, and looking forward to what could come next.
The Boys is a drama series that explores the darker aspects of superhero culture, portraying a world where superheroes abuse their powers rather than use them for good. Centered around a vigilante group aiming to control these corrupt heroes, the series delves into themes of power, corruption, and accountability. The show features a complex narrative with multifaceted characters, offering an unfiltered look at the consequences of unchecked power.
Collider: Jumping right in, when you get to a scene like the one with Victoria Neuman getting texted a photo of a butthole, how do you gauge what your reaction on camera will be?
CLAUDIA DOUMIT: It was very instantaneous. We shot a few wider takes of that scene, and I was just reacting to a blue screen on a phone. And then, we moved in for a closer shot. I had no idea that was about to happen, and I loved it. It’s the best and only unsolicited dick/anus pic that I ever wanna receive, which is a hilarious choice sentence to use in reference to seeing a random guy’s asshole on my screen. I love that Phil [Sgriccia], our director, did that. I’ve worked with Phil for so many years, and it was actually just hilarious, in the moment. I didn’t have to imagine a thing. But mostly, in that moment, I was honestly just trying my hardest to maintain my American accent whilst having a genuine reaction to seeing a random guy’s asshole on my phone. That’s the only thought that was going through my head. My first thought was, “Oh, Jesus fucking Christ, Phil.” And then, my second thought was, “American! American! American!” That was it.
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Your character really has gone on quite a journey in this show. How do you feel about her arc and the journey you got to take with her? What did you most enjoy getting to do, as an actor?
DOUMIT: It is a wild show to be on, I will say. There’s no doubt about it. But the thing I enjoyed most about Neuman,I always have a fun time finding a character’s physicality, so with Neuman, I watched a slew of videos with politicians in them, and I assessed their body language and their gestures, and attributed that to how Neuman moves or how she enters a space. That was very important. I also paired that with a lot of animal movement. That’s what I do for every one of my characters, so it’s always such a fun process, just finding out how the character moves. She moves vastly different to me. She’s very subtle and stoic and subdued and calm, and I’m none of those things. I’m very erratic and I gesture a lot with my hands. So, it was really fun getting to put on that character who’s just so in control and strategic. It was a joy. It was a joy whenever I got to put on her fierce lady pantsuit and her Louboutins, funnily enough.
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Once you had been familiar with her, was it fun to take her and place her intoGen V, where you know the character, but the environment is different?
DOUMIT: Yes, because the power dynamic is very different. InThe Boys, Neuman typically finds herself in a scene where it’s essentially a dick swinging contest that’s happening. They’re very threatening, formidable characters. Whereas inGen V, she’s come into the space and she knows how to navigate any of her masks very well. It was an interesting thing, to dive into her being more of a softer, caring figure. Neuman does that with Zoe, but in a very different way. So, that was fun. I got to go in, and because there’s no threat there, Neuman was just unhinged and all powerful, which is very reckless and fun. It was just enjoyable to play that.
How do you personally feel about the fact that she gave her own daughter Compound V? Do you understand her actions and her justifications for those actions? Can you sympathize with her, or do you judge her for doing that?
DOUMIT: The first rule of acting is, you don’t judge a character. I don’t judge any character because otherwise I can’t play them. I have such deep sympathy for Victorian Neuman. She’s such a conflicted character, and every character on this show is.Every character lives in this morally gray area.Nobody’s perfect, and they all make horrible decisions that really cost them. I always had sympathy for Neuman. I didn’t see her as a villain. I never really have. I saw her as someone who was surviving with the tools that she knew how to use. Those weren’t necessarily good tools, but it was what she knew. I think a lot of people tend to do that. She just happens to have the ability to explode heads, on top of that, and has had a traumatic childhood devoid of any love. So, I think she knew the decision that she made with Zoe would cost her, and cost her a part of her humanity. It was a very heartbreaking decision that she made for her daughter because she was ashamed of her own powers and had deep disgust of herself, when it came to her powers. There was such tragedy attached to it. It’s how she killed her parents, so I don’t think she saw powers in a positive light, in general. But she operated out of fear, in that moment, and it was the only way that she knew how to protect her daughter. It was the only way out that she saw in that moment, and she knew what she was doing to her daughter. She knew how bad it was, but what else was she gonna do?
I love that she can justify doing something like that, but then gets annoyed when somebody comments about her daughter’s braces.
DOUMIT: It’s a show of hypocrites. It’s hilarious because that’s very human, too. These characters who have these powers exhibit such human, flawed behavior, and that’s so interesting to watch. That’s such an interesting component of the show.
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No matter what you think about Victoria Neuman, Homelander outing her was not cool to do, really under any circumstances. What was it like to learn how that would come out?
DOUMIT: It’s so perfect for the show. It’s so perfect that Homelander did it, and that he did it in that way. He doesn’t even give a shit. He knows, and he doesn’t care. That’s just so brilliant. It means everything to her. It’s everything that she’s worked so hard to keep from the world and to hide. She’s worked her entire life to keep this secret, and in the span of 10 seconds, it’s all gone. She is just so hilariously tragic because she can’t do anything in that moment. She’s living in such utter shock and disbelief that she has no idea what to do after that. That’s the cost of working with Homelander.
Do you think that’s a moment where she realizes it’s over for her, or did she still think she could somehow pull it back together?
DOUMIT: I think in her mind, she was very much scrambling for the next move to make, but there were so few options. I do think that, in that moment, she was scrambling to figure out what to do next, or the damage control of how to fix it and how to proceed. There was no way out. It was a very interesting position to put someone in who relies on strategy and who has a very tight grasp on control because you just saw her squirm. Whenever I see Homelander in a particularly vulnerable moment, like when he’ll damn a whole plane of people to die, and then he’ll have a very vulnerable moment in the mirror with seven versions of himself, you see that human component in him and you sympathize for him.
