Jack Quaid, who plays supe exterminator Hughie Campbell on Amazon's The Boys, reflected on what it was like to do multiple naked scenes in the show's third season because Campbell took Temporary V.
By taking the dangerous substance, Campbell's temporary superpowers allowed him to teleport at will. However, because he could only teleport organic matter, he would get into his birthday suit every time he used his powers. Quaid revealed why he went through with being in the nude in multiple The Boys episodes.
In an interview with DiscussingFilm, Quaid talked about how he enjoyed Hughie's newly found powers and revealed which Marvel superhero inspired him to do The Boys' nude scenes. "I also loved that the reason why he’s being tempted into this dark side is all because of Temp V, and I loved being able to actually play with a superpower," he said. "Granted, I had to get naked for a lot of it, but it’s a solid trade-off because Nightcrawler is one of my favorite X-Men, and I got naked for Nightcrawler powers!"
The difference between the two is that Nightcrawler does not lose his clothes when teleporting from one place to another, which makes Hughie's acquisition of the powers all the more clever as a satire. The much-tamer Marvel comics can't have Nightcrawler go naked from place to place. However, because The Boys is a brutally honest interpretation of superheroes, they could get away with Hughie getting naked from one place to another. Another added joke is that even when Hughie develops dangerous superpowers, the show still manages to make him look like a doofus.
However, despite the comedy of it all, it was clear that taking Temporary V proved problematic for Hughie. It made him more malicious, which almost cost him his relationship with Annie and prevented him from making amends with people who were sorry for wronging him, like Jessie T. Usher's A-Train. Hughie's rationale was that he wanted to save Annie and help Billy Butcher in their goal to expose Vought. However, over time it was more apparent that simply being more powerful motivated Hughie to keep taking the toxic drug that would kill him had he kept taking it.
Though Hughie stopped taking Temporary V, that doesn't necessarily mean he's out of the woods. Butcher has a terminal diagnosis because he took the drug a few more times than Hughie. However, Hughie still took the drug multiple times, which had its side effects independent of what it was doing to his personality. Hughie may be done taking it, but his physical body could potentially suffer more ill effects from using it, and even if it won't, Hughie might not be done with trying to acquire superpowers should the opportunity present itself again since Homelander knows The Boys are closer to getting rid of him.
The Boys seasons 1-3 can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
Source: DiscussingFilm