The Boys’ Nathan Mitchell on Playing New Black Noir (‘A Dream Come True’) and His Hookup With [Spoiler]

Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 7. Proceed at your own risk!

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After three seasons, The Boys’ Black Noir is speaking up, and the man giving him voice is actor Nathan Mitchell, who has been underneath the supe’s suit since the Prime Video drama’s series premiere.

Prior to this current fourth season, Mitchell mastered the unique challenge of playing a constantly masked, completely silent character. But now, the actor gets to actually deliver dialogue as — pay attention because this is where things get kind of meta — the actor who has been hired by Vought to take over the role of Black Noir following the original supe’s death in last season’s finale.

Below, Mitchell talks about his reaction to finding out Noir was being killed off, the transition to playing this new incarnation of the character and the latest episode’s reveal that Noir is in love with Sister Sage.

TVLINE | What did you think when showrunner Eric Kripke first brought you this idea that you’d be playing another version of Black Noir, and you’d get to actually speak this time?
At first, my heart dropped because he said, “I have some good news and some bad news,” and I was like, “Give me the bad news,” and he was like, “Noir is going to die,” and I was like, “F—k.” But he followed it up with the good news of saying, “You’re not going anywhere, and you have two choices: You can unmask as the Noir we know now, or you can let someone else take that role and unmask in Season 4 as the new Noir.” Honestly, I love old Noir so much that, initially, I wanted to go down with the character. I’ve been portraying him for all those seasons, and I wanted to see that through. But obviously, I took some time, and I came to the decision that playing new Noir would be better, it’d be more fun. So I passed the baton of old Noir to [Fritzy-Klevans Destine], our actor who did an amazing job with him [in in Season 3’s third episode], and I stayed masked until this season. Once I wrapped my head around it, I was so excited, and I couldn’t wait, because honestly, it’s something I’d wanted to do for so long, but it’s never been guaranteed. So it was a dream come true.

TVLINE | Eric Kripke told me that the tree nut allergy was something that he took from you, that you have a tree nut allergy. So what did you think of the fact that that’s how Maeve attacked Black Noir?
It was very funny. I think it’s comedic that you have this behemoth of a superhero who is a tank in so many other ways and wreaks havoc and destruction wherever he goes, but then can be taken out by a nut allergy. I think that’s a very interesting, funny kryptonite. So I thought it was fun the way they incorporated that. Thankfully, he was able to recover for one season, at least, until Homelander got his hands on him.

TVLINE | Two of the most important tools that you have at your disposal as an actor is your eyes and your voice. So what was it like playing someone for so long who was always masked and never speaks?
It was a lot of fun. It was also a challenge because, as an actor, you don’t typically train with the idea in mind that you’re going to take a job where you don’t speak, and you don’t use your face or your eyes for so long. So when I got this role, it was unexpected. While it took some adjustment, once I got the hang of it, it was fun because, for me, my main concern was, would I still be able to express myself and tell a story? That’s the core thing I wanted. There’s a line in Season [4] where Noir is like, “You didn’t hire me to stand around like a f–king oak tree,” and that was my fear, that they would just want me to stand there and not do anything, and luckily, that wasn’t the case. But once I got a feel for what they wanted, and how I was able to express myself in the role, I loved it, because it’s such a unique way of storytelling. You can still affect people with a specific head tilt, or a movement of your shoulders, or the way your ribcage expands and collapses as you breathe. So I really enjoyed that. It was a different way of storytelling, and it’s something I’ll always cherish.

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TVLINE | This new Noir has to remain silent, but at the same time, he wants to do more with the role. He has all these ambitions. Did you relate to him as an actor?
Absolutely! There’s a part of me that’s always wondering how I can do more with a role, and especially this role, it’s like, “OK, how can we push the boundaries here? How can we push the boundaries there?” So I could very much relate with new Noir, having played old Noir. I like to say the conflicts that new Noir experiences, I, obviously, did not experience that on set or with anybody, because Kripke and our whole cast and crew, they’re so supportive and so great to work with. We all get along really well. So for me, it was just, internally, I would have those questions when I was first stepping into the role. I would think in my head, “What does he want? What am I supposed to do here?” I could talk to them, and there was guidance, but also, there was a part of it that I just had to figure out on my own, naturally, because I was the one inhabiting the character. So I can relate to new Noir because I had had those thoughts, internally, in playing old Noir for three years. It was something that I had a little experience in.

TVLINE | It’s almost a meta situation.
It’s very meta! There was a quote on Twitter the other day that I saw, and it was like, “Black Noir’s actor is playing an actor playing Black Noir.” [ Laughs ] That’s what it is. A very meta role that is super fun.

TVLINE | What did you make of the reveal that Noir has been hooking up with Sister Sage and is in love with her?
I thought it was so funny. Oh my God. I thought it was hilarious. It’s just one of those things where, like, you wouldn’t expect it. But there’s that little scene in Episode 4, where it’s like, “Hey, can we talk?” I think it creates a little wound in the relationship with Noir and Deep, but that’s true to life. Sometimes you get hurt by your friends, sometimes your friends hurt you, and it doesn’t thwart the relationship, but I think it makes it more real and deeper, in a way, because you have that added pain point that comes in there. But I think it’s completely out of left field, and it’s so funny, and that’s one of my favorite Noir scenes this year.

TVLINE | Is he being as foolish as The Deep when it comes to Sister Sage?
I think Noir’s just down for a good hookup. He is in love with her, as he says, he has caught feelings. But I don’t think it’s foolish. I think it’s just like a level of innocence. It’s like a bit of puppy love, you could say.

TVLINE | Noir’s sometimes appalled and shocked by what he’s being asked to do, but he still happily does it. Is he happy to be there in The Seven?
Where it comes from is Noir is such a committed actor that when he gets a direction, his first instinct is to go for it 100 percent. So when we’re in Episode 1, and Homelander’s like, “I want you to beat these gentlemen to death,” he’s so caught up in the role in the moment that he’s like, “OK, that’s the direction, those are the instructions. I’m going to do it!” He goes for it without thinking, and it’s only after he does it that he stops and that it dawns on him, “That was really f–ked up. What did I just do?” That’s where the conflict starts. He committed fully in this moment, but then he did something that, to him, was reprehensible, and now he’s trying to grapple with that. He’s like how does he do what he wants most, which is be the best actor he can be and fulfill the role, but also be able to live with himself? That is the conflict. As the season goes on, he gets a bit of advice from A-Train, he gets a bit of advice from The Deep, and it’s the advice from The Deep that really sticks. The way into this role is to embrace violence, and while that might not be what he would want to do in the ideal circumstance, he’s got to commit to the role, and so, he does. As the season goes on, as we get towards the end, we see him growing into and embracing the violence, even though that’s not his original inclination.

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