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What has it been like to play that dynamic and to work with Antony Starr for these seasons?
DOUMIT: I love working with Antony. Every single scene that I get to work with Antony is an absolute gift because he’s just so much fun to play with. The operative word there is play.You always get to play with Ant in a scene because you never know what he’s gonna give youor where it’s gonna go, and he’ll give you something different, every take. You don’t have to work at all because you’re just focusing on being present with him in the scene. It’s actually so much fun. I always looked forward to those days, even though he’s absolutely terrifying. He’s such a joy to work with. Those are some of my favorite days on set.
In your last scene in the series, we see what Compound V has done to Butcher and what that then means for Victoria Neuman. What was that like to learn about? What was your reaction to learning what her end would be?
DOUMIT: It’s really because I’ve been waiting for Victoria Neuman to die ever since Season 2. Every season, I thought she was going to die. To actually hear it, I felt a relief. That’s such an odd thing to say, butsince I joined the show, I was so sure that she would die. I was like, “Okay, this is the episode. No, this is the episode. Okay, for sure, this is the episode.” Oddly enough, it feels as though I’ve mentally been prepping for it for three seasons, so that when it actually happened, I was already very much at peace with it. It was really funny because about halfway through the season, (showrunner) Eric [Kripke] set up a call with me. I was like, “Eric never sets up a call with me. If a call gets set up with Eric, it’s because I have a question about a scene coming up.” So, when someone reached out to me and said, “Hey, would you be free to have a call with Eric in the next hour?,” I was like, “In the next hour?! I’m dying.” It was just an “Aha” moment. He got on the phone with me, and I went, “This is the call.” And he said, “This is the call.” It was so funny. It was a very heartwarming breakup.
I personally feel like it was time for Neuman to die. You only have one season left of the show and there are so many stories that they have to still get into and so many characters that you have to wrap up in the span of eight episodes, so they have to move forward with the story. I’ve loved playing Victoria Neuman. I grieved her for a while before the moment actually came, which was very freeing. I did have this cute little moment, after the whole last day when we were shooting that scene. I was in such a good mood. I was just running around giving everyone their wrap gifts. I was bopping around set, just on cloud nine. I was just having such a great time with everyone. And then, when they called “Cut!” and it was a series wrap, I gave everyone a hug and I went back to my trailer, and there was a moment where I was sitting in my trailer, coated in blood and I just began to cry. I felt everything in that moment. I truly realized that I’d never get to put on another one of her pantsuits, and I’d never get to wear seven-inch heels and enter into a room and pop some heads. It was this funny little moment where I cried for that, and that was it.
Was she always going get torn in half and thrown into a puddle of her own guts on the floor?
DOUMIT: That’s an Eric Kripke question. I have no idea. It’s such a funny thing to say, but it was really easy to do. All I had to do was be attached to wires. The stunt team pulled me up, and I was tied up, midair, just wriggling around in rope. That’s the extent of the work that I did for that. It was all stunts. None of it was me. It was all stunts and effects. All I had to do was wriggle around midair for about 30 seconds, which is very underwhelming, and then just lie on the floor dead with my eyes looking up.
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Is it weird to actually see what it all looks like, after you do it?
DOUMIT: Yes. With any scene that requires VFX on the show, you read the script and you know what it’s gonna be, and then you do the scene and you think you know what it’s gonna be. But it’s not until you see it on screen that you know what it’s actually going to be. It’s always such a delightful surprise because you feel like you’re experiencing it for the first time with the rest of the world, which is such an amazing part of the job. I’m also someone that does not like to view my work, but those moments take me out of my head because I get to appreciate every other component of the show.
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After everything that she’s been through and everything that she’s done, how would she feel about her daughter ending up at the Red River Group Home? What would you like to see happen with Zoe in the future?
DOUMIT: That’s the biggest gut punch because it is the opposite of what Victoria Neuman wants for her daughter. She has always wanted her to be safe and secure, and she’s never wanted her to have the childhood that she did. Sadly, that’s exactly where she’s ended up, so it’s truly brutal. I think that Zoe is gonna end up in a good place though. I don’t know. Oh, God! Is she? I feel like Hughie would have her back. I feel as though Hughie would have an eye out for her, and if not Hughie, then Stan Edgar. I think she’s got some people in her corner. It’s just so unfortunate because the situation that Zoe is in, she has had nothing to do with it. It’s the wrongs of her mother that have led her to this place, which is just such a sad ending for her, isn’t it? I think we definitely will see her next season (in Season 5). I would anticipate that she would be a sad kid at Red River.There are endless possibilities where Zoe could end up, but where she’s at right now is pretty tragic.I hope it turns around for her. Eric, please have a good ending for Zoe. I’m so excited to see what they do with Season 5. I’ll be an audience member this season.
Did you take anything of hers with you?
DOUMIT: I took one of the suits, which is really funny because I don’t wear a pantsuit in real life. I never wear a pantsuit.
How do you figure out the next thing after this? When you do something likeThe Boysand you play a character like Victoria Neuman, does that change what you want to look for next?
DOUMIT: That’s an interesting question. Would I avoid being covered in blood and having exploding body parts in front of me? No. Whatever role is brilliant, I don’t think the backdrop matters.I’ve so enjoyed working in the world ofThe Boysthat I would be delighted to be shot in the face with a cannon full of fake blood on a set in the future. There’s no part of me that wants to get away from that now. As long as the script is fantastic and the characters good and juicy, bring it on. And I’d love a comedy, I’ll say that.
The Boysis available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the Season 4 trailer:
