Prime Video‘s The Boys has long been considered one of the most overlooked shows by the Television Academy, so it was heartening to see Season 5 standout Daveed Diggs earn an Emmy nomination this year, along with Christopher Lennertz, for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for writing the show-stopping song, “Raise Him Up.”

Diggs, an actor, musician, song-writer, and artist perhaps most famous for his Tony-winning dual performances in Broadway’s Hamilton, joined The Boys for the show’s fifth and final season. He played Oh Father, a super-powered preacher who believed that the villainous Homelander (Antony Starr) should become America’s new god, mainly because it would be lucrative for him.

Oh Father’s religious grift reaches its ultimate fever pitch in The Boys‘ penultimate episode, “The Frenchman, The Female, And The Man Called Mother’s Milk,” where he debuts his catchy new gospel song, “Raise Him Up” in a dazzling musical number.

Daveed Diggs stopped by DECIDER’s studio last week to discuss how The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke convinced him to break his own rule and do a musical number on the show and why he loved that Oh Father’s death came about thanks to “Chekhov’s ball gag.”

DECIDER: First of all, congratulations on your Emmy nomination, this time for writing a song for The Boys. How did it feel to get that nomination and how did this come about? Like, how did they introduce the idea that you would help Christopher Lennertz write the song? 

DAVEED DIGGS: Yeah, well, first of all I’m really honored to be nominated with Chris and with the whole team. I mean, it took a lot of people to make this song happen and a ton of work and it came out so good. I’m so happy with how it came out and it’s not always those things that get the attention so it was really cool when I heard that we got nominated because I think the song really deserves it.

Um, it came about because, uh… Kripke sort of sheepishly like asked me one day. Like, “Hey, you can say no, but what would you think about doing a big musical number in the seventh episode of this season?” I usually say no to musical numbers. People ask me that a lot. But I had made the choice when I decided to do The Boys, when I said yes to the show — I really loved the writing — so I wanted to just try, I wanted get the whole of The Boys experience. So I had sort of already made the choice for myself that whatever they asked me to do I was going to do it, assuming that would be, you know, exploding heads with a ball gag, all that stuff like that. Like The Boys-type stuff makes sense, but I didn’t expect this curve ball. And so I like did my due diligence and said like, “Give me 24 hours to think about it.” But I already said yes in my head. You know, I wanted to have a good time. And I’m so glad we did it. It was so much fun. 

And what was it like writing the lyrics with Christopher? I mean, how much input did you have and how did it differ from your usual work? 

I was shooting at the time, and he was in LA, so we were just sort of sending ideas around. And the first thing we were working on was kind of more of a rap song, which I was giving more input on. But it was, yeah, I think the first demo got to Kripke, and he immediately was like, “That’s not it, it’s too cool, it was wrong.” And then when Chris took those notes and came back with this version, he sent it to me and I was like, “This is brilliant.” I thought it was so funny. And it was such a hit, you know? It was like such a great song, even the demo version. Then when we got into record, I did hundreds of takes of that thing, ’cause I just wanted to make sure we had all the possible options and throw in as many like fun ad-libs and different vocal choices as we can. Yeah, and they cut together something that I thought was really fantastic 

I love the scene where we see the musical number and you think you’re getting an immersive experience and then you find it’s the rehearsal. What was it like shooting that? Because that just was so dazzling to watch on screen. How’s it compared to your actual experiences on Broadway? 

I mean, it was the most fun I had that whole season and the season was super fun. I thought Sylvain [White] did a great job directing the scene. Also, the musicians in the shot are real musicians and obviously the dancers are all incredible dancers. So in between takes, it was just like a jam session. Like they would just play music and we would all hang out and sing songs and stuff. So it was really a great couple of days. But again, a lot of work. You know, putting up a musical number, we would rehearse that for many weeks for a Broadway show, but we had about a day of dance rehearsal and then two days of shooting. So yeah, really long days, but really, really fun. And the dancers are incredible. And that choir, I mean, I spent more time with them than anybody else on the show, actually, because they were my choir for the whole season. And so like we got we all got really close. And when I go to Toronto, I hang out with them. 

