{"id":412125,"date":"2026-04-22T17:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412125\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:56:10","slug":"erin-moriarty-on-graves-challenges-and-heartbreaking-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412125\/","title":{"rendered":"Erin Moriarty on Graves’ Challenges and Heartbreaking Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains spoilers from The Boys<\/a> season five, episode four, \u201cKing of Hell.\u201d]<\/p>\n

\n\tErin Moriarty<\/a> can\u2019t bring herself to watch The Boys\u2019 final season. Of course, she loves the show and her signature role of Annie \u201cStarlight\u201d January, but she isn\u2019t ready to revisit such a debilitating time in her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June of 2025, Moriarty went public<\/a> with her then-recent Graves\u2019 disease diagnosis. At that point, she was six months into filming The Boys season five, and her doctor\u2019s conclusion immediately explained why she hadn\u2019t been feeling like herself throughout production. Her various symptoms, including chronic fatigue and nausea, soon fell by the wayside thanks to immediate treatment<\/a>, and she finally felt human again in time for the series finale.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt did lead to me not being as present for Annie during this final season as I would\u2019ve hoped, and that was super painful for me. I thought, Oh my God, I\u2019m failing Annie and I\u2019m failing our audience,\u201d Moriarty tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cIt was like I was offline for the first six to seven episodes, and then I came back online. I finally felt present at the very end of season five.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMoriarty is also offering her thoughts on season five\u2019s fourth episode, \u201cKing of Hell.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRattled by Hughie\u2019s (Jack Quaid) latest brush with death, Annie decides to leave her boyfriend and allies behind to track down her estranged father, Rick (Tim Daly). Annie\u2019s mother, Donna (Ann Cusack), originally claimed that Rick walked out on them due to shoddy investments. But in the season one finale, Annie exposed that lie after confronting her mother about her superpowers being created in a lab, not by God, as she had led her to believe. Donna still didn\u2019t come completely clean, insisting that Rick left after regretting their decision to inject Annie with the superhero serum known as Compound V. Annie then speculated at the time that her father probably didn\u2019t want to lie about the nature of her powers.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnie\u2019s theory proved to be correct when Rick confirms that Donna\u2019s pious fraud caused him to leave. He also reveals that he proudly tracked Annie\/Starlight\u2019s accomplishments from afar and urged her not to turn her back on the people she loves like he did.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe really galvanizes her and catalyzes her to find herself and her heroism for the remainder of the season. If she had previously gone to her father for this information, it would\u2019ve fueled further resentment toward her mother,\u201d Moriarty tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cThat would\u2019ve negated her ability to move forward in her story. But right now, she\u2019s like, \u2018You know what? Mom did the best she could.\u2019 It\u2019s a testament to Annie\u2019s emotional maturation at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the upcoming May 20 series finale of showrunner Eric Kripke<\/a>\u2019s superhero satire, Moriarty believes it will leave the audience both satisfied and heartbroken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a heartbreaking episode. It\u2019s not overtly cynical. When I read the finale as a script, it was my favorite episode this season, as it should be,\u201d Moriarty shares. \u201cI think the audience is going to be so immensely satisfied by the finale. I never like to give a resolute prediction like that, and I never have, but I\u2019m saying it now because I have so much excitement and confidence in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a conversation with THR, Moriarty also discusses Annie\u2019s new bad habit she recommended in between seasons, before revisiting the show\u2019s collective anxiety surrounding season four\u2019s finale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tYou probably shed most of your tears during production, but now that we\u2019re halfway through The Boys\u2019 final season, what are your emotions at the moment?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s very bittersweet. I sound like a broken record, because that\u2019s the term we all keep coming back to, but there aren\u2019t words to suffice this moment in time. The mourning and goodbye to my character happened when season five wrapped. But now that the world is watching our final season, I\u2019m experiencing a very, very sharp sense of extreme gratitude. Sincere gratitude gets me emotional, it all still feels so surreal to me. I still feel like it was yesterday that I was auditioning for the role.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen we were filming season five, I was very much in a pre-mourning phase about the show coming to an end. It was such an emotionally pregnant period of time that I tried to balance my feeling of pre-mourning with a level of presence that hadn\u2019t existed in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAnnie January aka Starlight (Erin Moriarty) in The Boys season five.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJasper Savage\/Amazon Prime Video<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnie is battle weary this season. She even has a vaping habit now. She was worried about what Hughie might think of her actions during their year apart. How much detail did [showrunner] Eric Kripke offer you about that missing time period between seasons four and five?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m very fortunate that Eric Kripke gave me a lot. Between seasons, we would always sit down and discuss what has transpired. It was really important because no season has started right after the previous season concluded. A significant amount of time passed between seasons, so meeting with Eric became a really integral part of my preparation process each season.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cool thing about Eric is that he informs us circumstantially about what has happened, but he also allows collaboration at that point. I said to him, \u201cI want Annnie to pick up a nervous habit that allows her to have micro-escapist moments as scenes are transpiring.\u201d She\u2019s still metabolizing the trauma that has happened in earlier seasons, but what has happened in between seasons four and five has been the hardest for her to swallow. There have been so many casualties as a result of this Starlighter Movement that she\u2019s at the head of, and she\u2019s at her most stressful breaking point.<\/p>\n

