The story behind Tilda Swinton’s depraved ‘The Boys’ season 4 role

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Boys season 4 premiere, “The Department of Dirty Tricks.”

When it comes to unexpected stunt casting for The Boys, the one from the season 4 premiere ranks high up there.

After playing an androgynous arch angel (Constantine), a demented witch with a flair for interpretive dance (Suspira), a dog (Isle of Dogs), and an ages-old sorcerer (Doctor Strange), Oscar winner Tilda Swinton makes a splash with perhaps her most transformative character yet: an octopus — the same one that the Deep (Chace Crawford) wore like a pair of living underwear during the sexcapades of Herogasm.

Swinton provides the voice for Ambrosius, the cephalopod wife of the Deep on The Boys. The character was first introduced in season 3, but this is the first time an actor has given voice to Ambrosius. The Deep has apparently been keeping his deep-sea lover tucked away in a water tank in his closet.

Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how the casting came together in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

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“Once we decided we were going to have Deep have regular conversation with his octopus wife, we just wanted the biggest, classiest British Oscar-winning actress we could possibly find,” he tells EW. “That’s a reasonably short list. We didn’t know Tilda. It’s not like some of our other cameos where they’re friends of friends and we reach out to them. We just reached out to a rep and sent her the script. To her everlasting credit, her rep was like, ‘She loves this and thinks it’s hilarious and would love to do it.'”

The executive producer recalls how Swinton came in for one day of recording to bring the part to life. “Watching the classiest possible actress record the dumbest possible s— was one of the great professional days of my life,” he adds.

There are other big-name guest appearances on The Boys this season, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Will Ferrell. Past seasons have seen the likes of Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Elizabeth Banks popping up, but the biggest surprise to date has got to be Charlize Theron playing herself playing Stormfront in the Dawn of the Seven movie from season 3.

After the first three episodes arrived on Prime Video Thursday, The Boys season 4 continues with a weekly release. Homelander (Antony Starr) recruits Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), the world’s smartest person, to the Seven. And together they’re plotting a massive coup that would see supes become the supreme authority in America. Tune in to see if the Deep can keep his married life together through it all.