The Boys is currently filming its fifth season with Hughie holding a decent chance of helping to take out Homelander when all is said and done. Jack Quaid has high hopes for a brighter ending than Hughie has suffered through, especially recently, and he’d really like to avoid showing his butt (“It’s not a great one, you know what I mean”) again, but the good news is that Quaid made back-to-back movies on hiatus, and both projects will land this year.
Surely, he’s managed to keep his butt covered as preferred in these other projects, right? We shall see.
First, Companion will arrive with Sophie Thatcher as a killer sex-robot (watch out, Jack), and secondly, he will be able to portray a Supe-like character who doesn’t have to “get there” by mainlining Compound V. Let’s dig into what to expect from an outlandish-looking film from Paramount Pictures.
Plot
Novocaine is an action-comedy about Quaid’s Nate, who possesses the rare (but very real) ability to never feel pain due to a genetic disorder, CIPA (congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis). This is, of course, not generally ideal for humans to avoid dangerous, life threatening conditions. In this heightened-reality story, however, Nate falls in love with a woman who is taken hostage, and his ability turns into a superpower of sorts to rescue her. As the movie’s trailer reveals nearly lighting himself on fire to pick up scalding hot pans to burn bad guys in the face. Or he’s crunching glass into his hands to make some seriously extreme brass knuckles. You get the picture, and as with The Boys, this movie is not for the faint of heart.
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (who made Significant Other and Villains together) and written by Lars Jacobson (Day of the Dead: Bloodline), Novocaine looks like the perfect counterpoint to Hughie in The Boys, and Quaid told Hollywood Reporter that this movie was “very fun to make, but incredibly physically challenging for me.” He then explained why people will be surprised to watch him in this role, as he was surprised to portray it: “I think I’m kind of an unlikely person to be an action hero… I don’t think anyone expects me to be kicking ass and I kick ass in a very specific way in that movie.”
Quaid also went into detail about the real-life plight of CIPA sufferers:
“Basically, your nervous system doesn’t allow you to feel pain and it is not a great thing. You think it might be amazing, but a lot of people with this condition don’t make it past 25. They have to blend all their meals and drink it through a straw because they could bite their tongue off and not realize it. So it is a little scary. But it’s about a character who is kind of sheltered and is kind of living in a bubble for his own safety at the beginning, using that to help protect someone he loves. And to be in action scenes where I don’t feel pain and trying not to wince is a very interesting thing because naturally you would react to getting hit a million times and I just don’t in this movie.”
On the flip side, Quaid didn’t mention that any scenes required baring his tush. Good for him.
Cast
Quaid is accompanied by Amber Midthunder as well as Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Jacob Batalon, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Conrad Kemp, and Van Hengst.
Release Date
Novocaine arrives in theaters on March 14.
Trailer
If you’ve got a sensitive stomach, steer clear of this one. Otherwise, enjoy 🙂