In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Antony Starr, who plays Homelander on ‘The Boys,’ talked about whether he encourages Homelander’s milk fetish:
“So my memory is it came up in the scripts — full credit to the writing team on this because it was so weird. It started with X-ray visioning my Oedipal mummy figure while she was breastfeeding, and me pining like that and having a jealous relationship with the baby. And then at the start of season two, I found some of her…”
The actor shared what he said their showrunner Eric Kripke about the milk scenes:
“Homelander found some of her breast milk in a freezer and lasers it, starts drinking it, gets caught. And it was so funny and weird and I think I sent Eric an email after that scene going, ‘Dude, we gotta get as much milk in this show as possible. This is gonna be like a little motif or a signature thing. Like, we have to do it.'”
Their Showrunner Agreed With Starr
Starr also revealed Kripke’s response to him:
“And he was like, ‘One step ahead of you, brother. I’m putting it in everything.’ And so now every opportunity we get, the milk thing comes out. We don’t have to do anything with it, either. If I just look at someone and sip milk, there’s a twist to it. It’s become a really fun thing. The fans have really glommed on to it. And enjoyed it.”
According to some interpretations, Homelander’s milk fetish comes from not having a mother figure. This mixes his need for maternal love with sexual desire. Raised in a Vought lab, his growth was stunted, leading to moral corruption.
This is seen in his behavior throughout ‘The Boys.’ He fixates on breast milk, especially after killing Madelyn. Fans thought he was addicted to her milk because of Compound V, but he’s obsessed with any milk. This is clear in Season 3 when he spirals after seeing Soldier Boy.
