Karen Fukuhara on Kimiko’s One Line in The Boys Finale, Tomer Tattoo

The Boys is over, and Karen Fukuhara is feeling all the emotions.

Fukuhara feels delighted that her character, Kimiko, played such a large role in the pathway to supervillain Homelander’s death. She also has an appreciation for the show’s writers who helped develop Kimiko’s rich story across five seasons. And there’s a lot of love for the cast and crew who defined Fukuhara’s time on The Boys.

Kimiko uttered one word during the season five finale, which signified a return to form for her character, who was mute throughout the first four installments of the series. Fukuhara merely said “bye” to her co-stars in the final moment when the on-screen Boys were convened for the last time, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“There’s not much dialogue that happens, but there’s a lot behind those words,” Fukuhara tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was truly saying goodbye to the cast, whom I love so much, and the crew and the whole experience and a chapter of my life. There’s so many emotions.”

Below, Fukuhara reflects on Kimiko’s journey in The Boys, how the finale set up a “proper send-off” between her character and Frenchie, why it “meant a lot” that Tomer Capone returned for a finale cameo after his character’s death and the wrap gift she and Capone gave the cast and crew that pays homage to the original comics.

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After Kimiko literally finds her voice in this season of The Boys, she does not speak in the finale after Frenchie’s death, except at the very end when she says, “Bye.” When you saw the script, were you disappointed that this new element of Kimiko as a character, that of her having a voice, was going to be absent in the series finale?

No, not at all! I actually thought it was serving the storyline and Kimiko’s muteness. Kimiko was mute because of her past trauma, and she did a lot of work in order to get to the point that she is where we meet her in the beginning of season five [when she regains her speech]. Losing Frenchie is another traumatic event that happens in her life, so she reverts to her muteness. It really fueled her arc of the season, and it sets her back a little bit. People say two steps forward and one step back; I feel like this was the one step back moment for her. But she regains it, and she regains her power and that is what catapults the entire fight sequence with Homelander. I am quite satisfied that Kimiko is the one that takes Homelander’s powers away. It’s a big underdog story, and I would have never imagined her to be the one to do it when I signed on for the role in season one. I didn’t realize how big a role she would have in the finale, and I was delighted reading it.

I like that you mentioned you could have never anticipated Kimiko’s story, but I think it made perfect sense that she would be the one to finally strip Homelander of his powers.

It is a very full circle, and she’s one of the characters that is very deserving of that role. She’s grown a lot, learned a lot about herself and overcome so many struggles. So it made sense to me that she would be the one to go in for the kill. Obviously, technically, Butcher is the one that has the final blow, but she has a large part in making that happen. 

I also love that she regains her voice after she sees the ghost of Frenchie. That scene made me really emotional, and also appreciative of the writers and Tomer. He came back for that one day of shooting, and it really meant a lot to me to play opposite him and have the ending that Kimiko would have wanted, the proper send-off, since she doesn’t get to do that in episode seven. His death really comes out of nowhere and is really shocking to her, so [episode] eight gives her the opportunity to not only say, “Thank you, goodbye, and I love you,” but I love that he’s the one that helps her realize that she’s going to be okay. We see that at the end of the season, when we see her with her Bernedoodle at the cafe. I think that it was a great send-off for all of the characters.

It may seem that Hughie and Annie are the central love story of the show, but Kimiko and Frenchie had such a heartfelt, deep relationship, and they really were the core of the relationship storylines of The Boys. Would you agree that Kimiko and Frenchie had a central love story that really drove the narrative on the show?

I love Hughie and Annie’s relationship, and they’re both really great friends, not only off set, but I also love watching their scenes on screen. That last pregnancy, heroic moment between them is one of my favorites in the episode, so I don’t want it to be a competition. But of course, I love Frenchie and Kimiko. I’ve always shipped them from the beginning. I didn’t want to get my hopes up because anything could happen, and I don’t think [Eric] Kripke even knew whether they were going to be a romantic relationship or not when he first began the series. I think what brought us together was, really, the chemistry between Tomer and I. We just got very lucky in that, and I agree with you, they have a special relationship. I loved that it wasn’t perfect at all times. They were both learning how to love and how to coexist with one another, and I think that’s really reflective of real life and what people go through. 

