NOELLE MESSIER
  • ACTING
    • ACTING DEMO REELS
    • ACTING RESUME
    • DICHOTOMY
    • BLACK TAR ROAD
  • VOICE ARTIST
  • COMICS
  • SCREENPLAYS
  • BLOGS
  • BIO
  • CONTACT

Coloring Outside the Lines: Sketching My Comic Book Life

7/15/2019

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier in New Harbor, Maine
Noelle Messier
Donna Manicotti Dyke Detective #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
I am an artist but I cannot draw.  My television storyboards in college were all stick figures.  So, why in the world would I decide to create a comic book?
Noelle Messier 4 yrs old, painted by her mom
Noelle Messier 4 yrs old, painted by her mom
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy
What I can do is draw from my history, life, and my imagination.  My mom was a fine artist in the 1970’s.  Her specialty was colorful, abstract watercolors and splatter paintings. They were beautiful, deep, and free explorations into the emotion that lies beneath mundane objects, landscapes, or not so still, life.  Throw it all up against the wall and see what sticks.  That part I inherited.  Actor, video producer, voice artist, screenwriter, comic book writer/ producer.  Eventually something will stick.  
My dad loves puns and witty, British humor, so you combine that with my mom’s freedom of expression and my love for old 1940’s and 1950’s film noir movies, my butch identity, and my endless sexual frustration, and DONNA MANICOTTI (dyke) DETECTIVE was born.  An inevitable birth conceived by my pregnant imagination.
Through her sexually suggestive words and film noir style monologues, Donna Manicotti, a hard-wired, charismatic, lesbian detective takes the audience on an immersive and humorous journey, awakening imagination and erotic desire.  It is a sweet and savory, satirical, mystery romp.  The sensuality is palpable, visceral, and salacious.  It flows through the lilting saxophone and saturates the color, light, and shadows in every shot. This modern day yet timeless City of Angels can be heard, viewed, tasted, and touched.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide Front Cover
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide Front Cover
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
“My loneliness hung in the air like the thick moist fog clinging to my skin.  It was raining cats and dogs and my pussy was wet.”
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI (dyke) DETECTIVE lives in the space between attraction and orgasm…a tease for the senses…  For the record, this is not porn.  The images in the comic book are suggestive, not explicit.  The humor and sexual tension come out of the wit and word play.  Most of the suggestive dialogue has two to three different meanings, stimulating different parts of your brain simultaneously.  The example above could be as clean as a wet cat.  Your imagination does the rest.  This is written for a mature audience but I was a bit shocked when a comic book artist sent me some nude, explicit drawings.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not what I am going for here.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
When I was a kid I wanted to be the hero of those noir films.  I wanted to be that strong, charismatic detective that could paint words with his mind and seduce a beautiful woman at the same time.  This character of course was always a man, hence my life long conundrum and endlessly annoying blogs about my gender identity and sexuality.


​This detective character was also always a loner.  I have always been very independent and not so good at maintaining romantic relationships.  Perhaps to hide my own insecurities, I created my own unapologetic, tough, lesbian (dyke), detective character, Donna Manicotti.  I wear her like my leather jacket, a tough armor of metal snaps and zippers to protect my own tender, sensitive soul.  We both search for love and truth in a sometimes cruel and lonely world.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
In the steamy, first issue of DONNA MANICOTTI (dyke) DETECTIVE, Hollywood HOMOcide, Donna investigates the murder of Hollywood producer, Jerry Sparks, beat to death with his own Oscar Statue.  The prime suspect is Coma Lee Sparks, “the widow from the Valley who is hotter than Northridge with more curves than Mulholland Drive.” Donna attempts to get Coma off in more ways than one.
The difference between writing a film or television script and writing a comic book is that in tv and film you leave room for the rest of the crew to fill in the gaps.  In a comic book you have to be the producer, director, cinematographer, casting director, actor, costumer, location scout, editor, and most importantly, continuity person.
I had to box my 3D visual mind into 2D comic panel rectangles.  I had to decide what went where, what the characters looked like, what they were wearing, what the background looked like, and how many panels it would take for them to walk across a room.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
The entertainment business can be like an impenetrable, greasy, border wall.  You tenaciously climb up, only to slide pathetically back down again.  Very few are given the key to unlock the door.  
Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do.  The same thing that keeps me in my cage is the same thing that allows me to escape.  The stories and characters free me from the chains that tether me to my keyboard, auditions, and endless rejection.  The humor, drama, and fantasy take me away and yet bring me back to life.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
Fortunately for me, comic book folk are surprisingly helpful and accessible as compared to Hollywood gatekeepers.  A few casual connections and a couple of Facebook group posts and I was able to find a talented artist within my budget.  One of the reasons, I decided to do a comic book was that it is cheaper to produce than a quality television pilot would be to showcase this colorful, humorous, yet shadowy world.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier


