Y’lan Noel tells the story of a man with little respect and a ton of integrity in Lady In The Lake.
The adaptation of the 2019 novel by Laura Lippman is now streaming on Apple TV+. It is a story inspired by the kinds of stories we spend time examining and the kind we forget.
Noel’s character, a Black cop, represents a lonely individual unable to fit firmly into others’ expectations. He recognized part of himself in the character.
“I think one of the things that drew me to him was the fact that he was a loner,” Noel tells ESSENCE. “The biggest thing that makes him a loner is his occupation. He’s a cop. He’s a Black cop in a Black neighborhood. It comes with the level of not being trusted, not being accepted.”
Noel’s character, Ferdie Platt, does not have the confidence he exuded as Daniel on Insecure. This is not a talented man so full of himself he can’t get out of his own way in a studio session. It’s a person struggling to make it through the day in police stations and on street corners that alienate him at every turn.
“I think part of the reason I sort of gravitate towards those types of characters in terms of the loneliness is I grew up an only child, and I know what it’s like to be misunderstood.”
Ferdie is not a flat baton-twirling villain or a stoic hero with no needs or ambition of his own. He’s more complicated than that. “It’s just really satisfying for me to…make those types of people three-dimensional,” says Noel.
Maddie Schwartz, a disillusioned housewife turned investigative journalist, connects with Ferdie. Maddie is played by Academy Award-winner Natalie Portman.
They each work to crack the case of a child’s murder separately, sticking to their morals.
The pair become lovers at a time when their relationship is still considered taboo. Noel’s character is more interested in what’s right than sticking to the letter of the law. When Maddie tries to finesse a situation to maintain financial independence from her husband, Ferdie notices right away. “He’s also an aspiring detective, and she’s not low,” says Noel.
His character does not judge her. Noel understood how the two found one another in such tense circumstances.
“She’s a stranger in amongst his community, and he is somebody who, because he’s a cop in [the] 1960s in a sort of infrastructure that doesn’t really appreciate him, he is finally finding a place.”
Noel used period-appropriate sideburns to help develop his character’s look. The long chops helped create his righteous expressions. “I had to have sideburns outside of work for what, seven, eight months, while in Baltimore which made for some really interesting conversations in public,” he joked.
For the far more important “internal work,” he read the novel 60s’ documentaries to dive into his Lady In The Lake character. He studied the women’s liberation movement and community policing. “I watched documentaries about what it would be like to live in the 60s,” he explains.
Lady In The Lake has dark subject matter. It focuses on racism, misogyny, segregation, and violence. Noel decompressed with a trip to Mexico once the miniseries wrapped.
“Right after we finished filming, I went on a retreat,” he says. “A darkness retreat, which a lot of people might consider extreme. But for me, it was an opportunity to just get back to a neutrality.”
It was helpful to embrace the “silence and stillness” of his environment.
The topics of the series are tough, but as history is being rewritten in real time, fiction is preserving dynamics that are being erased from other platforms.
Noel is a writer as well as an actor. He wants to tell other stories he deems important. “I want to tell more stories about African mythology, African folklore,” he says. “I’m really interested in those stories about African mythology and African gods and kings and Priests. And not only that I’m also interested in a utopian world where people are more in touch with our intrinsic powers.”
As for Lady in the Lake, Portman’s character Maddie feels untethered to worrying about presenting brisket in the perfect ensemble when people are hurting. Ferdie wants justice no matter the cost to himself.
“She’s fascinated in finding the truth and he’s also on a journey of that as well,” says Noel. He appreciated his character’s commitment to doing what was right. “He stood ten toes down despite the consequences that he might face and I think that that’s a very admirable quality.”
Noel understands Maddie’s desire to leave her safe bubble and dive into new surroundings.
“I think it’s important that we hop out of our comfort zone because those are the places that we discover the best things about who we are,” he adds. “I think it’s important to pursue your dreams and the things that you’re interested in regardless of the sacrifices.”
Lady In The Lake is now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes air on Fridays. See the trailer below.