Darryl Stephens Has A Great Voice

By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Wednesday, August 16 2006, 3:36PM

I first met Darryl Stephens on the set of Noah's Arc. I don't think he remembers this, but I do. I was in Los Angeles for a speech at UCLA when I got a phone call from Patrik-Ian Polk. Come on over to The Catch, he told me, using the abbreviated term for the popular LA nightclub "Jewel's Catch One." It was the middle of the day and the sun was still shining, so I wasn't exactly thinking about a club. But Patrik told me he was filming a scene at the bar and asked if I would come by. I did, and seconds after I arrived, I found myself roped into the dance scene as an extra.

My job that day in my limited cameo appearance was simple. I had to dance on the dance floor until Noah (Darryl Stephens) and Wade (Jensen Atwood) arrived. Then I would step away as the camera moved in to film their conversation. I said hello to Darryl then, but we didn't really know each other. Some time later, I met him again in New Orleans. We were staying at the same hotel and had a chance to talk for the first time. By that time, Noah's Arc was out on film and it struck me how different Darryl was from the character he played.

Last week I had the chance to have my first real conversation with Darryl. I found him to be engaging, candid, honest, humble and sincere all at once. Here now is my interview with Darryl Stephens.

INTERVIEW WITH DARRYL STEPHENS

KEITH BOYKIN: Hi Darryl. Thanks for doing the interview. I want to start with you. Where are you from?

DARRYL STEPHENS: I grew up in Altadena and Pasadena in Southern California.

BOYKIN: Did you always want to be an actor?

STEPHENS: No. Actually when I was younger I thought I’d be something like some kind of social worker or a counselor. I actually went to college taking sociology classes….I had studied dance in high school because I was bad at water polo. I was a pretty good swimmer so I joined the swim team and the second season of being on the team was water polo and I was not very good at that….

BOYKIN: When did you start acting?

STEPHENS: In college. I took an acting class. Like I said, I studied dance in high school and got to college and decided to take a dance class as well….People saw my work and asked me to audition for some shows so I got involved in some theater troupes.

BOYKIN: What do you think about the new season of Noah’s Arc?

STEPHENS: I think a lot of things are working this season that we were still trying to figure out last season. For example, I think that some of the story structure of last season was geared more for a 30 minute show instead of a 22 minute show. We lost a little bit of the show and we had to edit it down to 22 minutes…It felt like the whole stories were actually being told this time around where I felt like last season we missed some of the key elements because of the elements.

I think this season is a little more dramatic. I think last season…I was playing the character a lot sillier. I think I saw the character as soft in a way that I didn’t necessarily need to play to the extent that I did. Once I saw the show on television and the wardrobes and the hairstyles and how you play the character, I could play him a little more neutral and he could come across more soft. I’m playing Noah more as the everyman…and a little bit less of the girlie boy that he was last season.

BOYKIN: What do you think about Noah as a character?

STEPHENS: For me, playing a character like Noah is a gift. To be able to play somebody who is that out there and to have people believe that I’m really like that person, and when people meet me and they find out that I’m not very much like Noah, I’m kinda tickled. I don’t dress anything like that. I don’t really talk like that. It made playing the character easier for me.

I do see the show in a lot of ways as sort of "Sex And The City" and remembering how Carrie’s outfits came off and half the time you’re kind of rolling your eyes and saying nobody would ever wear that and yet she kinda pulled it off…was kinda fun for me…which was good, for a show particularly in the first season. We were very fortunate to have Dwen Curry styling us and to be so imaginative in the way he viewed those characters…

I can also tell you that last year I didn’t realize I was playing it as off the radar as I was playing it. But I think this season is a little more palatable to the masses.

BOYKIN: So you made a conscious effort to tone it down?

I cut my hair. So that already takes a good chunk of the outlandishness of the character away. The fact that we were extremely limited in the hairstyles [this season]…I brought his register down a little bit, just cause I think that you read that the character is gay without me talking like that.

BOYKIN: Would you wear any of the outfits that Noah wears?

STEPHENS: I actually got to keep a couple of pairs of cargo pants that he wears this season. Beyond that, no. Oh, I kept a T-shirt…

BOYKIN: What kind of hairstyle do you wear when you’re not on set?

STEPHENS: My hair looks a lot like it does most of the second season…The first season Patrik asked me to grow it out so I couldn’t do much of anything with it…My normal length of hair is probably like the length it is in season two, or a little bit shorter.

BOYKIN: I know this is a strange question, but would you say Noah is a top or a bottom, or versatile, or neither?

STEPHENS: Noah is versatile, as you will see in this season, probably not on the broadcast version. I think for the most part people would assume he’s a bottom….I think as was seen in season one when he attempted to switch things around not all of his partners are amenable.

BOYKIN: You did an episode last year where you had to dress in drag. How did you like it?

STEPHENS: That was fun. I kinda see Noah as a Halloween party anyway…And working with Frank Gatson [Destiny's Child choreographer], he choreographed that scene. And that was exciting…You never get to see that on television. That’s like television history.

BOYKIN: Had you ever done drag before, and would you do it again?

STEPHENS: I did a play called The Colored Museum in college. I played Miss Roj.

BOYKIN: No way!!!! I love that character. My law school friend Hill Harper played Miss Roj in The Colored Museum in Boston back in the day, and I loved it. He even came and sat on my lap during the performance, and I almost lost it.

