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The Boys: Heath Ledger's Joker Inspired "Shifter Annie": Erin Moriarty

The Boys star Erin Moriarty on distinguishing Starlight from "Shifter Annie" and how Heath Ledger's Joker served as an inspiration.

Erin Moriarty had the rare opportunity to be her evil doppelganger counterpart as the mysterious shapeshifting supe, also played by Naomi Frenette, Sarah D. McCarthy, and Eddy Kaye on Prime Video's The Boys. The unnamed supe took Annie January/Starlight's form to infiltrate the team, steal their secrets and distract them as much as possible, especially Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), manipulating him because it not only gains the subject's form but its memories too. Tasked with assassinating Robert Singer (Jim Beaver), the supe trapped the real Starlight and chained her to the floor of an apartment. When the shapeshifter's cover is finally blown, Starlight escapes, catches up to the imposter, and asphyxiates them in the season four finale. Moriarty spoke to TV Line at San Diego Comic-Con about her inspiration as the sinister sociopathic evil counterpart.

The Boys Star Erin Moriarty on Getting "Shifter Annie" Inspiration from Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight"

Talking to the real Starlight, the shifter shares a memory of the power they had when they discovered their power. "I do remember the first time I shifted, though. One minute I was me and the next I was Ms. Jamison, my preschool teacher. And I could see every memory she'd ever had," they said. "Fucking her husband's best friend, shoplifting lip gloss, hitting a student. But you know what the funny part is? She felt justified in doing all those shitty things. You all do it. You all think you're the heroes of your own story."

When asked how Moriarty makes "Shifter Annie" distinct, "Every moment needs to have an authentic motive or justification, and everything needs to come from truth," she said. "It can't be coming from the perspective of 'I'm putting on a caricature,' so she's going to have a different voice, and she's going to move differently. It has to be non-manufactured and so organically driven that you kind of find the shifter within you, which is scary, right? You have to. Everything needs to be motivated based on authenticity to sell it, to begin with."

Breaking it down, "I would tape myself on my phone in my house for hours on end and then fast forward it to observe my mannerisms because so many of us have mannerisms we're not even aware or exhibiting, and that was really humbling. I would watch things that would sort of expand my mind in terms of really being able to absorb the fact that we can transcend our own physicality. I watched Heath Ledger in Batman, who was so brilliant. He was only 27 or 26 when he shot that, which is even more insane to me. I needed to watch people transcend their physicality. I know I could do it and I needed to study my own to strip myself of it. I needed to find the shifter in me, the truth behind it, and approach it in a way that felt like it wasn't manufactured. That's where the voice and the physicality comes into play, and then you have fun with it, but it's a lot of prep."

The Boys returns for its fifth and final season in 2026, while the spinoff series Gen V's second season will premiere in 2025 on Prime Video.

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