Jesse T. Usher took to the Comic Con Africa main stage to talk about his role as A-Train in Amazon Prime’s The Boys and his time in South Africa, complete with a shout out to spicy salads and lamb chops.
He spoke[1] about how his “angry audition” landed him the role of A-Train, and how the early costumes “self-destructed” when he ran.
Jesse T. Usher at Comic Con Africa 2025
Usher brought his parents and sister to South Africa. It was their first time on the continent and he called it a life-changing trip.
Food came up fast!
The lamb chops he had on Saturday night won him over. So did the heat of a spicy salad…
“My sister and I had a salad last night and it was like seasoned lettuce,” he said. “What the fuck is this. That shit was crazy.”
The audition he hated that made A-Train work
User said he didn’t read the comics before he signed on at The Boys. He was filming Shaft and time was tight so he taped an audition but ended up hating it.
Still, being angry at himself wowed showrunner Eric Kripke who called him up and said he loved the angry energy.
They pushed that energy into A-Train. Numb. Selfish. Checked out. It worked.
The A-Train suit that fell apart when he ran
Usher says early seasons were a fight with hardware.
His suit had heavy plates and hidden zippers everywhere. Seventeen hidden zippers, to be exact. The moment he sprinted, bits came off. Legs. Belt. Back.
He joked that photos looked perfect but the slightest movement broke it.
Then, they tried “manties.” Man-panties.
The top hooked into the pants to fake a one-piece look. It was uncomfortable and it took years to land a version that stayed together through action days.
Jesse T Usher on stunts, cardio, superhero bodies
He did most of his own work and stunts. Usher said he kept up with cardio so he would not gas out on big days. But there was no wild regimen beyond that.
There was an early idea to get everyone in classic superhero shape but Kripke flipped it. He said the Supes do not need gym bodies if their power comes from Compound V.
That’s were the irony of muscle suits came in. How the Supes dressed up to the look the part, even they had regular bodies under the costumes.
It also made sense for A-Train since Usher was tall and lean. It made sense that he’d be decent a runner, he didn’t need to be ripped for that.
Blood, bees, and 18-hour days
When asked which day was his favourite on set, Usher said the very first day. It was a new show, the excitement in the air, and it was summer in Canada.
That was before the 18-hour slogs and the weather changes. It was also the day he filmed that Robin scene.
It was long. It was sticky. The fake blood they used was a mix of sugar and colouring.
“I spent 16 hours covered in syrup. In summer, bees chased us all day. It dries, gets hard, super uncomfortable.
“We showed up hours early, got covered in blood, and they spritz you all day to keep it wet. We got used to it.”
Amazon let them “do whatever we wanted”
The Boys was one of the first big Amazon shows. Usher said the difference between Amazon and other studios were less red tape and more nerve.
Anything Kripke wrote it, Amazon greenlit it. And marketing went loud with billboards that simply read, “Fuck Superheroes.”
The timing was also perfect, it coincided with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. He says:
“Other studios worry about reception and politics. We offended everybody. Marketing said ‘fuck superheroes’ on black billboards behind Avengers: Endgame. Best campaign. Nobody knew what it was until later.”
That is how you plant a flag. You do not whisper in a corner. You buy the wall behind Iron Man and talk trash about super heroes.
The arc you learn week by week
On filming The Boys, Usher says they shoot blind. You find out who dies when the script lands. He joked that A-Train dies constantly but they keep bringing him back.
It keeps the cast on edge. It keeps the tone cruel.
He also spoke about season five, and how he can’t wait for fans to finally see it. Season 5 does not have a specific release date yet, but it is expected to premiere in 2026.
Production started in November 2024 and filming wrapped up in July 2025. Kripke had also confirmed it would be the final season.
Usher urged fans to catch up with Season 2 of Gen V.
“I know you’re not ready (for season 5), but I hope you’ll be ready by the time the show comes out if you can watch Gen V season 2,” he says, “because there’s a lot of intertwining of the stories between the two.
“So you’ll get set up for season 5 with Gen V and, yeah man, I mean, you know, we laid it all out on the table, so I hope you guys like it.”
Post is the other 80%
Usher says the actors and the cast only do 20% of the work. The rest is all down to post-production. And the end result is hardly ever how the actors imagine it.
While stages are the small, the world created on screen is not. And VFX carries most of that load. For example, Usher didn’t know that A-Train sounded like an actual train until the final edits were done.
“[Visual effects teams] do a really really good job of incorporating little details to sort of make you feel like you’re actually in the world of The Boys. When I watched the show is the first time, I had no idea that A-train gonna have a sound effect.”
Final word to South Africa
He thanked the crowd again for their support and reminded fans to catch up on Gen V season 2 before we get smacked upside the head by The Boys season 5.
The final question: Is he satisfied with the end of the show?
“Oh yeah. 100%.”
He said Anthony Starr texted from ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), and said “Holy shit, just wait.” Usher heads into his own ADR when he returns home after Comic Con.
He is excited to see the cut. He wants you to be ready.
Reporting and transcript: Main Stage, Comic Con Africa, Sunday session with Jesse T. Usher. Direct quotes are verbatim from my original recording. [1]
