Trinbagonian actor Noel Arthur asserts his identity in Hollywood

t’s easy to spot a Trinbagonian anywhere–our mannerisms and unique range of accents with their musical inflections enhance our natural inclination as storytellers and can make us stand out in a crowd.
For those who choose storytelling as their career, however, and who intend to make it internationally, it can be challenging to have to hide the characteristics that make us unique in order to assimilate.
US-based Trinbagonian actor Noel Arthur, known for his guest roles on Jane the Virgin, Good Trouble and this year’s season of You, aims to celebrate these aspects of our identity by offering casting directors a more honest version of himself in his auditions.
Arthur spoke with Loop News about the shift in thinking about his career and some of his upcoming projects.
“I’m excited about playing characters with the Trinidadian accent, to do as many roles as possible representing the Caribbean,” he said. Arthur explained that because of his appearance, he’s been asked to do a range of accents ranging from Jamaican to Nigerian, but that these days, he’d like to put forward something a little more authentic. “I can do [the accents], but I’ve been giving them the Trinidad accent [recently],” he said. “Take it or leave it; cast me with what you heard.”
Arthur’s leaning towards greater authenticity is not just linked to a desire to showcase more of his background and identity, but to his overall approach to acting, auditioning and to the business in general. Recently, the father of two has been experiencing an unprecedented visibility which he attributes to a shift in consciousness.
“This has been one of the most successful booking years in my 17 years in Los Angeles,” Arthur said. He marvelled, “What a difference a year could make, to go from being a bit player to some of the things I’ve booked.”
The actor said that he used the pandemic to become more intentional about his work ethic and the audition process.
“There is something inside of me that made me want to make this more effortless,” he explained. The difficulties of the pandemic allowed Arthur to zone in on his attitude towards life and goal-setting, to minimise distractions.
“Not to become too spiritual, but what you put out there is what you get,” he said. “[Acting] is already a challenging lifestyle; you have to have an inner determination, a focused mindset.”
This introspection brought with it some realisations about how he could make the most of the restrictions to improve his auditions.
“The pandemic has been a put-forward for my career,” he said, explaining that while several actors encounter “a lot of stress” from having to record self-tapes, he’d been taking advantage of being able to curate his image for casting directors. “You’re in the comfort of your home, you perfect the performance and keep it moving.”
But it wasn’t just the ease of getting to redo the lines until he was happy with them that gave Arthur’s career the push that it needed.
Hollywood has a history of colourism, preferring lighter-skinned actors of colour, with directors never quite sure of how to get the lighting for darker-skinned actors quite right. More recently, series like Insecure have been praised for finally getting the art of lighting darker skin tones correct.
It was as simple as that. “There was not enough light on me,” he said. “My expressions can be seen more. Nothing about my acting has changed. Technically, I just put more light on my face.” Arthur said that he had never realised how crucial this was and was grateful for the “technical revelation” that allowed him to change the way he is seen at auditions.
One of Arthur’s proudest moments to date was his role in PASSAGE, directed by Oscar nominee David Massey. The movie has already been screened at film festivals this year.
Referred to by Arthur as an “untold...pre-diaspora story”, the film, shot in St Croix, is set in 1600s West Africa and deals with village leader Gamba (played by Arthur) who has to overcome a threat facing his people. “It’s action-packed and beautifully filmed,” he said, adding that all the crew’s department heads, along with most of the cast, are black.
In addition to the fresh insight on how to present himself to casting directors, the pandemic also gave Arthur the chance to rethink what roles he would like to play moving forward and how he’d like to play them.
Once a shy child, Arthur relocated to the US as a teenager and was drawn into theatre at university. As he continued to pursue acting through grad school, he found himself becoming more of a character actor than anything, but in keeping with the theme of greater authenticity, he’s begun to see things differently. Character actors usually play supporting roles that call for varying degrees of eccentricity and often play stock characters or the same type of character throughout their career. While their work usually garners much praise, there is the danger of being typecast.
“In the last year, I’ve been doing a lot of introspection [and] I don’t need to disappear anymore,” he said. “I want to stand firm in who I am…[be] present as me, with my face, my voice, my thought patterns.”
Arthur has indeed found more artistic and personal freedom in committing to this decision.
“One of the things coming out of not hiding behind characters anymore [is that people] are seeing me on-screen for the first time as I’m seeing myself: a real whole person.”
As he continues to further relax into this more truthful on-screen persona, Arthur remains enthusiastic about his Trinbagonian identity and how he can use it to influence the projects he becomes involved in.
“I’m always excited to represent Trinidad and Tobago and look forward to seeing more of us from the diaspora telling our stories, not just theirs,” he said.
Arthur spoke of his screenwriting friends who have been dreaming up works that feature our culture, particularly the folklore that he hopes would make it into the mainstream.
Armed with expert training, years of steady work bolstered and flavoured by his roots in the Caribbean experience, Arthur gives thanks for the newfound opportunities and readily embraces what is to come. (Source: The Loop, Nov 4, 2021)