Meet Francesca Noel | Actor and Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Francesca Noel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Francesca, what inspires you?
Plants. Plant-powered purples and hydrated greens, also the stars, and water. Kogonada, David Lowery, Greta Gerwig, Tony McNamara, The Secret World of Arrietty, Ponyo, Laika, Will St. John, Rae Perry, Nick Alm, 18th century masters. Springtime, by Pierre Auguste Cot, Alma-Tadema. Searows, the musician. Leith Ross and Adrianne Lenker but they make me sad, but that’s ok. Cynthia Erivo. That’s a common response at this point but I would like it known that I loved her since being born. People who put their energy and feeling into their art. Couture. Also, a really good pasta bowl from Le Botaniste.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a screenwriter, and I guess as an actor by default and luck (when they want to choose me), I am always and only for uplifting brown girls. Something I noticed really early on while working on independent films, is that the most impactful, strongest filmmakers have a message. They pick a lane, and they advocate for it with their art. I was born to a blended Afro-Latino and White family in Brooklyn, and I moved upstate when I was around 4 or 5. I went through a lot of struggle, trying to fit in, understanding my identity, and being a creative. So much of my existence was boxed, metered, not allowed by the world I was living in. I think that’s why I now gravitate so much to finding vulnerability in the characters I play in the body I was given, as a hired actor, because that space wasn’t held when I was growing up. So, I’m happy to do that. But as a screenwriter, I am so here for writing brown female fantasy characters, or characters who do things normally reserved for white girls in media. That means a lot of period pieces, a lot of crying and standing triumphant at the same time, a lot of really fun play. And centralizing voices like mine. That’s what my work is about, for now. I feel very responsible for that.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
-Academy Museum
-Hiking
-More Museums
-Coffee
-Elysian Park
-Matador Beach
-Massage in Thai Town
-Budino

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe so much of my journey to my best friend, Suika Sono-Knowles. She’s my left brain. As a biologist and researcher, she approaches science with the same curiosity and ingenuity that I bring to storytelling. We grew up two girls of color in a PWC, reading fantasy books in her little cabin in the woods. She’s the first person I turn to always. She is my Julia Butterfly. Her work (she’s worked on the Kure Atoll Conservancy, I could only reach her via SAT PHONE for 7 MONTHS I almost died) constantly teaches me and shows me that great story exists everywhere—even in the precision of data and the complexity of the natural world.

Also Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Shoutout Edward Cullen.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francesca.noel/?hl=en

Image Credits
Nick Sparkman