Nathan Mitchell's Favorite Black Noir Scene From The Boys May Surprise You
By Eric Betts/Nov. 14, 2020 8:56 am EST
Black Noir, the Seven's superpowered ninja assassin on Amazon Studios' The Boys, is a man of many talents. He's got super-strength, speed, and durability. He's an expert martial artist, proficient with his arsenal of knives, and so stealthy he can cut a throat and catch the glass the person was holding before it hits the ground. He also doesn't speak, which gives new meaning to the phrase "silent but deadly."
It's this last detail that drew the actor Nathan Mitchell to the character. The challenge of conveying what Noir is feeling without words was something that excited him about taking the role. "It's like you take thoughts that you have in your head or things that you would say," he told Comicbook.com, "you physicalize them, and then you remove those words and you let your body speak for you."
Noir had a larger role in the show's second season, intersecting with more of the show's main characters, including The Boys themselves. But Mitchell's favorite Black Noir moment isn't one of his many brutal kills; rather, it's a moment that comes just after one of his many brutal kills.
The softer side of the murderous Black Noir
After shouting out Noir's battle with Starlight in Vought Tower, Mitchell zooms in on Noir's sequence in the first episode of the second season, where he's sent to terminate the super terrorist Naqib. He proceeds through the hideout with extreme prejudice. "You have him ripping someone to shreds, multiple people, severing someone's head, not thinking twice about it," Mitchell says.
As he's leaving, holding Naqib's severed head, he encounters a young boy. Noir takes the child's stuffed rabbit and bounces it back and forth in a little dance, accompanying it with a rhythmic exhalation that's about the closest he comes to dialogue. "There's this ruthless, killing machine who does something like adorable, quirky, and out of place in one sequence and that's quintessential Noir to me," Mitchell says.
After all, when he's not disemboweling his enemies, Noir is also shown performing an elaborate tea ceremony. He plays proficient concert piano. He falls asleep in meetings. He has trouble flagging down a waiter carrying a tray of hors d'oeuvres. He's human, and his ultimate weakness derives from this humanity: a tree nut allergy (that he shares with Mitchell).
Homelander (Antony Starr) confirmed that Black Noir's close encounter with an Almond Joy didn't kill him, but considering it did leave him comatose, it would be tough to argue it made him stronger. Fans will have to wait to see if Black Noir recovers when The Boys returns for its third season.