EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: The Boys' Karen Fukuhara

WARNING – If you have not seen The Boys season 5, episode 7, do not read until you have seen it, as this article will have SPOILERS in it!

After 5 seasons, The Boys is nearing its ultimate end, with the eighth episode for the fifth and final season approaching in just a week. If you went into the swan-song season thinking everyone was safe…wrong call.

With the ending to The Boys season 5, episode 7, “The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother’s Milk,” it was time to bid farewell to another long-time character, one that many have been predicting would bite the dust. In an intense confrontation with Homelander, Frenchie became the next casualty, leading to the biggest heartbreak for Kimiko, as she had to watch her love die in front of her eyes.

I was honored to recently sit down with Karen Fukuhara for an exclusive interview at Multiverse of Color about the massive death, how she handled it as an actress. Starting off, she revealed how and when she was told that this was how Kimiko and Frenchie’s story was going to end.

Karen Fukuhara: I was told at the beginning of the season, we all had a meeting with [Eric] Kripke individually, and we were told sort of the fate of our characters. We did not know how it was going to happen, and we also didn’t know when it was going to happen. So this season, I was sort of bracing myself every episode when I would read the new one coming.

Because you just never know. I mean, in episode one, A-Train goes, and that was a huge shocker to me! I think that really put into perspective that nobody was safe this season. And it also made me really sad, because we became really close. We’re a tight-knit family, and I love Jesse [T. Usher] so much, and I thought I had 8-9 months of being able to hang out with him, offset in Toronto. And sure enough, he was gone after the first month. So that made me really sad, and Frenchie’s death really weighed heavy on me. I just knew that would be a really emotional moment for not only me personally, but also as Kimiko.

While having preparation for it, Fukuhara made it clear that it was still very bittersweet to see this come to fruition, admitting that “I had a really hard time with it, to be honest, it was weighing heavily on me for months when I read the episode. I said, [laughs] ‘Great writing – tragedy. It’s perfect for the show, [but] I hate it so much!’ [laughs] Yeah, it just makes me so sad. And it really felt like the character was dying, and he did, I don’t know how to explain it. It felt very real to me, and I miss the character so much.”

The Boys star went into detail about having worked with Tomer Capone for all these years, and the elements of Frenchie that he would even carry with him. For Fukuhara, it’s the end of an era after having to see her colleague’s character meet his fate.

Karen Fukuhara: He has a version of himself in real life in Toronto that has an essence or an element of Frenchie ingrained in him. And I don’t know if every actor has this while they’re filming. It’s not method, because he’s not Frenchie all the time offset, but there’s just this air about him that screams Frenchie. And whenever I see him months later after wrap[ping] [or] at a press event or something, he is fully just Tomer and no Frenchie, and it’s like I’m seeing a whole different person. It’s uncanny. It’s very, very weird, very odd feeling.

But I was at dinner with him one time, and I said, ‘I feel like once Frenchie dies in this episode, and then you go back to being Tomer, like I will actually never get to meet and see and hang out with Frenchie ever again.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’s actually kind of true. I feel like I put on mannerisms, or I say certain things even when I’m just myself as Tomer.’ While we’re filming, there’s just a quality about him that is not there anymore. And I miss it. I miss it so much. I feel like it’s probably the same way with me and Kimiko too. Like, me, Karen, is very different in Toronto. There’s an essence of Kimiko in there somewhere, I’m sure.

Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Frenchie (Tomer Capone)

However, despite the chaos and havoc that Homelander has brought upon our characters, there is still one more episode to go, the series finale of The Boys, which is being kept heavily under wraps. When I asked Fukuhara for any teases about Kimiko’s ending, it was tricky, as she stated “Hard question to answer, hard question to answer without giving anything away…”

When asked if she personally was satisfied with where Kimiko ends after five seasons of lots of blood, lots of killing off and killing other people, Fukuhara shared the following response:

Karen Fukuhara: What I will say is I am really happy with where she ends up. I’m just so sad that Frenchie is not there, you know? I just really wish that they had a happy ending, but I don’t know if that would have been the right choice. I think it served the story, and I think it also serves her story to be honest, and her message and her arc. So I don’t think it was the wrong choice. I do just like kind of miss their dynamic together.

Representation is one of the core essentials here at Multiverse of Color, and as The Boys heads into its final hour, I asked Fukuhara how she hopes Hollywood learns from Kimiko’s journey for Japanese women in media.

Kimiko, in so many ways, has been a huge representation for the show since it introduced her and really elevated her from what we knew of her in the comics. For anyone who’s been following her story for the last five seasons, Fukuhara gave the perfect response about what she hopes future storytellers will do when representing Japanese women in future films, TV shows, and novels:

Karen Fukuhara: Yeah, I think representation is really, really important. And this is such a funny like play on words, but I think giving a voice to people like us…giving a voice to people like us is very important, and I think that it can change someone’s life. Someone viewing it so it gives a little girl somewhere out there hope – it gives them also permission to live loudly and to speak up and to be to be confident in who she is, just because of who she is, rather than having to prove herself. And so, yeah, I hope that Hollywood gives us a voice, because they gave Kimiko a voice, and it’s worked out well.

Do not miss The Boys series finale on Wednesday, May 20, only on Prime Video! How are you feeling about the final season so far? Comment below!