I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the fan reactions to the musical number because they’re really funny because they can range from like, “This is blasphemous,” to “I want to go to this church.” What did you hope that the the song would inspire in fans of The Boys? 

I think it does a really good job at fitting in The Boys‘ subversive political satire. What I was hoping, and what I think we accomplished, was that it’s so catchy and so fun that you will find yourself singing it before you were really listening to it. And then when you really listen to it, and you realize there are so many incredible lines in there. “After centuries of religious fraud, say hello to your real God,” is like, ugh, it’s so good. There’s so much funny stuff. “The world’s too dark for a Jew in robes and sandals.” Yeah, there’s so many great jokes in it and all in the spirit of sort of shining a light on how we have started to use religion as just a political tool and just a way to sort of win favor with voters. Yeah, I think it does a really great job of that and it has a lot of fun while doing it. 

I want to ask a little bit more about Oh Father. He was such a big scene stealer this season. Fans really took to him. What was your intention when he took the role, and what did you hope resonated with the fans? 

was just trying not to mess it up, man. I like the show, and I know the fan base is so die hard, and I just wanted to fit in. So I just had a lot of conversations with Kripke about just what — I wanted to really make sure I understood what Oh Father needed to do for the season so that I could craft the performance off of that. Then to trust them to mold it, pull me back if I went too far. But I kept doing things and people never told me to stop doing them, which, like I said, it was just a lot of fun. He’s a trip, man. He’s doing some incredible sort of mental gymnastics in order to be a preacher preaching the word of God and be able to decide, well, it is better if we decide to make Homelander God because it’s better for me financially and what’s better me is better for everybody because I am the emissary of God. So it’s a great little piece of mental gymnastics.

You alluded to your death scene, which is one of those iconic grisly Boys death scenes. So good. It’s also, I understand, different from the comics. How was the titanium ball gag introduced to you, and how do you think it all played out? 

You know, I hadn’t watched the finale until we had like a screening of it at an event in LA. So it was the first time I saw it and I was so happy when I saw my head explode like that. It looked so good. The timing of the cut was so good, yeah. I didn’t get to play with that ball gag until right before we shot it. So yeah, there wasn’t a lot of time to mess with it. Because it was different than the one we used in the scene where it was introduced. This had to be a stunt ball gag. We didn’t want to rip all of my teeth out, you know? So, yeah, it was a little softer. I mean, they’re five seasons in. Everybody, like the whole stunt team, are such pros with it. And they managed to make these incredible things look and feel really simple when you’re doing them. So, yeah, but it was the trickiest part was it was that timing. Figuring out the timing of getting it put over my head. We must have done that 50 times, I don’t know, to try to get it right. 

You’re a fan and you know all the different deaths. How do you think it compares to the pantheon of crazy Boys deaths? 

Oh, I don’t know. It’s definitely not the craziest, you know. 

Do you have a favorite one? 

I mean, it’s kind of got to be the end. It’s got to be Homelander. Everyone was so ready for that. That was the crazy thing at the finale event, like the way people cheered when that happened. It was really special.

But I do think it has like it’s a really good set up and pay off. Like a self-contained set up and payoff in the episode to introduce that ball gag. That “Chekhov’s ball gag,” you know? You have to bring it back. That’s good.

The Boys has been criminally overlooked by the Emmys over the years. I mean, Antony Starr, especially. What does it mean for you and for the production that you’re getting this honor, this nod from the Emmys for the song? 

Yeah, I think it deserved a lot more. I do. I think, it’s been overlooked for writing awards pretty consistently. And I do think that is one of the really special things about the show. Obviously, I mean, the performances are incredible, too. But I think again, as a piece of work that sort of encapsulates all of the things that The Boys does really well, that makes me really happy that was one of the ways that it was recognized because it’s a nice sample. I think, you could show it to somebody and be like, “This is the kind of show The Boys is,” you know, or you could listen to it. I like that.

All five seasons of The Boys are streaming on Prime Video.

This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.