What drew me to the two characters was that they were both flawed, and they were both trying to figure out how to be with one another, but also how to navigate life throughout all the trauma and the guilt that they felt, and how they helped each other in moving forward and continuing to do good in the world. I think that’s what’s so compelling about them, because they’re both trying to be better, but they’re not exactly this shining example of what good is. I’d like to say they’re the D-minus students that are trying to get a B.

At the very end of the show, we learn that Kimiko’s traveled to France and she’s finally able to enjoy some peace and happiness, it seems. Is that what you see for Kimiko’s story post-The Boys, living a happy, peaceful life with that memory of Frenchie?

I love that it’s open-ended. I actually loved the scene before that as well, when Kimiko says bye to The Boys first. There’s not much dialogue, but there’s a lot behind those words. And it’s felt. I feel like that silence and that ball-dropping goodbye, saying, “Bye” — one word is saying more than she could have said with a longer line. It was a really emotional scene to shoot. We were at a Butcher’s funeral, and Hughie’s giving his last words for him, and it was loaded. Not only was it loaded as the character, but it was loaded for me as well as Karen, because it was truly saying goodbye to the cast, whom I love so much, and also the crew and the whole experience and a chapter of my life. There’s so many emotions. I’m just really grateful. It was just a really loaded moment, and I think it was written beautifully, because you don’t know whether she’s going to ever see them again. The possibilities are endless, and I think that’s beautiful. 

I think she needs time alone to take in what’s happened, and especially trying to figure out how to live life without Frenchie and grieve. I’m sure the grieving process doesn’t come easily or right away. So, Kimiko’s now on her healing journey, whether that’s a peaceful one in Marseille, eating sweets with her dog or maybe she’ll one day go back to Annie and Hughie and get a drink with them or fight crime. The possibilities are endless, but at that exact moment, I think she needs to heal on her own and she needs to do it on her own time.

I did want to ask about that goodbye from Kimiko. How many times did you shoot that? How many times did it take you to get that perfect final “Bye?”

I can’t quite remember how many takes it took, but every single person had multiple shots and sizes we needed to take. We had many different options for the editors to choose from. But every single time, there was not a dry eye in the house. Even if it wasn’t my coverage, I made sure, when I said bye, to look at every single person there. It really was — I’m, like, tearing up thinking about it — my way of saying thank you to Laz [Aolsono], to Erin [Moriarty], to Jack [Quaid]; it’s just saying thank you behind those words, and I love you. [During] all of those takes, everyone was crying. It was a well of emotions that we were trying to fight back all day, all month, really, during the last month of filming. I’m honestly just really happy that we got the ending that we wanted. I think it’s a beautiful way to end a show. It could have gone very cynical and very dark, where everyone dies. But I love a show that sort of gives the audience and myself a bit of relief and hope at the end.

You and Tomer got tattoos to commemorate your time on The Boys, but are there any other special ways that you and the cast chose to celebrate the end of this show?

This cast is all about celebrations. To give you an insight into the tattoo story, it was such an incredible day. We were in town for maybe 48 hours, and I messaged my tattoo artist to see if he was available to take us. I couldn’t make an appointment ahead of time because our shooting schedule is so crazy, but we were cleared to go to L.A. to do a convention, and then it was just kismet. I knew I had to book something because we had been talking about a tattoo for the longest time. And Dr. Woo, who we got the tattoo from, opened up a studio around 10 p.m. We probably left around 1 or 2 a.m., and we drove an hour to see him after working. Spirits were high, but [we were] physically exhausted. We had come from a full week of shooting long hours, straight into a flight to L.A., straight into work, and then heading to the tattoo parlor. We were squeezing our last energy out to get there, and then it was just such a magical bonding experience. I just thought it was a beautiful way to give the characters and the whole experience a send-off. [Tomer’s] been my partner in crime since season one, so [there was] no better person to do it with. 

Other than that, this year, I did a wrap gift with Frenchie and Tomer. I contacted the original comic book artist from The Boys comics. Russ Braun worked on some of them and Darick Robertson, and I got the original colorist, Tony Avila, to do the color. We got some really cool artworks for the producers, the writers, my stunt coordinator and my sign language coach. For The Boys cast, we did an artwork of us as our characters, so Karl [Urban] as Butcher having a drink with Butcher from the original comics.

Wow.

It was really cool. I just loved giving it to people and seeing their reaction. [The comic artists] have been a really pivotal part, obviously, of our show and the creation of it, and getting to work with them on it was really special as well. 

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All eight episodes of The Boys season eight are now streaming on Prime Video. Read all of THR’s coverage of The Boys season five here.