Chace Crawford
Amazon Prime Video

With his pin-up boy looks, Chace Crawford has been a heartthrob since he played Nate Archibald on ‘Gossip Girl’, so it’s a bit of a wonder why he hasn’t been tapped to portray a superhero until now.  On Amazon’s new series, ‘The Boys’, Crawford portrays The Deep, a horny take on Aquaman, that showrunner Eric Kripke describes as “the pretty-boy actor who wants serious roles, but no one gives him serious roles.”

Speaking to Digital Spy, Crawford said:

“I thought, this character is ridiculous! He’s like an idiot.  He is supposedly charismatic, but he puts on this confident front and he’s deeply insecure and [there’s] an element of self-loathing there too.  And he’s very insecure about being ‘the fish guy’ because of his lame power. It’s almost character-driven with my guy as well – there’s a little bit of action, but it’s a lot of what makes this guy tick, and why is he doing this deplorable thing?

 

“There’s a darkness there, and there’s a lot of comedy and also a lot of vulnerability. I wanted to bring vulnerability to this guy so you could see that fame can make you paranoid, it can make you weird.  And how does that affect someone who has grown up with a silver spoon their whole life? He’s actually really insecure and he doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere.

 

“And it is shocking. There is a shocking element there and, down the line, there are some funny moments – more light-hearted, silly, bizarre moments that I got to do, and I got to go big with, and do improv and really own the character.”

Get to know The Deep in these two short promo videos, released on ‘The Boys’ Twitter account:

Would Crawford be open to a role as a more traditional superhero, perhaps in a Marvel film?  He would, but there is a problem.

I would be open to it [playing other superheroes] – it’s so popular, but I think in our contract we can’t. We’re not really allowed to do anything if we’re still doing the show, but we’ll see in the future. I’d be open to it.”

‘The Boys’ premieres on Amazon Prime Video on July 26.