Jack Quaid, everybody. If you just saw him portraying a questionable lad in the recent and unsettling film Companion alongside Sophie Thatcher, prepare for a unique palate cleanser with Paramount’s Novocaine, hitting theaters this week. If you’re up to speed on Quaid’s wildly entertaining FX series The Boys, you know his beloved character, Hughie, is just a normal guy who’s been experimenting with superpowers in the after regularly consuming a drug known as “V.” There are health drawbacks to the enhancement, of course, as is the case with many narcotics out there.
And now with Novocaine, Quaid’s seemingly normal-guy persona, Nate, has been blessed/cursed with his own superpower of sorts, where he can’t feel physical pain (based on a real condition that is much less glamorous in real life). Again, a seemingly beneficial diagnosis — but can actually prove catastrophic if Nate becomes gravely injured and, say, loses a tremendous amount of blood without even realizing it. So how does the film and character stack up against Quaid’s others? He explained in a MovieWeb interview.
I wanted to make sure that the movie is so great and so brutal. And I keep saying this, but I believe it: It’s not a horror movie at all, but I think it’s an action movie for horror fans, how much gore there is.
“So I wanted to make sure that Nate, in contrast to that, was kind of like a cupcake of a human being. Like, he’s definitely the sweetest character I’ve ever played,” adds Quaid. “I think he’s one of the more heroic characters I’ve ever played. He’s just risking everything for Sherry. And I just also love that he technically has a disability, but… he doesn’t get down on himself. He retains a positive attitude, and he’s able to turn that into a superpower.”
March 14, 2025
24 minutes
Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Lars Jacobson
As with most engaging action films, Novocaine has a charming romantic B-story. Quaid opened up about his character Nate’s love interest, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), and creating an authentic on-screen rapport amid all the hard R-rated chaos in Novocaine. “I love playing Nate so much,” explained Quaid. “It’s a really what I love about this movie is that it’s trying to, I think, hearken back to ’80s action movies — action movies where you really love the action, but you care about the character so much that the action hits even harder, right?” He continued:
“So I wanted to make sure that I was creating a character that, you know, people could root for. And also, I really wanted to make sure that people believed in the romance between Nate and Sherry, because if they don’t want to see these two together, then they’re not going to be rooting for, you know, Nate and Sherry to succeed.”
From Paramount Pictures, Novocaine will be released in theaters on Friday.
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