​I love structure, but at the same time, I hate to be restricted by it.  Kind of the same way I feel about society.  I naturally follow rules yet my creative soul always yearns to color outside the lines.  I still struggle with it every day.  Donna Manicotti forced me to confront my own reflection and I am literally a character in my own story.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
I originally pitched DONNA MANICOTTI (dyke) DETECTIVE as an animated television pilot. The network thought animation was too expensive so I wrote it as live action.  When the script was later optioned, I had to accept the fact that I would never play the title character.   The producers wanted to attach a hot, feminine, straight looking, name actress.  I was also asked to add a young, straight, male side-kick character to the script.  I did.  But after the option expired, I replaced him with a geeky, lesbian, tech expert that makes weapons / sex toys and just happens to resemble one of my best friends.
With a comic book I had the opportunity to create Donna Manicotti in my image.  Not that I have a god complex or anything but I did want to make a statement.  Now, yes, there exists hot, feminine, straight looking, whatever that means, lesbians, and I am generally attracted to them, but that is beside the point.  
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE Logo Art
What about those masculine leaning lesbians that don’t want to be men or gender non-binary?  All human beings should be free to be who they are.  The entire LGBTQ diaspora needs more representation in the media to be more accepted in society.
Why can’t we have a salt and pepper, shaved headed, butch lesbian play a sexy, detective, leading role?  Why is that so hard for producers and casting directors to imagine?
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
REVRYTV DICHOTOMY Poster
Donna’s nemesis is Santa Monica, a mysterious Beverly Hills prescription drug dealer, a slippery, sophisticated, sexy, and deliciously evil adversary with a throaty laugh that keeps turning up like a, “persistent, vaginal itch.”
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
My nemesis is my doubt and insecurity.   It was hard enough for me to embrace my own gray hair.  Will the world accept a butch, dyke (and yes, I use that word on purpose) Donna Manicotti?  Will they accept me for who I am?  Does it even matter?  Will Donna find love again?  Will I?  The journey continues… Entertainment is art.  Love is art.  Life is art.  And art is my life.
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier

​The three-act structure in writing allows me to let go of the need to control the words.  In acting, the structure, or my base, my core of centered calmness, allows me to freely channel the words, feelings, and emotions that create my characters and performances.  Without that center there is no control.  Without the lines, there is nothing to color outside of.  I don’t know what will happen with this comic book but the process alone has been worthwhile.  I am so grateful to have the opportunity to play in this beautiful life. 
Noelle Messier in her bathroom in Hollywood
Noelle Messier in her bathroom in Hollywood
I still can’t draw but I will continue to throw my paint against the wall and I am quite content to watch the drips.
Noelle Messier as the Hot Chocolate Butcher
Noelle Messier as the Hot Chocolate Butcher
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide by Noelle Messier
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide Front Cover
DONNA MANICOTTI DYKE DETECTIVE #1 Hollywood HOMOcide Front Cover
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

DICHOTOMY: Cutting Into It

11/13/2017

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Mark Deliman
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Mark Deliman
INT. BATHROOM - DAY 
 
Lanky and androgynous with short hair in a slit tank top and sweats, JANE, stares deeply into her eyes in the mirror.
 
One CLICK and the HUM of hair clippers echo through the room.
 
She brings the clippers to the top of her head.
 
Pause.  Deep breath.
 
Holds up her bangs.
 
The first cut is the deepest.
 
She slides the clippers slowly through her hair leaving a line of 1/8-inch fresh fuzz.
My life and my art are often indistinguishable, waxing and waning like the phases of the moon.  On January 1, 2017, I shaved my head.  I shaved my head and I filmed it.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy
I cut into my hair and I cut into my life.  I felt a need to dissect, to slice, to sever, to cut myself into pieces, mix them up, and then hopefully sew them back together again.
I was frustrated with waiting for those strong yet soft, butch lesbian roles. I was tired of competing with large or muscular women and feminine LA model chicks with their hair in pony tails and backwards baseball caps, auditioning for the “butch” role.  Or getting auditions canceled because they decided to go with a name.  Sure, I am grateful to be going in for roles originally written for men and happy to occasionally be seen for the doctor or cop or nurse, who just happens to be gay. I am thrilled to see butch roles increasingly being written and casting directors open to diverse interpretation. However, by the time they are cast and end up on TV, they are often homogenized and feminized or neutralized from what was originally written in order to cast a name actress or model or combine all the diversity into one character or just to placate the other half of the country.
Noelle Messier shaving her head live in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Joshua Gilstrap
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Poster for Dichotomy starring, written, and produced by Noelle Messier and directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
I was tired of feeling insecure and like I was not enough.  I needed to do something bold.  Express myself.  Make something meaningful. Something that cannot be ignored. Challenge myself and society to see me.  And to not be afraid of it.  So, I shaved my head, for my art and for my life.
I made a short film called Dichotomy that I wrote, produced, and starred in.  It is about a butch lesbian who shaves her head, forcing herself into a battle with her masculine and feminine sides in a humorous and twisted journey of self-discovery.  Yeah, okay, pretty autobiographical.
I knew I wanted to title the script, Dichotomy, but I had to do a little research to make sure I was on the right track to fully express what I was feeling.
The word, “dichotomy,” basically means, to cut in two.  It is made up of the Greek root, “Di” or “Dich” meaning two and “Tomy” meaning to cut into.
 
