It’s that time again. We have yet another great interview in store for you. Today it’s with actor Josh Zaharia who plays young Butcher in the hit Amazon Prime series The Boys. Josh recently sat down with YEM to speak to us about The Boys, his acting career, and a little about himself. Stick around to read the article and watch the full-length interview below. But first, let’s kick things off by giving some background information on The Boys, including Josh’s character, young Butcher. Then we will relay more information about the uber-talented Josh Zaharia.
The Boys is a superhero black comedy-drama television series that explores the consequences of superheroes, known as Supes, who abuse their superpowers for ennoble reasons rather than using them for good.
The Boys takes place in a world where people with superpowers are viewed as heroic champions by the public. The Supes are employed by a prominent company. called Vought International, that markets and profits off of them. When they are not acting as superheroes, the Supes are corrupt, haughty, and arrogant individuals in real life. The Seven, the top superhero team in Vought, and the Boys, a squad of vigilantes out to overthrow Vought and its corrupt superheroes, are the two main subjects of the story.
Billy Butcher, the leader of the Boys, who hates all Supes, is in charge, and Homelander, who is both pompous and unstable, is the leader of the Seven. Hughie Campbell joins the Boys at the beginning of the series after a superhero mistakenly kills his lover. At the same time, Annie January joins the Seven after being driven to confront the truth about the heroes she looks up to. The avid drug abuser A-Train, the apprehensive Deep, the enigmatic Black Noir, and the rabid racist Stormfront are the other members that make up the Seven. Mother’s “MM” Milk, Frenchie, a weapons expert, and Kimiko, a test subject with superpowers, complete The Boy’s members. Vought executive Madelyn Stillwell oversees the Seven, as does their publicist Ashley Barrett. Other superpowered individuals include Soldier Boy, the company’s first leading superhero, and Victoria Neuman, a congressman who openly criticizes Vought while covertly working for it.
The Eric Kripke-created show is based on the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic book series of the same name published by Dynamite Entertainment.
While actor Karl Urban plays the protagonist Billy Butcher in The Boys, actor Josh Zaharia plays the younger version of the character. In real life, Josh Zaharia is light years away from his steely character. Of Peruvian descent, Josh was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, on April 20, 2016. From an early age, Josh has been involved in nearly every aspect of entertainment, such as singing and acting. Josh is also a professionally trained and avid boxer in his spare time. Besides The Boys series, Josh has many other acting credits to his name, including the Superman and Louis series (2022), The Legend of La Llorona film (2022), Under Wraps film (2021), and Team Zenko Go animated series (2022). Josh also plays the character of Leo in the series Ghostwriter on AppleTV+. Ghostwriter tells the tale of four kids who work together to unravel an intriguing mystery regarding a ghost’s unfinished business as he haunts a local bookstore and begins releasing fictitious characters into the real world.
We started by asking Josh what it was like working on two superhero dramas back-to-back: The Boys and Superman and Lois. Josh told us it was awesome as he is such a big superhero fan. He added that it was a dream come true, and the experience has left him feeling both humble and grateful. We next asked Josh what the most challenging part of acting was for him. Josh explained that it was all about immersing himself in each character. He added that certain acting roles call for a specific set of skills to be learned and used. We also asked Josh if he had a favorite episode from his show Ghostwriter and, if so, what it was. Josh replied that an episode called Ralph the Mouse is his favorite due to the visual effects and hilarious and unique storyline. We also ask Josh more about The Boys and his other upcoming projects in the interview, which you can only find out if you watch it in the link below!
