Erin Moriarty (Annie January aka Starlight) Courtesy of Prime
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke hasn’t changed his opinions on the trolls who attacked series star Erin Moriarty.
Moriarty, who plays Starlight on the Prime Video series, first spoke out in 2022 about feeling attacked by some of the fandom. In response, Kripke quickly came to her defense on social media, telling rolls that they were enacting the “opposite of the show’s f—king message” and “causing pain to real people with real feelings.” He added that those who “can’t be kind” should “eat a bag of dicks, f—k off to the sun and don’t watch The Boys. We don’t want you.”
While speaking to Variety in an interview published on Tuesday, June 18, Kripke maintained that his feelings on the subject haven’t changed — and explained why he felt the need to respond in the first place.
“First question, why I did it, is I’m really protective of my actors. They’re all really good people, and you start to feel like their dad in a way. And she was genuinely hurt, and really upset. I just felt like, ‘F—k them!’ I was genuinely angry,” he said, admitting that he didn’t put “a lot of careful thought” into the message at the time.
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Kripke noted that while in the moment, he was just “pissed that they were coming after one of my actors,” he was pleasantly surprised by the response to his tweet being “strangely positive.”
“I think there was just a lot of people that watched that stuff from afar and is just, like, ‘That’s bullshit,’” he explained. Kripke added that he knows people are allowed to like or dislike a “performance” or “show,” but the hate against Moriarty felt way too personal.
“When it starts to become these personal attacks on who they are, and when f—king Megyn Kelly wants to talk about it, it’s really not fair because they’re not in a position that they can fight back,” he said. “So yeah, all the trolls really can eat a bag of dicks and f—k off to the sun. I reiterate that comment.”
Moriarty first spoke out about the hate she’s received about her character in September 2022, reposting a fan article to Instagram titled “#IStandWithStarlight?: The Betrayal of Erin Moriarty by The Boys Fans” to her Instagram account. Written by Instagram user @butcherscanary, the piece pointed out the misogynistic hate both Moriarty and Starlight had been receiving online since The Boys premiered in 2019.
In the post’s caption, Moriarty shared that she felt “paralyzed” by the vitriol being spewed her way.
“I’ve put blood, sweat and tears into this role (over & over & over again), I’ve grown UP in this character’s shoes (*emphasis on grown up — we change & evolve mentally AND physically),” she wrote. “So with that I say: a) thank you to @butcherscanary b) this does break my heart — I’ve opened up a vein for this role and the misogynistic trolling is exactly what this role (Annie) would speak out against and c) everyone’s going through their own battle(s); let’s not add to that. I will never intentionally (and ESPECIALLY) publicly, add to yours.”
Chace Crawford and Erin Moriarty on The Boys Courtesy of Jan Thijs/Amazon
Tensions rose once again in January when Moriarity was the subject plastic surgery speculation after posting some Instagram photos that featured her weight loss and a full glam look. The criticism then took a larger spotlight when Moriarty was used as an example of alleged extreme plastic surgery on Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show later that month.
Kelly, 53, displayed what she called a “relatively recent” photo of Moriarty, and claimed the picture was taken within the last year, calling her “a nice, beautiful, natural gal.” She then showed a more recent snap that she claimed was shocking, alleging Moriarty now had “Kim Kardashian lips” and altered her nose and cheeks.
“Look, I’m not against plastic surgery,” Kelly said. “This is something else. This is like a mental disorder. This is extreme. When you start off incredibly beautiful and you end up like a plastic Barbie version of a Kardashian.”
Moriarty quickly took to Instagram to shut down the false allegations, claiming that Kelly had used an old photo of her that was taken “a decade ago” — seemingly at the 2016 premiere of Captain Fantastic. As far as the newer photo she had posted to her own account, Morarty explained that she simply felt “pretty” after getting her makeup done. She added that while she was expecting a certain degree of troll-like behavior, she never thought it would spiral out of control.
“We’re all subject to levels of bullying throughout our lives but I am horrified, and I felt that I deserved to take a second to address these things. I had no idea what was going on, to be honest, because I’ve had one of the most challenging weeks of my life,” Moriarty explained. “I specifically thought that as I emerge this period of time — so stressed that I BARELY been able to eat and sleep. “I thought ok, I’m going to emerge this 10 pounds thinner and the verbal abuse/accusations will be flying — usually either drug use or just a flippant ‘eat a burger’ comment. You learn to become Teflon and move on. I had NO idea what was going on this time.”
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Moriarty called Kelly’s comments “utterly misinformed, inaccurate” stating that she was “horrified” by the “reductive assumptions” and comments about her body. (She has since deactivated her Instagram account.)
“It’s broken my heart. You’ve broken my heart. You’ve lost the privilege of this account. … The way that this has been spoken about, the way that I have been spoken to, I will not accept,” she continued. “I have been in a hole and I’ve been consumed by this personal situation at hand,” Moriarty explained. “You never know what someone is going through, social media is a platform that is not representative of a whole person, and [sic] irregardless, there is no excuse for the words that have been spoken directly to me or about me. Shame on you, Megyn Kelly.”
New episodes of The Boys season 4 drop Thursdays on Prime Video.
