Nathan Mitchell, the “Old” and “New” Black Noir, Comments on His Character’s Audition Tape for the Seven

Everyone knows by now that The Boys is one of the most popular superhero series in the world. Garth Ennis’ dark and twisted take on the superhero genre became one of the most popular television series of all time as Eric Kripke’s vision managed to take the show to new heights with each new season.

The series is preparing for its crazy final season, which is why we have decided to revisit the epic fourth season that recently ended. If you remember, Black Noir is a character that we hadn’t talked about much before, but he was actually very significant to this season as he made a most intriguing comeback from the dead.

The return was an amazing thing and while we simply saw a “new” Black Noir on the screen, with Nathan Mitchell reprising his role, it seems that the behind-the-scenes in-universe events were far more complex, as the “new” Black Noir had to undergo a strange audition to become the “new” member of the Seven.

In case you haven’t seen it, as part of the promotion of the fourth season, The Boys released the audition tape for the “new” Black Noir, which shows actor Nathan Mitchell as an unnamed character auditioning to become the “new” Black Noir in a very funny meta moment. Here is the tape:

New Noir really nailed the audition pic.twitter.com/9ioEwhP246

— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) July 6, 2024

The character speaks, which is a shocker, and you can understand why everyone thinks he nailed it. Later, the actor gave an interview for TV Insider, in which he commented on the tape and the major change:

An audition tape for your character was unveiled. Does he have an official name yet? And what was it like getting to embrace new physicality with the role?

There is no character name at all yet. He’s just new Noir to me. But yes, that tape was a fun [behind-the-scenes] thing that we did. But in terms of the mannerisms, it’s funny because it is like I get to bring more of my mannerisms to this character because he’s more of a normal, everyday person.

Getting to highlight his unique brand of quirkiness is fun because with old Noir there was more of a stillness. I loved that the more still you are, the more meaningful a tilt of the head is, every single motion matters. New Noir is a little freer, he’s able to flow some more. So it’s fun being more expressive and getting to do that with this character. The old one was still fun, but this is just a little more freedom of expression.

Did it feel foreign speaking while wearing the mask?

Yeah, it was, I’ve always wanted to do it. I remember the first few episodes I’m like, “Wait, I’m speaking, am I supposed to be doing this?” So it took me a little while to adjust, like, “Oh yeah, I can be here and take up this space and voice this character.”

And what’s also funny is when I read my dialogue, I was like, “Wow, Eric [Kripke] knows me better than I thought he did because this is exactly what I would say at this moment.” He’s really on point in terms of how he writes to us and for us and merges the character with who we are as people.

Source: TV Insider

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