SPOILERS: This post contains details about The Boys, Season 5 episode ‘King of Hell’
After opening about her Graves’ disease diagnosis last year, Erin Moriarty is sharing her experience of working while struggling with the autoimmune disease.
The actress, who plays Annie/Starlight on The Boys, explained that this week’s episode ‘King of Hell’ was “one of the most important” she’s made, and it was filmed during the peak of her health issues before she was diagnosed last May.
“Okay, so: Season 5, episode 4 of The Boys is one of the most important episodes I’ve ever shot. Unfortunately, that part of the season coincided with my health issues peaking before my diagnosis,” she wrote on her Instagram Story with a photo of her knee. “I’m saving you the gnarly part of this picture but not long after this episode, I started to lose the ability to walk. The numbness in my feet led to a lot of falling. The night before we shot my segment of this episode, I fell and shredded up my knee.”
Moriarty added, “I barely have any bts shots of this season, especially as things worsened. This isn’t a pity post. It’s mostly to say: fuck autoimmune disease. Fuck it so hard. Fuck the ignorance surrounding it, too. I can’t remedy that ignorance but not being outspoken about it occasionally, feels wrong.”
In the episode ‘King of Hell’, Annie visits her estranged father Rick (Tim Daly) and his family as Homelander (Antony Starr) continues his nationwide purge of Starlighters, her supporters in the resistance.
Last June, Moriarty revealed her diagnosis with Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland, with wide-ranging symptoms that can include heat sensitivity, weight loss, tremors, irregular heartbeat and potentially Graves’ ophthalmopathy, which includes eye issues like bulging eyes, light sensitivity and eye pressure or irritation.
“Autoimmune disease manifests differently in everybody/every body. Your experience will be different from mine. My experience will be different from yours. Perhaps greatly, perhaps minutely,” wrote Moriarty at the time. “One thing I can say: if I hadn’t chalked it all up to stress and fatigue, I would’ve caught this sooner. A month ago, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Within 24 hours of beginning treatment, I felt the light coming back on. It’s been increasing in strength ever since. If yours is dimming, even slightly, go get checked. Don’t ‘suck it up’ and transcend suffering; you deserve to be comfy. Shit’s hard enough as is.”