Christian Vincent Is Not Ricky

By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Wednesday, August 23 2006, 3:00PM

When "Noah's Arc" airs tonight on LOGO, the fans won't be the only ones wondering what they'll see. Somewhere in Los Angeles, Christian Vincent and Rodney Chester, two of the stars of the show, will be huddled over a TV screen watching the show together. That's because they haven't seen it either. And since Christian doesn't get LOGO where he lives, he watches the show at Rodney's house.

I've only "met" Christian Vincent two times in my life. The first time was a brief moment on the set of "Noah's Arc." We didn't actually talk, so I don't know if I should consider it a "meeting." The second time was at a "Noah's Arc" event, where once again we didn't actually get a chance to talk.

The only thing I could tell about him from those brief encounters was that he is just as good looking in person as he appears on television. But I didn't really know a lot about him. That is, until yesterday afternoon, when I finally got a chance to have a conversation with Christian Vincent. You may know him as Ricky, the smooth-talking, hypersexual character from the LOGO television series. But did you know that he was originally cast as Noah? Today he talks about that experience, his career as a dancer and an actor, and so much more in our continuing interview series with the cast of Noah's Arc.

INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN VINCENT

BOYKIN: Hi Christian. Thanks for doing the interview. I want to start from scratch. Tell me how would you describe yourself to someone who knew nothing about you?

VINCENT: The most important things to me are number 1, my family, my health, my friends, my career. Those are the things that are my main priority. I’ve always been driven by what I like to do. I started out when I was younger….I was always doing something. I drew. I painted. My mother put me in dancing. They put me in karate...But the thing that clicked the most to me was the dancing. I would have to say that was my first love and that has sustained me….It’s what led me to LA.

And I also had a very strong support system with my mom, my dad and my brother. That’s been my backbone, but what drove me is that I wanted to be in the entertainment industry. When I was a kid, you had this little brown boy in this area that was predominantly Caucasian…I would always hear that 'he’s got natural ability but he needs more technique.' So my parents found a place where I could get trained properly [in dance]…That’s what sustained me…

I wanted an education. My parents stressed the fact of an education so I went to school my first year for Visual Arts….I painted and I drew. After that I transferred and I went to Butler University for a dance program.

BOYKIN: You seem like an athletic guy. Did you play any sports?

VINCENT: I ran track. The 100 meters and 400 meters. We say meters because I’m from Canada.

BOYKIN: Really. I ran track too. When did you run? In high school?

VINCENT: In grade school and high school. But I didn’t do it long in high school because that’s when the dancing became a priority and that was like 3 or 4 days a week and then I had rehearsal for competition. School work was a main priority and then dancing became a main priority.

BOYKIN: How often do you work out?

VINCENT: If I’m here [in Los Angeles], I’ll go to the gym at least 4 days out of the week.

BOYKIN: What do you do for fun?

VINCENT: Hey, I’m pretty typical. A lot of my friends do what I do. I number 1 like to spend time with my friends. A lot of us will arrange to go bowling, go see movies. Another release for me for fun is painting…I’ve never been to Magic Mountain, I’ve never been to a lot of attractions because work is what I do and work has been my fun.

BOYKIN: Do you consider yourself a dancer or an actor first?

VINCENT: Dancing is something that is my background, but I am also an actor. A lot of people, they don’t feel that it’s something that you should talk about. It gives you less legitimacy, but I don’t care. It’s what I started doing, and it’s what got me this far, but as of right now my profession is I am an actor now...That’s just life, segueing into different things. I’m not one who believes that a person can only do one thing…I’ve always done many different things. I like doing a lot of different things and I’m good at a lot of different things.

BOYKIN: What made you become an actor?

VINCENT: It’s something that while I was performing as a dancer I was in class studying acting. It just seemed like a natural progression….I like having a voice. You express yourself in dancing, but now I like having a voice too. And it definitely is a challenge. And I like having something to work for. I like having a goal. I’ve always wanted to do film….And I’m getting to do it now.

BOYKIN: Who’s your favorite actor?

VINCENT: That’s a hard question. You know what, I don’t have one.

BOYKIN: Okay, that's fine. Another question. "The Golden Girls" had Blanche. "Sex And the City" had Samantha. How does it feel to be the resident slut on Noah’s Arc?

VINCENT: [Laughter] You know what, I enjoy it more so now than I did at the beginning…Ricky is complicated and it’s more fun to play somebody who’s more complicated than not. He’s not necessarily the most likable character. He’s probably the most flawed character. Especially this season…We’ll start to see another side creep up that you may or may not have expected. I’m just glad to be on a show and to be acting and to have a part because there’s so many people who come out to LA and dream of being on a show, especially people of color. So I’m glad to just be on the show and I’m having fun with what I’m doing….Really I’m just glad to be doing what I’m doing.

BOYKIN: What do you think about the new season so far?

VINCENT: I think we really haven’t seen too much yet…I’m looking forward to getting into some of the other episodes because that’s when more people start to get involved and there’s more action. I’m probably one of the hardest people on our show…I can step back and look at it from an outside perspective. I know what the pluses are and I know what the minuses are….

I haven’t seen anything beyond that [first two episodes]. You don’t know how your performance looks and you don’t know anything. So it’s the same for us. Oh that came out pretty good, or oh I didn’t like that. But in general I am pleased from where it started and where it’s going now. But I think definitely this season has more to offer…It’s amazing now. I go to airports and people come up to me and say things. We really have no idea who’s watching the show because there are no ratings….

