The Antony Starr controversy, explained

The Boys‘ actor Antony Starr allegedly bullied and harassed former The Boys‘ co-star Dominique McElligott into quitting acting and now, Starr is accused of liking a racist comment on social media. The McElligot allegations came via vought_hq, an Instagram account that leaks insider information from the series. AF Post shared Starr’s racist-comment-like screenshot on X.

Starr plays Homelander on The Boys, in season 4 as of July 2024. Starr’s character is a supervillain with a double identity. On the surface, he’s a blond hero, but underneath, he leads The Seven, a superhero group rife with corruption. Starr’s Homelander is often compared to Donald Trump, though the character predates the Trump presidency. With those allegations in mind, however, the New Zealand actor may have taken Homelander’s Trump inspiration too seriously.

The Dominique McElligot accusations

The accusations from Dominique McElligott, who played Queen Maeve on the show, surfaced on the vought_hq Instagram account, which has since been deleted. A backup was created, but in early July, the person behind the account said they would no longer maintain it for health reasons. But, the update said, also because they were done with the show for endorsing “bullying of cast members,” and covering up for abusive behavior.

According to vought_hq, an unnamed actor on the show told them Starr relentlessly bullied McElligott, so much so she’s rumored to have quit acting. Sources also told vought_hq Starr behaved inappropriately toward other females on the set. Starr was also accused of assault, though this might refer to a 2022 incident when the actor was arrested for a bar fight in Spain. Vought_hq’s accusations are unconfirmed.

Response to what vought_hq revealed about Starr ranged from disbelief, with Griffin Ryan writing on X, ” … Vought HQ hates the cast and the show, which is why she’s leaking it, she especially hates Antony Starr, and there’s overwhelming evidence Starr gets along with the whole cast.” Vought_hq did, however, mention Starr’s McElligot allegations on Reddit, a full year before the Instagram leak.

Starr liked a racist comment on Instagram

Amid The Boys season 4, AF Post shared screenshots of Antony Starr liking a comment on Instagram. The video accompanying the post showed Starr meeting a Black woman cosplaying Starlight, a white character from the show. The comment Starr liked said “Starlight” followed by a series of skull emojis, suggesting a Black Starlight was something to dismiss or laugh at; an example, AF Post said, of challenges Black people face in the cosplay community.

Some people challenged whether or not that was, in fact, a racist comment. One comment added, “The skulls are ambiguous but they took it as ‘lol black Starlight’ which is reaching.” Still, another said, “He’s saying how is that starlight when she’s white af [sic].”

So again, the Antony Starr harassment and abuse allegations are unconfirmed, and the racist post controversy is disputed.

But at best, Antony Starr as Homelander has seemingly redefined method acting, as Official Source Troy noted.

Prime Video has announced a fifth and final season of The Boys is on its way.