\n\tI even deem her as being suicidal. She sees that the only redemptive way for her to become a hero is to sacrifice herself in honor of the casualties that resulted from the Starlighter Movement. So I wanted there to be this new flavor of Annie, and I wanted her to pick up a mannerism that reflected the stress of what she\u2019s going through right now. I\u2019ve always tried to make sure that Annie, although she\u2019s a superhero, remains human forward. And those moments of stress represented through vaping and other things felt very human to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI watched your interview with David Dastmalchian<\/a>, and it sounds like you were going through a lot during the final season, health-wise. I don\u2019t mean to trivialize Graves\u2019 disease, but did it end up serving the character\u2019s weariness at all?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI wish I could say that it did. I\u2019ve been open about this, and I will continue to be open about this. I\u2019ve got no hesitation around it. It\u2019s important for me to be vocal about autoimmune diseases. I was starting to feel so ill, and even though I come from a family of doctors, no one thought to say, \u201cGo get your levels tested.\u201d So it did lead to me not being as present for Annie during this final season as I would\u2019ve hoped, and that was super painful for me. It was like I was offline for the first six to seven episodes, and then I came back online. I finally felt present at the very end of season five.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wish I could have used it to enhance or to relate to her weariness, but to be honest, I was on set every day just really, really, really struggling to get through it all. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a really supportive cast and crew, but it was really scary at times. For example, I\u2019ve watched every season of The Boys. I love this show so much. But I\u2019m not watching the final season simply because it\u2019s really important for me at this moment in time to put my psychological health above all other things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI wasn\u2019t able to transcend the physical and mental toll that this disease took on me until episode seven. It\u2019s a testament to how profoundly impactful these autoimmune diseases can be, and I don\u2019t think that people are aware to the degree that they can be. So I wish I was able to say it served the character, but unfortunately, it was a matter of getting through every day. The psychological toll that it took on me, I\u2019ll be able to use it in the future, but I couldn\u2019t while it was going on simultaneously. Sadly not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThank you for your candor. Hughie\u2019s (Jack Quaid) near-death in the third episode traumatized Annie to the point where she finally tracks down her estranged father (Tim Dalys\u2019 Rick) after all these years. Her mom (Ann Cusack\u2019s Donna) originally told her that her father left them over bad investments, but then she later divulged that he regretted their decision to inject Annie with Compound V. He then clarified in the fourth episode that he actually left in protest of her mom\u2019s dogma that Annie was a Chosen One. How do you think this revelation affects her relationship with her mom, if at all?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s an interesting question. Annie\u2019s relationship with her mother is very much one that many people can relate to. Every parent is a flawed parent. But at this point in time, Annie is able to look at things with nuance. She\u2019s had an immense amount of distance from Donna, and I think she\u2019s reached an emotionally mature enough point where it\u2019s not going to fuel more resentment toward her. This episode was really about her relationship with her father. It was about what she needed from her father and not about feeling more resentment toward her mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnie\u2019s dad gave her exactly what she needed in this episode to keep going without it fueling more toxicity with her mother. He really galvanizes her and catalyzes her to find herself and her heroism for the remainder of the season. There\u2019s this kismet alignment with these characters at this moment in time. If she had previously gone to her father for this information, it would\u2019ve fueled further resentment toward her mother, and that would\u2019ve eaten away at her and negated her ability to move forward in her story. She would\u2019ve confronted her mother about how she lied to her. But right now, she\u2019s like, \u201cYou know what? Mom did the best she could. \u201d It\u2019s a testament to Anne\u2019s emotional maturation at this point.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series finale is still under lock and key. Have you let yourself wonder how the audience might receive it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI have because I\u2019m excited for the audience to see the finale. When I read the finale script, it was my favorite episode this season, as it should be. Our showrunner and our writers are so cognizant of the fact that the finale is such an integral part of this entire story. They have worked so relentlessly hard to ultimately honor what they believe our audience will want. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve all been working for, and that\u2019s why we were able to end the show with integrity. I really believe the writers did that. I\u2019m just excited for fans to see it. I think the audience is going to be so immensely satisfied by the finale. I never like to give a resolute prediction like that, and I never have, but I\u2019m saying it now because I have so much excitement and confidence in it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it shocking in The Boys\u2019 patented fashion?<\/p>\n