The first definition of the word, dichotomy, according to Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dichotomy
1: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities – the Dichotomy between theory and practice; also: the process or practice of making such a division – Dichotomy of the population into two opposed classes.
 
The fourth definition is very similar to the first:
4: something with seemingly contradictory qualities
    -it’s a Dichotomy, this opulent Ritz-style luxury in a place that fronts on a boat harbor
     —Jean T. Barrett
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Human nature or nurture loves to divide things into dichotomies, black or white, pink or blue, good or bad, positive or negative, gay or straight, masculine or feminine.  Our whole universe is powered by polarities.  The gravity, magnetism, the tides, and the phases of the moon.  Conflict appears to be inherently natural.
Feminine and masculine have been taken over by society to mean dresses or pants, make-up or not, weak or strong, soft or hard, emotional or stoic, long hair or short hair.  In reality we are all made up of feminine and masculine genes, hormones, and DNA that come in as many variations as there are people on this earth.  We use labels to define who we are and yet at the same time our differences can divide us.  If we could get away from our human need for separation, perhaps we could realize we are all the same within our individual dichotomies and really are part of one loving and peaceful universe.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Now, if you look at the definition of the word, feminine. Again, quoting from the sexy Merriam Webster.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminine
1: female
2: characteristic of or appropriate or unique to women – feminine beauty – a feminineperspective.
3: of, relating to, or constituting the gender that ordinarily includes most words or grammatical forms referring to females – a feminine noun
4: a: being an unstressed and usually additional final syllable after the final complete foot in a line of verse – a feminine ending.
b: of rhyme: having an unstressed final syllable
c: having the final chord occurring on a weak beat – music in feminine cadences.

 
I get that words have always had masculine and feminine connotations and in many languages the words actually have sexes.  Although, I never understood why one was masculine and one was feminine.  In French, hair is actually masculine.  A butterfly is masculine but a firefly is feminine.  A cat and even a beaver are masculine? At any rate, good for them for not being entirely stereotypical.
I consider myself a butch, lesbian woman. Although, I only use those terms because it is how society tends to describe me.  I still wear make-up and can be very soft, emotional, and nurturing.  Sure, I like to lift weights and be in control. I have masculine tendencies in the way I dress, the way I carry myself, my sexual preferences, and appearance.  But that does not make me any less feminine by definition.  I am still biologically a woman.  I have no desire to physically change into a man.  
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Portrait by Joshua Gilstrap
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Joshua Gilstrap
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Mark Deliman
My character, Jane wants to reconnect with her innate femininity through androgyny.  Our hair has meaning to us.  Our hair represents who we are and how we see ourselves.  By removing it, cutting into it, shaving it off, Jane removes that social construct to face who she is beneath it.
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Mark Deliman
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Yannis Zafeiriou
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Mark Deliman
During the film, my character, Jane has a debate with herself in the bathroom mirror mimicking the Gollum vs. Smeagol scene from the movie, The Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers.  Her demonic and strong feminine side tries to suppress her insecure and weak masculine side.  I chose this parody because of the distinct good vs. evil sides plus the added dichotomy of flipping the typical feminine and masculine roles, making the feminine side more aggressive and the masculine side more subservient.  In Jane’s world, society keeps telling her to be more feminine but her soul is fighting to express her masculinity ever present within her innate femininity.
Noelle Messier as Jane as Gollum in Dichotomy directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Noelle Messier as Jane as Gollum in Dichotomy
​JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
We wants it, we needs it. Must have the femininity.  They stole it from us, sneaky little lesbianses.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
No, no not lesbianses.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
They will make you butch. They will make you shave your head. They will laugh at you.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
Lesbianses are my friends.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
You don’t have any friends.  Nobody likes you.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
I’m not listening.  I’m not listening.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
You’re a girl.  You love pink.  You love dresses.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
No.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
Dyke!
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
Go away.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
Go away?
 
