Chace Crawford opens up about 'The Boys' octopus scene: "I almost had a panic attack"

Chace Crawford, known for his role in 'The Boys,' has shared his apprehensions about filming the notorious octopus scenes in season 4 of the Prime Video series. 

Crawford revealed that he "would have" reconsidered joining the show if he had known about his character The Deep's intimate relationship with the octopus, Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Crawford recalled his reaction, "It’s so funny and brilliant now, but when that came up, I was like, ‘Oh God, how’s this going to work?'"

The actor described how the intimate scenes were created by showrunner Eric Kripke, mentioning his initial disbelief when he first had to film an intimate scene with the sea creature in the season 3 episode 'Herogasm.' 

"And then it got 24 hours out from the first day I had to shoot it and I almost had a panic attack," Crawford said. He praised Kripke's support, saying, "I called Kripke — he’s so great. He’s got a million things going on but his door’s always open. So I was worried about the scene. I’m like, ‘How are we gonna do this? What are the angles gonna be? How naked do I have to be?’ He changed one shot for me. And it was great."

Crawford also mentioned that while the show has an intimacy coordinator for these scenes, this did not extend to the octopus scenes. "But they treated it like, ‘quiet everyone, clear out’ — a closed set. But yeah, just the act of picking up the octopus and getting a wet octopus in the bed was so funny and weird. And then it doesn’t come out for a year almost, and you’re like, ‘How is this going to be received?'"

Despite his initial fears, the scene was well-received. "But everyone loved it," Crawford noted. "I saw someone at the gym the other day and he was like, ‘I’m actually going to show you this.’ And it was him in a Deep costume with a pink octopus wrapped around him at Comic-Con or something. Everyone loved it, man. I get ragged on a little bit, but it’s good."

Kripke explained to Variety how Swinton was cast to voice Ambrosius, stating that they wanted "the classiest, Oscar-winningest, British actress we can get our hands on." He added, "And that’s a really short list. And Dame Judi Dench was unavailable."

Kripke praised Swinton for her willingness to participate, noting, "To Swinton’s 'everlasting credit,' she didn’t know any of us, but she was like, ‘That sounds hilarious, I’m in,’ and she did it."