I don’t get LOGO. I have Time Warner Cable and they don’t carry it in my area. I have to go over to Rodney’s house…So when people say hey they really like the commercials, that’s how I find out about stuff….From the response that we are getting now I think the fans are pleased….Now whats nice is that the people who like the show watch the show and the people who don’t, don’t. It’s the first black gay TV series, or that’s what it was touted as, and it’s not going to be everything for all people, and we don’t claim for it to be.

BOYKIN: How similar are you to the character you play?

VINCENT: I am multi-faceted like Ricky is. I understand some of his [pain], you know, when he’s hurt, I understand that. But really, I am nothing like Ricky….Initially I was cast as Noah…We had a discussion about our characters [and things changed]...

BOYKIN: Really? I'm not sure I can imagine how that would feel if you and Darryl reversed roles?

VINCENT: Definitely the way that Darryl is Noah, I would be a different and he would be a little different as Ricky….I understood Noah better [than I understand Ricky]. Then Patrik [Polk] said they wanted to cast [me] as Ricky…It was going to be more of a challenge for me to play Ricky….Noah seems easier for me to act as. Ricky, his background, behaviors, they are not as innate to me. So that was more of a challenge. Now I’m very cool with what it is and I enjoy it, because I like the arc that Patrik has created for Ricky and it’s not one dimensional.

That’s what I think is important about our show. It shows people of color humanized. And hopefully we can get beyond it just being black and gay and it being an entertaining show. Because that’s what I think is more important. They’re human beings and they have humanized characteristics.

BOYKIN: From what I can tell, straight black women seem to like the show too. Has that been your impression?

VINCENT: Another thing I do is I travel around the country and teach kids how to dance. And it’s like doing a total 360. The Noah’s Arc realm is miles and miles away from this other realm. So I walk into this convention and this woman says I love your show. And this was a mother who had a son and a daughter at the convention….to have a straight mother of 3 come up to me and say 'I love your show,' and she actually wrote a letter to her convention saying what a great role model I was to her son…and that started to show me other people were watching the show.

And now when I go out, it’s definitely gay men of all colors. It’s definitely women….[A straight guy at the gym came up and told him he watched the show recently.] if something is entertaining, people will watch. For minorities, it’s giving them visibility, and hopefully that visibility will create positivity. When I used to watch the Cosby show, I was like the only brown kid…it validated me. It was great to see beautiful, intelligent, people of color on TV….some of their stereotypical ideas were broken. So I’m hoping that our show is helping to uplift…I also think we don’t want to let a community down. I think that’s why everyone has tried so hard….whatever could be dealt with to improve the show, that’s what we’re trying to do. And it’s a really huge undertaking because this is not a huge network with tons and tons of money. My life hasn’t really changed because of the show.

BOYKIN: What do you say to the critics who claim the show perpetuates stereotypes of gay men?

VINCENT: I’m not going to say that it’s not correct….Men of color are supposed to be super macho. So our perspective of what a man should be is a certain ideal. Now someone who is Caucasian may have a different standard…I think it’s our culture and each one of us has a different perspective. I can’t say that it’s wrong. I think there’s a lot of validity to that statement.

[But I encourage people to] continue to watch the show…there’s also a lot of new characters coming in…but if people really don’t like the characters, the show won’t be on…When we have one black face on television, like lets just say Star Jones on "The View" and she was the one black voice on that show….theres’ a lot of pressure on that one person of color to fulfill everyone’s needs…We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. So it made me more aware of not being so critical of people in general…and especially people of color in this industry.

I grew up in Canada. My existence was not the American existence. So it’s like a black person growing up in England…We have many different experiences. We’re not all the same. We get pigeonholed into thinking that all black men should be this…In Hollywood, you can have a Robert DeNiro. You can have a Leonardo Decaprio. It’s like varying different men who are Caucasians. But men of color in the media we have basically one ideal, and once you deviate from that, it’s like, 'this ain't’ a black man."

If you look at our media, at our celebrities, it seems like we want to stay on the same track…They’re seeing people of color who are various shades, various sexual preferences, just different ways of being…We need more diversity. We’re used to seeing one thing…I hope our show continues to get better and it continues to progress. Cause it’s not gonna last forever.

BOYKIN: I’ve seen you on TV and commercials and the like. Tell me about some of the other projects you’ve done outside of Noah’s Arc.

VINCENT: I just finished a few weeks ago choreographing Target commercials…a lot of those dance Target commercials I assisted on and now I'm choreographing….They called for me to do dance on the Emmys this week but I’m not going to do that because I’m kinda switching gears. It’s a very different time for me and I’m enjoying it….I’ve done a bunch of commercials for Brush Up, Kellogs, car commercials…I have a website and it tells you all the stuff that I’ve been in…The site is www.christianvincentonline.com.

BOYKIN: Are you single in real life?

VINCENT: I am single in real life and enjoying it.

BOYKIN: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

VINCENT: I would have to say I’m indecisive on that. Because my life is about my work and the only place I would like to live right now is here. I would like to have maybe a home in New York and a home in Miami and a home in Canada….

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

VINCENT:
1. my mom, dad, and brother.
2. my mind
3. children
4. a nice pair of baggy jeans
5. I love to feel clean and smell good

BOYKIN: Anything else you want to add?

VINCENT: Just recently I went to your site. And I just want to thank you for supporitng the show. There’s so many people that hit me up on myspace. I’m just appreciative of that, that people like the show. It’s nice to know that people are enjoying the show.

BOYKIN: Thank you so much and good luck with the rest of the season.

VINCENT: Thank you. I hope you like it.

BOYKIN: I’m sure I will.

Noah's Arc Interview Series

• Interview with Jensen Atwood (Wade)
• Interview with Darryl Stephens (Noah)
• Interview with Christian Vincent (Ricky)

Next week we meet Rodney Chester (Alex).

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