GOLLUM lets out an Evil LAUGH
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
I hate you.  I hate you.
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
Where would you be without your femininity? I saved us.  It was me.  We got more auditions because of me.
Noelle Messier as Jane as Gollum in Dichotomy
My evil character venomously screams out the word “Dyke” as if it is the worst insult on the planet.  Most people know the term to refer to a lesbian, often in a derogatory fashion, or a dike (American spelling) that refers to a ditch or bank, “to control or confine water.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dike
The British word is actually spelled, “dyke,” like the lesbian term.  Dyke has always had a butch connotation to it. Every day, I am challenged to reconcile my identity as a woman with being a little masculine at the same time. Over the years, lesbians have done a great job reclaiming the word, dyke to just mean, “lesbian.”.  Even the water definition contains a dichotomy.  A “dike” either refers to something hard that forces the water in a different direction or something soft that allows water to collect and pool. Soft or hard, feminine or masculine, even the definition can’t decide.
Picture
Dichotomy banner with Noelle Messier Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
I often get the question, “Why didn’t you spell the title of the film, “DYKEotomy?”  I considered it because I love some good word play but I really didn’t want to exclude most of the population by focusing with a lesbian lens.  All human beings feel the dichotomy of trying to fit into the categories that society uses to divide us. We are constantly forced into separate groups from the time we are children.  It is no wonder racism, gender discrimination, homophobia, and sexual abuse are so prevalent in this country.
Noelle Messier's freshly shaved head in Dichotomy directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
The second definition of dichotomy was a bit of a surprise to me: 
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dichotomy
 2: the phase of the moon or an inferior planet in which half its disk appears illuminated.
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Portrait by Joshua Gilstrap
Noelle Messier's freshly shaved hair in Dichotomy
I have always had an affinity for the moon and I have gone through many phases in my life.  I went from straight to bi to lesbian to bi to lesbian.  I still have days where I feel somewhere in between and when I am not in a relationship it gets even more tricky.  This personal battle with masculinity and femininity has taken place frequently in my head and literally on my head.  In my more feminine days, when I had a long tress of dark hair covering my head and shoulders, the moon had only begun its journey.  A dark shadow hiding my true luminous self beneath. It took years of phases.  I went from long hair to mullet to short hair to longer, short hair to shorter, short hair and finally to baldly go where no woman had gone before. The full moon.
Dark shards of hair fall slowly into the white sink.
 
She shaves another line.
 
Jane continues to run the clippers through her hair.
 
More and more hair drops as she runs her hand over her buzzed head.
 
She stares long and hard into the mirror.
 
Her eyes slowly tear up with regret.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Sure, this regret was written in the script but at the same time, I was experiencing these feelings in real time. Not only was I shaving my head on-camera but I was looking directly into the camera as if it was a mirror.  I could not see what I was doing.  There was a lot of apprehension attached to this decision. How we define ourselves sexually and socially can be fraught with struggle, insecurity, and fear of regret.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
When I finally did get a chance to see the full, hairless moon it was both shocking and liberating. It did really force myself to focus on who I was beneath the hair.  Fortunately, I have a pretty good shaped head.  Physically it felt amazing.  There is nothing like it when you feel the sun caressing your tender scalp for the first time or the tingling sensation of heat escaping through the top of your head, or warm water absorbing into your pate.  I was more afraid of the human reaction.  I was offered a catering job a few days after the initial shave. I didn’t know if I should do it.  It was a small dinner for a Jewish Rabbi. I ended up sending my boss a picture. He thought it looked great and as it turned out, they loved it.  One of the women was extremely complimentary and said she wished she was brave enough to shave her head.  I have been surprised to see how many people focus on my face more with less hair.  I actually get less people calling me “sir.” I like to think they are somehow illuminated by my full moon to see my innate femininity within the androgyny.  I don’t know why that is so important to me?  I don’t think there is anything wrong with appearing or being completely masculine, it is just not who I am.  Occasionally I do get the, “do you have cancer reaction?” but that is mostly from men.  My life has become a bit of a social experiment anyway so I find it all rather fascinating.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy Directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Dichotomy branding for RevryTV
Noelle Messier in photo by Mark Deliman
Picture
Part of the experiment was to see how the new look affected my acting career. I did grow it out to a shorter buzz instead of the full on bald.  Maybe I am selling out but maybe that is just part of where I am at right now?  I was hoping it would give me a bit more distinctiveness, to push me forward into a new category. After all, I was partially inspired by Charlize Theron in the movie, Mad Max. I did book a couple of awesome, TV acting jobs this year, but unfortunately, they both ended up on the cutting room floor.  When these things happen or things get slow or I get lonely, the doubt and insecurity creep back in.  I look in the mirror and I see the monster lurking in the shadows.  My face looks long, or my wrinkles more prominent or my head makes me look like an alien.  This was part of how I got the idea for the film in the first place.  I really do talk to myself and make monster faces in the mirror.  It is when I see the humor and the humanity in it all that it snaps me back into the light.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Pulling it together, Jane fishes in a drawer and pulls out some mascara and begins applying it.
 
The brush slips marking her upper and lower lids black. 
 
Frustrated she draws black lines all over her face.
 
Realizing how ridiculous she looks her mood begins to lighten as she makes faces in the mirror.
 
She rubs her head and GROWLS.
 