[LAUGHTER]

BOYKIN: Okay, now where was I? Okay, you’ve been busy with new movies and other projects. Tell us what you’ve been doing since the last season of Noah’s Arc went off the air?

STEPHENS: I actually shot those two films before we shot the first season. Boy Culture, that character definitely needed to have a hair cut.. [Darryl explains that the hairstyle was limited by his role in Noah's Arc]. I actually haven’t done much since we shot the first season.

BOYKIN: Really? I'm surprised. So what do you do when you’re not acting?

STEPHENS: I write. I’m working on some screenplays.

BOYKIN: So you're just like Noah?

STEPHENS: Noah’s getting a lot more work for his screen writing than I am.

BOYKIN: What do you do for fun?

STEPHENS: Music. I’m all over ITunes all the time. I think I was supposed to be a DJ in another life….And I have a really cool group of friends in LA.

BOYKIN: What motivates you as an actor?

STEPHENS: That changes from job to job. Sometimes it’s the paycheck. Sometimes it’s the exposure. For example, I played a couple of roles last year. Both of the characters were gay characters. Obviously I have no reservation about playing a gay character on television…

[Darryl explains that he also played a go go dancer.] I’m getting to that age where the body is at its prime and that occurred to me. And playing that kind of character would give me an edge that people wouldn’t necessarily expect of me. The other character is kinda slow…

Sometimes the motivation is what’s going to paint me in a different picture and sometimes the motivation is just to entertain the people who are going to view the show. At my level, every single thing I do is a showcase. People now look at every single piece of work I’m in as something else I can play. So that goes into a lot of the choices I make. Sharing a different color of what Darryl Stephens can portray.

BOYKIN: What's it like to kiss Jensen Atwood?

STEPHENS: What’s it like? It’s just work. We’re both actors. When you’re kissing as an actor on film, it’s never kissing. You’re thinking about where your head is positioned, the light on your face…

BOYKIN: Have you and Jensen become friends since the show began?

STEPHENS: Yeah, we’re very cool. We don’t actually hang out much outside of work, but whenever we’re together we’re good.

BOYKIN: Has your life changed since you started doing Noah's Arc?

STEPHENS: Aside from people recognizing me on the street, it hasn’t changed that much. There is a sense that as an actor on a show, whether on now you’re making tons of money, there is a sense that you’re working and it just helps your ego, your sense of self worth. As many actors on my level will tell you that it’s just a struggle to stay afloat. And when you have a show that’s under your belt you feel like you accomplished something. And when a casting director asks you what have you been working on and you can say, 'oh well, I’m on this show,' there’s something to that that is a sense of accomplishment….Just having that is a gift at some point.

BOYKIN: What has the reaction been to you in the black gay community?

STEPHENS: All the black gay people who have approached me about the show [have been positive], with the exception of a very few. I was unfortunate enough to read up on blogs and read some of the negative comments about the stereotypes we’re portraying and how bad our acting was. Even if you don’t like a show, to go out of your way to talk about how much you don’t like that show, I thought 'the lady doth protest too much' …

BOYKIN: What do you mean?

STEPHENS: I thought it was unfortunate that people were so ready to tear it down before it even got its footing. All of us are new actors, with the exception of Doug, who’s done quite a bit of television work in the past, and I think we were really trying to figure it out. With a show of this budget, not everything was going to get caught…A lot of things go into making a television show to look professional and a lot of those things were things we didn’t have.

It was hurtful but it helped me to get to a point where I realized that there will always be haters and there will always be people who don’t like your work….I recognized some things worked on the show and some things didn’t and the black gay community, for the most part, has been very supportive.

BOYKIN: How long would you like to continue doing Noah's Arc?

STEPHENS: For as long as the stories are interesting and the characters have something new to explore. I would love for the show to get to the point…the season is so short that I think the show could easily go on for five or six seasons and we could still just be getting a sense of who these guys are…I definitely don’t want it to get played into the ground. I’d love for it to go out on a high note like "Sex And the City" did and "Six Feet Under" did….

Hopefully more shows that represent the black gay community will come along so that people who have some investment in the black gay community won’t have to put everything in this one show and expect everything out of this one show. So that Noah’s Arc can be what it is, about 4 fabulous friends in Los Angeles and not the black gay show…

BOYKIN: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

STEPHENS: Hopefully playing much different types of characters. As an actor, I just want to play as many different types of characters as I can. I’ve been very fortunate in the last year or so to play three fairly disparate characters, and I’d like to keep expanding that. Maybe in five years I will have matured into a different type of character actor. I hope so. A little edgier.

BOYKIN: Are you single?

STEPHENS: No.

BOYKIN: Really? How long have you been dating?

STEPHENS: Approximately nine months.

BOYKIN: Congratulations

STEPHENS: Thanks.

BOYKIN: One more thing. I do a series on my website called “My Favorite Things” where I get people in the community to tell me five of their favorite things in the world. Can you tell me five of your favorite things?

STEPHENS:

1. My Ipod.

2. Myspace.com. (Lalah Hathaway personally invited me to see a show from myspace.)

3. YouTube.

4. My friends and family. (I have a really close knit supportive group of friends. I feel very gifted to be surrounded by the people in my life.)

5. Trader Joe’s. (It’s just a lot of interesting foods..)

BOYKIN: Anything else you want to add?

STEPHENS: Just to thank you for being supportive of the show.

BOYKIN: Very good. Thank you very much.

Noah's Arc airs tonight at 10 Eastern on Logo.