Erin Moriarty Couldn’t Move Her Arm But Still Showed Up to Film ‘The Boys’ — And the Reason Is Heartbreaking

Erin Moriarty has opened up about one of the most physically grueling nights of her career — filming an intimate scene for The Boys while battling a staph infection so severe she could barely move her right arm.

The actress, who plays Starlight in Prime Video’s superhero drama, appeared on the MesSy podcast and shared details about what was happening behind the scenes during the filming of Starlight’s first intimate scene with Hughie, played by Jack Quaid, in Season 2. According to Entertainment Weekly, what audiences saw on screen gave no indication of what Moriarty was privately enduring that night.

She explained that the infection developed during a period when she was severely run down — a condition she has since connected to the broader physical toll of pushing herself relentlessly throughout her career. Moriarty noted that staph bacteria are present on human skin at all times but become dangerous when the body’s defenses are depleted, and by the time filming came around that particular evening, hers had progressed well beyond a manageable level. The infection had grown so severe that she had lost most of the mobility in her right arm entirely.

What makes her account particularly striking is how hard she tried to communicate the seriousness of the situation — and how long it took for anyone around her to truly hear it. Moriarty described telling production repeatedly that she was in genuine physical distress, only to feel like her words were being acknowledged without being absorbed. It wasn’t until she physically showed people the infection that the reality of her condition finally registered, at which point the immediate reaction was that she needed emergency medical attention.

Despite that, the only adjustment made to that evening’s shoot was the decision to go ahead and film the intimate scene. Moriarty described the moment with a mixture of dark humor and raw honesty, recalling that she told the crew exactly what they were working around — and then showed up and completed the scene anyway.

She reflected on the deeper pattern her behavior that night represented — one she says was shaped by years of being conditioned as a young actress to prioritize the production’s needs over her own physical wellbeing. Moriarty described her previous identity as someone who took pride in transcending whatever her body was going through in service of her work, and acknowledged that the staph infection night was a direct expression of that mindset taken to an extreme.

She was candid about the fear she felt that evening, sharing that even while she was going through the motions of completing the shoot, she was privately aware that the infection was serious enough to have real consequences. Still, she said, she showed up, did her job, and proved she was a team player — even at the cost of her own health.

Moriarty was diagnosed with Graves’ disease last year, a revelation that has since recontextualized much of what she experienced physically during her years filming The Boys.