She scrunches up her face and hunches her shoulders.
The sun comes out again and I realize it is all part of the process.  By shaving my head, I may have cut myself out of a few of those more feminine roles, that I never got anyway.  However, I am suddenly getting called in and cast as the villain, creature, bad ass, prisoner, crunchy granola type, feminist, and cult member.  Way more fun! I am also beginning to realize that it is okay to face the dark side of the moon, to acknowledge it, and then let it go. No matter what length my hair is or whether I am more feminine or masculine or butch or femme or whatever, it is constantly changing.  The light side comes back around in no time.  The phases of the moon are consistent and yet fluid like sexuality and life can be.   No matter what you do, it will always wax and wane.  Ever consistent in its inconsistency.
Picture
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Portrait by Joshua Gilstrap
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Portrait by Joshua Gilstrap
Finally, we get to the third definition of dichotomy:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dichotomy
 3: a: BIFURCATION; especially: repeated bifurcation (as of a plant’s stem)
    b: a system of branching in which the main axis forks repeatedly into two branches.
    c: branching of an ancestral line into two equal diverging branches.
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy directed by Yannis Zafeiriou
Picture
It is through confronting the dichotomies within us that we truly branch out and grow.  
Our bodies, our organs, our lives are created by dividing cells. Is it even possible to remove division when it is such a part of our biology?  Society can be cruel but it can also lead us to introspection, activism, and change.  Without the election of President Trump, would we have had so many people and even corporations banding together and protesting against discrimination and sexual harassment? Not to mention, a huge increase in women, younger people, and diverse candidates running for office?  Division can be polarizing but it also creates action and further growth.  I am grateful to have my two opposing sides.  They give me the drive to create and to fight for what I believe.
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
Leave now and never come back!
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
No.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
Leave now and never come back!
 
JANE AS EVIL GOLLUM
Grrrrrrr....
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL
Leave now and never come back.
 
Pause. She looks around.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL (CONT’D)
We told her to go away and away she goes.
She spins and dances around the bathroom.
 
JANE AS GOOD SMEAGOL (CONT’D)
Gone, gone, gone.  Jane is free.
 
She takes a moment and washes the black off and dries her face with a towel.
 
Long stare into the mirror.
 
JANE
Free.
 
Big smile.
Noelle Messier as Jane as Smeagol in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane as Smeagol in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane as Gollum in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane as Gollum in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane as Smeagol in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane as Smeagol in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy
Picture
Noelle Messier as Jane in Dichotomy
Noelle Messier in Dichotomy Set Photo by Joshua Gilstrap
In my short film, Dichotomy, Jane eventually drives away the dichotomy within herself to see the light within.  She finds peace and freedom in being the woman she is. It takes Jane about 11 minutes to complete her introspective journey. Dichotomy is based on my feature film script, I.D. In I.D., butch lesbian, actress Jane loses her I.D. card, searches for a sexy, identity thief, helps her gay roommate, Mike make a documentary on gender stereotypes, cracks an identity theft ring, and finds love and her identity, in about an hour and a half.  It is a gender-bending comedy of errors that takes Jane’s journey across New York City. For me, this journey has taken my whole life. I am still fighting and doubting and struggling every day to just feel somewhat comfortable as the butch yet innately feminine woman that I am.
I stare deeply into my eyes in the mirror.  Time to shave my head again.  Every four days to maintain a good buzz.  It is kind of like a rebirth, a reflection. Collect the pieces and sew them back together again. Every time I question my choice it reaffirms my path.
Dichotomy selected by Newest and Cinema Diverse film festivals.
Dichotomy premiered at Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs and NewFest in New York City.  Two of the best LGBTQ festivals in the world. It is a film that can apply to anyone and everyone who has ever felt uncomfortable in their own skin or unable to conform to societal expectations. I would like to see Dichotomy get into some “straight” or mainstream festivals and become more accessible through worldwide distribution. I would like to see my feature script, I.D. made into a movie and I would like to continue to promote the representation of butch lesbians in mainstream media. I want people to see themselves reflected in my mirror. How you express yourself personally, sexually, or socially does not make you more masculine or feminine it just makes you more human.
Noelle Messier with Dichotomy Cast and Crew
I look at my daily calendar and notice there are little symbols that indicate the phase of the moon every month underneath the day of the year.  I never noticed that before.
The full moon shines through my window.  She follows me everywhere.  I feel her light and love shining on my freshly shaved head, guiding my life, and absorbing into my soul. Her shadow, her radiance, her masculine and feminine, her magnetic pull toward love, give me the strength to continue my journey to challenge society and find peace within myself.
Exploring life through art.
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
Noelle Messier with Dichotomy Cast and Crew
0 Comments