\n\tShocking? Yes, but by the time that episode eight airs, so many shocking moments will have happened that I think it will be more satisfying and heartbreaking. Heartbreaking would be the word that I would use. At that point, the audience will have been heartbroken by many characters that are lost along the way. Our showrunner has said that will happen, so it\u2019s not a spoiler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a heartbreaking episode. It\u2019s not overtly cynical. But it\u2019s still an episode that really drives home the finality of the show and the characters that we\u2019ve all become emotionally invested in, whether they\u2019re good or bad. The point of the show is that these characters are nuanced. They aren\u2019t black and white. So the losses of characters that you thought you weren\u2019t rooting for can all of a sudden be emotional because no one is all bad and no one is all good on this show.<\/p>\n

\n\tHave actors from the more conventional superhero projects ever expressed to you in private how they wish their show or movie could do the risqu\u00e9 things that The Boys does every episode?<\/p>\n

\n\tThey have. (Laughs.) They\u2019ve also come up to me and said that they want the catharsis that us Boys actors are lucky to be a part of when it comes to taking on topical issues. There\u2019s so much, pardon my language, shit going on in the world, and whether it\u2019s social or political commentary, I know that a lot of us have benefited from the cathartic element of being a part of a show that doesn\u2019t ignore those things. So other actors will primarily come up to me and say, \u201cI wish I was on a show that wasn\u2019t just specifically catered toward the genre, but also deals with the things that we\u2019re all observing and feeling uneasy about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes, the show responds to events that have already happened, and other times, it foretells what is about to happen. Is there an example of real-world relevance that stands out above the rest?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, there was something in the season four finale that eerily paralleled the real world and was very much connected to myself. I played two characters in that episode: Annie and a shapeshifter. And my shapeshifter character attempts to assassinate the President-elect [Jim Beaver\u2019s Robert Singer]. The episode title was originally called \u201cAssassination Run,\u201d but we had to rename the episode because it was set to air five days after the [July 13, 2024] assassination attempt against Trump. We shot the episode a year before it was released [on July 18, 2024].<\/p>\n

\n\tWe contemplated not airing that episode for my own safety. We didn\u2019t know if I would get death threats. I had to do media training for that episode. But that eerie alignment and close proximity of time was insane. Of course, no one could have predicted that. I remember sitting at my friend\u2019s house and being a little bit scared in anticipation of the episode airing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat being said, Amazon and my showrunner were so respectful. We all got on the phone to speak about it, and I was all for the episode airing. But in terms of paralleling the outside world, I never could have imagined something more eerily aligned than that.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnie\u2019s overall arc is still unfolding, but how would you summarize your own arc from when you first stepped onto the set of the pilot? Have you been able to wrap your head around your entire experience in that way yet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst and foremost, I\u2019m just so grateful. That is the predominating feeling. I know I\u2019ve grown and evolved with this show. I\u2019ve learned so much, personally and professionally, that I\u2019ll take with me forever. But it\u2019s going to take a few years to truly absorb the entire experience in my mind and figure out how much the show has affected me and how much I\u2019ve grown from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s this very meta element to Starlight. When she joined the Seven, people on the street suddenly called out her name. Simultaneously, I was starting to be known as Starlight too. A lot of what Annie has gone through has weirdly paralleled my own life. This character is known for her purity, and as I\u2019ve gotten older and grown with the character, people have also expected me to retain that initial pure element to Annie. So we have both matured over time.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve learned a lot from how she\u2019s constantly questioning whether or not she\u2019s doing good. I\u2019ve learned that as long as you\u2019re questioning yourself and trying to do good, it means you\u2019re a good person. As a Type A or Type A-minus person, I would constantly question whether I was doing enough for this character and the audience. When I got sick during the final season, I thought, Oh my God, I\u2019m failing Annie and I\u2019m failing our audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo playing Annie as she\u2019s questioning whether or not she\u2019s doing good is a testament to the fact that she is doing good, and it was healing for me and my own questions. If I was able to say that Annie is good merely by trying to do good in every situation that she enters, then that meant that I\u2019d done my best by constantly trying to do my best for the character and the audience. So I no longer question whether I\u2019ve done right by Annie and the audience, and that\u2019s been my ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
The Boys season five is currently streaming new episodes every Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n