It’s finally upon us, the final episode of The Boys. With season five, the series comes to a close, and many have been waiting patiently to see how things end – especially what the end of the show means for some of our favourite characters, like Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso.
The Boys has been quite the journey for Alonso, and ahead of the series finale, I had the opportunity to chat with him about what it felt like to step on set knowing it was the final season, his character’s arc, and what parts of the character meant the most to him.
Check out the full interview with Laz Alonso below:
With this being the final season of The Boys, what was it like for you and the rest of the cast when you arrived on set to begin filming – did it really hit you that this was the end of an era, so to speak?
Laz Alonso: It didn’t hit us till the very end. I’ll be honest with you, we were so focused on just surviving, because season five was probably the coldest winter we have filmed in Toronto yet, and it wasn’t just cold, it was damp and wet. And so we started shooting episode one on Thanksgiving night, because Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving a month before Americans do, so they celebrate in October. So it wasn’t Thanksgiving for them, but it was Thanksgiving for us, and we did an overnight on Thanksgiving, the freedom camp scene in episode one, where we’re trying to escape from the freedom camp, and Homelander comes in and all that stuff. We shot all that that night, and it was, yeah, at one of many nights. It wasn’t just that one night, but that’s how we started. It was winter in Canada, and it was already freezing. And that was kind of the tone that was set, you know? We realized, like, “Oh snap, it’s gonna be a rough season.” And sure enough, it was.
And you know, when you’re in the middle of a rough season, you just put your head down, and you just push through. You don’t think about when it’s gonna end, or it’s our last season. You don’t think of any of that stuff. You’re just like, “Man, I just need to survive to the next episode,” let alone, you know, the end of the season. But I think towards May-ish, you know, we wrapped in July. I would say around May/June – that’s when it started hitting people that, man, this is it? And that’s when all the, you know, the happy tears started to flow every episode.
I apologize that you had to experience the Canadian winter. I am actually in Toronto myself, so I know that it was rough this winter. So I apologize on behalf of the Canadian weather for what you guys had to go through.
Alonso: Oh, no, it’s all good. We got mad love for Toronto. Toronto is our second home. It’s been an amazing city to work in, with amazing crews and amazing departments of every kind in our business. And you know, it’s been a fantastic backdrop for our show. It definitely is one of the characters in our show, and being in Toronto really brought us together. It was the place where we became a family, and I’ll always be fond of the city.
With the final season now upon us, how would you describe MM’s emotional journey from season one to now?
Alonso: I would say season one, he was unbreakable. And season five, you’re looking at a broken man. You’re looking at a man who realizes that if you defeat what you think is evil, it appears as though three more spawn from that, and that’s disheartening. It’s disheartening to think that you know you’re in a winless battle, and that, sure, you can win the immediate battle. But do you win the war? Probably not. And I think that’s where MM is. Now he’s cynical, and the guy who’s usually talking everyone off the ledge and being the optimist, that person is not there anymore, right? And we’ll see if we can get him back to his old self. But where we find him, he’s more on the Butcher side, you know? He’s more in the scorched earth. You kill everybody. The only way out of this thing is to just end everybody’s life, because the bad guys keep winning.
I think it’s important that we acknowledge the human side of freedom, fighting, revolutionaries, and just people who want to do good on Earth in general, you know? Whatever that may be – whether it be fighting for people or fighting for animal rights or fighting for nature, every day isn’t going to be a good day. You’re going to wake up discouraged, you know? Even if it’s just fighting for your health or fighting for your family, you know? Not every day is going to be a good day. And we have to be honest with that. We have to understand that that’s part of life. You know, the question is: can you get out of it?
You’ve embodied this character for several years, so what was something that you think will always stick with you that you maybe learned or enjoyed most about playing MM?
Alonso: Yeah, I think what I’ve liked the most is the fact that he’s a great dad. You know, that’s always been something that I feel softens him and humanizes him. And I feel like it’s something that people, you know, all the ridiculous stuff that he goes through and stuff always happens to him, and all the funny stuff. Yeah, that’s great. But I think the fact that he’s a good dad is what people really, you know, connect with.
As far as one thing goes, I always hear people say, “I wish I had an MM in my life,” or “I wish I had an MM to call when things go wrong,” you know? He’s just that friend who you know is going to be there during your rough times. He ain’t going nowhere, and that was the intention. That was the goal, to make him that person in The Boys that you can rely on during the roughest and the toughest of times, he ain’t going nowhere. He’s going to be ride-or-die to the end.