WAIT Training

7/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
First off, I did not misspell the title.  It will all make sense in the end.  I promise.
I’m at the gym working out with weights.  WEIGHT training makes me feel strong, powerful, masculine, and beautiful.  I can lose the expectations of society and my ego and become one with my body, pumping and stretching and falling into the music.  One more bicep curl, one more pull-up, a few more crunches, and nirvana.  A turn-on, a sense of accomplishment, freedom, and instant gratification in an hour and a half.
I walk back home, soaking in the vitamin D, with a spring in my step, and a drive to push forward with my creative career and my love life.  I get the mail and open up a SAG residual check for $0.59.  Yes, that’s right, fifty-nine cents.  Hiding under a Hollywood Reporter and some bills on my steel topped table I see my audition sides and bam!  Back to ego, back to thinking about the future, back to not knowing what to do, back to insecurity, and back to waiting.
Noelle Messier in photo by Natalia Knezevic
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
I need to learn how to wait.  And wait consciously, without denying my feelings and without driving myself crazy.  How to just be.  I need WAIT Training. 
I look it up on Google.  Other than abstinence education, semen conservation, and waiting tables, there is nothing.  Well, I am a do it yourselfer so here goes… So, those sides were for an audition for a reoccurring lesbian role in a pilot for a major network. Whoohoo! Right? No. The audition got cancelled the night before. My manager assured me it would be rescheduled.  Well, that didn’t happen.  Then a new slightly different breakdown was released and again my manager submitted and pitched me.  Okay, still waiting. They probably went with a name.  Pretty normal in this business.  Or maybe it will still happen if I just stay positive and wait.  I look up at my ceiling beams for comfort and all I see is my dead plant hanging from a metal chain.  I need a distraction.  Oh look, there’s a message on my computer from a dating site.  She has only one profile picture and it’s out of focus and she’s wearing sunglasses.  Really? I want to fall in love with her eyes not her sunglasses. I delete her and her sunglasses from memory. Anyway, home is where the heart is, right?  Then why does my heart suddenly feel like it’s on vacation? Why does it feel like it is breaking under the pressure of stasis and loneliness? ​
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier as Leah in Trophy Wife
Noelle Messier as Leah in Trophy Wife
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier's dead plant
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. Don’t get me wrong.  I am busy as can be.  Catering my ass off, submitting for projects, keeping up on my manager, auditioning for acting roles and voice overs, getting new headshots, re-doing my demo reel, writing my next feature screenplay, and trying like hell to keep up on social media, yoga, and the gym. Yet, I still have this sense that I am missing something.  A sense of constantly being in limbo and not feeling quite grounded. Waiting for something. The big WAITING finger poking at the back of my mind and the pit of my stomach.  And it just keeps getting multiplied.  The waiting on tables to pay the bills.  The waiting for casting notices that are right for me.  The waiting for those perfect auditions and then waiting to book the job. And of course, the waiting during the job to do the job.  And waiting for a part where I do not have a line that is either, “I am not a man,” or “ma’am I’m not a sir,” or some such variation.  Granted, I have done very well with those parts and am extremely grateful. Waiting for someone to recognize that there is such a thing as a sexy, butch lesbian. Or an androgynous, lesbian lead character.  Waiting to be comfortable in my own skin.  Waiting to be recognized for who I am and to own that without shame or discomfort. Ironically, it is through being other characters that I really learn how to be me.
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
I do not just need WAIT Training for my career. I am still, almost pathetically, waiting for love. For that special someone who jumps off the page and down my pants and actually lives in Los Angeles.  I just put my profile back up on the dating site after a year hiatus. If and when I actually find a potential match, there is the waiting to meet, waiting to see what they actually look like, waiting for the next date, waiting to see where it goes, or waiting for it to end. 
Noelle Messier in a photo by Laura Stevens
Our lives are full of waiting.  We spend endless hours in line waiting for food, waiting for entertainment, waiting to buy things, waiting to get things or ourselves fixed, and of course, waiting in the dreaded L.A. traffic.  Waiting to die and waiting to live. Waiting is part of life and death. It is what we signed up for.
So how do I make it all stop?  Kind of an odd conundrum.  I want to find a way to stop the immobility.  Maybe one way to stop waiting is to be completely present in the moment because then there is nothing to wait for.  Whatever I am waiting for only exists in the future.  My frustration comes from looking at my past and feeling like I should have accomplished more or done this or that. The missing link is obviously internal.  So yeah, I’ve done the self- help route and therapy and Eastern philosophy and A Course in Miracles, blah, blah, blah.  I know I should be embracing the NOW, living in the moment, forgetting about the past and future, and manifesting blah, blah, blah.  And it is all right and true, and I get it. But why is it so darn hard to do?  And then I get mad at myself for thinking that it is hard, because I should be thinking it is easy, if I really want it to happen. But I have to actually believe that and not just say it, blah, blah, blah.
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Noelle Messier as the Police Officer in Dr. Ken
Noelle Messier as the Police Officer in Dr. Ken
My fear of waiting is not really rational. It is almost instinctual.  A self- protection mechanism to soften the blow of disappointment.  I actually have a lot to be thankful for.  This year I booked a nice part on a major television show, Dr. Ken, and I actually had a scene with over 5 lines.  I love my new manager and have been getting some great auditions and feeling confident.  I am in the midst of researching and writing a love story about my gay uncle and his husband who have been together for 65 years.  My uncle John was a singer, a tailor, and a war hero.  He was married to a woman when he met Richard at Julliard in NYC in 1950.  It was love at first site. They sang opera, taught singing together, started a vocal foundation and coached Broadway stars.  They raised a son who became an actor and eventually tore the family apart with homophobia and scientology.  A true story of endless love, humor, music, tragedy, and faith.  For me, it has already been an inspirational, moving, and personal journey.
John Mace and Richard Dorr, Noelle Messier's great-uncles in NYC
John Mace and Richard Dorr, Noelle Messier's great-uncles
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee in the poster for Black Tar Road designed by Fred Tatlyan
  A feature film I starred in finally got finished after 6 years of waiting.  Granted it did not turn out the way I had hoped but I learned a lot and it did get picked up by a distributer.  That film, Black Tar Road, did not make it into OUTFEST but a little short I was in last year, Wedlocked, did.  I’ve been waiting for years for that. I will be part of one of the biggest LGBTQ film festivals in the world.  I will sit with my peers and soak in the estrogen on All Girl Friday as I watch myself on screen.  I built a voice over studio out of a telephone booth and have voiced four paying projects.  From all the catering work, I was finally able to ditch the 13-year-old car and buy a new one I love. As much as I like to complain about the food service industry, it has given me the flexibility to do what I love.  It also keeps me in shape and I have made some incredible friendships and made a lot of people smile.  Yeah, the love life is still lacking but I’m working on that. All in all, I am pretty happy. 80% according to a test I took. Yet why do I still feel stuck in the muck of the stagnant pond of waiting?
Noelle Messier and her Mini Cooper
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier in Cher Women's World Music Video
Noelle Messier in Cher Women's World Music Video
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Picture
Noelle Messier in Wedlocked directed by Puppett
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
The secret to WAIT training was whispering in my ear on the way home from the gym but I wasn’t listening.  I drink a glass of wheat grass juice and the light starts seeping into my brain.  Okay, so, WEIGHT training puts me in the present, one with mind, body, soul, and the universe. Lifting weights is a challenge.  So is waiting.  I don’t look at WEIGHT training as a chore but as an opportunity and a positive experience.  Maybe if I change how I look at waiting, it won’t be quite so difficult.  Look at Heinz Ketchup.  Their late 70s early 80s advertising campaign with the whole, “anticipation it’s keeping me waiting,” Carly Simon song thing. They made waiting and ketchup look sensual and delicious.  If they can do it, why can’t I?  But, this is a new millennium.  I like to be in control of my ketchup.  I don’t want to feel like a powerless cog in the waiting machine.  I want to slap the bottom of my bottle and spill my bloody contents all over the counter. Here I go, not wanting to wait, problem solving, and making a mess of things again.  Perhaps, I need to accept that I do not need a solution.  I simply need to be comfortable with the problem. Maybe the secret to waiting is that I have to practice being at peace with the waiting and feel my feelings and just be okay in the discomfort. 
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Or I need more sex. Look at me, making it sound like I’m actually having sex.
Noelle Messier in her apartment in a photo by Laura Stevens
There is definitely a sexual component to WEIGHT training.  The push, the build, and the pay off.  My favorite part of sex is the tease.  The give and take.  That moment right before the thing I want is taken away is the most intense and powerful. The wanting and the yearning can be pleasing in itself. Especially if I am focused and concentrated and allow myself to feel it without fear of loss.  In that instant I am in the abyss, the waiting, and yet the anticipation is intoxicating.  The energy in that second right before the actual orgasm is, for lack of a better word, orgasmic. That payoff lives in every waiting moment.  It is happening right now, constantly, and in complete nothingness.  Maybe if I just give in and embrace it.  Feel the spark hidden in the waiting where desire and gratification meet in the present moment.  Then just maybe, that energy, in that positive space, will find a new home, where my heart, mind, and spirit can become one.  Where motion is free to enter my life and I am free and ready to accept it.
Noelle Messier in photo by Natalia Knezevic
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier in photo by Shawn Barber
Noelle Messier's almost dead plant
I look up at that same dying plant and notice one long, living leaf reaching out of the bramble.  Everything has its ebb and flow.  I am exactly where I am meant to be right now. I am a homebody nomad exploring life through love and art. A loving person in a loving world that exists in every waiting, magical, infinitesimal moment. Waiting is simply, joyful opportunity over and over again.  At least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.  I’ll let you know how it goes…
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Oh and Miss Casting Director, can you please just give me that audition, so I can blissfully experience the joyful, orgasmic, intensity of waiting to get the part, waiting to shoot the pilot, waiting for it to get picked up, waiting for the contract, and waiting for the money to rain down and wash me with love.
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
Noelle Messier in photo by Laura Stevens
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Hot For Mother Nature

11/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier in Photo by Natalia Knezevic
OR...I Need To Get Out More
Noelle Messier in Photo by Natalia Knezevic
New Harbor, Maine blueberries
The tips of my reaching fingers delicately pluck her plump, firm berries releasing her ready, ripe fruit into my gentle, moist palm.
 
Yup, Hot for Mother Nature!
Blackberries in New Harbor, Maine
I press my body into her wet leaves saturated from a warm summer rain. I gingerly caress her glistening jeweled clusters until she lets go, dripping sweet black juice onto my skin as her hard nails claw at my back.
 
Hot for Mother Nature!
Finger Rocks on the coast of New Harbor, Maine
With earthly passion and strength she lunges towards me. Her form is cut with rippling, rock hard striations. My hands search her smooth pathways, lingering on the soft cracks and wise crevices teaming with life. Her grounding magnetism leaves me shuttering with ecstasy.
 
Hot for Mother Nature!
Cat Tails on the coast in New Harbor, Maine
Her undulating waves crash with a deep moan. She tastes of salt and smells of sunshine.  She breathes in light and exhales love. Her whispers titillate my ears and spray down my spine. Her beauty fondles my heart and transforms my soul.
 
Hot for Mother Nature!
Noelle Messier in Selfie in New Harbor, Maine
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Magnetism And A Long Black Tar Road Paved With Good Intentions

6/12/2012

0 Comments

 
Amber Dawn Lee and Noelle Messier at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
She slides her cold fingers under an unsuspecting belt inserting a hot magnet of our lesbian kiss.  The bass pulses through my chest as the sun beats down on my shoulder as my heart explodes with the colors of the magnetic unity of the Gay Pride Festival.
Picture
Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
This year like every year, my first thoughts of venturing out to the Gay Pride Festival tended to be negative: the heat, the crowd, the aching feet, the lost texts, the lost friends, the smells of debauchery.  I often forget the positive magnetic electricity of unbridled freedom of expression, of camaraderie, of love.  One of my recent personal goals has been to become one with that positive flow of energy without taking things personally to avoid being sucked down the vacuum of fear and negativity when facing the challenges life has to offer.
A year and a half ago I was cast as the lead in a gritty independent feature film called Lot Lizard.  Since then the film changed directors twice, filmed for a couple of weeks, got funding, lost funding, almost got major funding, got post production taken care of, did some more filming a year later, lost post production, got post production funding, lost post production funding, etc, etc, etc.  Oh and changed titles twice.  The film is now called, Black Tar Road.  Anyway you get the idea.
Amber Dawn Lee, the writer, executive producer, and co-starring actress, finally decided it was time to get this film finished and she couldn’t do it by herself.  She wanted me to come on as, dare I say it, PRODUCER.  I had put so much time and effort already into this film, so kicking and screaming, I finally succumbed.  I was doing it anyway.  ​
Noelle Messier Selfie 2012
Black Tar Road Movie Poster starring Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee
We had no money, neither of us wanted to be a producer, and to make matters worse our working styles and personalities are completely different.  Her creative inspiration comes in waves and spurts and her brain is in ten places at once.  I think linearly and organized and like to focus on one thing at a time.  We have had our disagreements.
Amber Dawn Lee and Noelle Messier at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
Amber Dawn Lee and Noelle Messier at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
Black Tar Road Magnet at Gay Pride, West Hollywood 2012
So now here we are at the West Hollywood Gay Pride Festival with 95% of the film shot.  We are handing out refrigerator magnets on the staircase landing of a packed PYT, the pride lesbian club of choice, of our Black Tar Road poster.  We are hoping the magnet with our hot lesbian kiss will get us a few more likes on our Facebook page.  The magnets were my idea and on the spot, Amber, came up with the inspiration of inserting them into the unsuspecting lesbian cleavage, pocket, or pants. They loved it.
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
Once Amber and I learned to stop taking things personally, we were able to stop fighting and start focusing our attitudes in a positive direction. We have begun to understand and accept that we think differently and have come to realize that our differences are actually an asset.  Opposites do attract if you allow each other to be their own person.  Our good intensions have started magnetically attracting people to our film production. We found directors and crew to donate their time and people to donate amazing locations. Due to our hardships we were forced to adapt and create a better film.
Gay Pride West Hollywood 2012
I have also found it is important to not wallow in the why this happened or why that happened and move forward into the now.  All of the people who offered money or promises that were lost along the way of making this film started with their own original good intensions.  They contributed or did what they could.  It is not personal.  It is just something that happened.  The more I am able to be grateful and find the love, the happier I am, the more inspired I become, and the harder I work.
This film and myself are both works in progress and we have a long journey yet to go.   Amber and I are still learning and making mistakes but trying to do them with a spring in our step and love in our hearts.  We have enlisted interns and volunteers and are organizing and logging endless amounts of footage, putting together trailers, coming up with promotional ideas, and getting ready to start a fundraising campaign for editing and postproduction.
Our independent feature film, Black Tar Road, is a junkie love story between two women, a truck stop prostitute and a trucker, two lost souls, who battle their addictions and their ties to the local drug dealer, to find love in the middle of nowhere.  Charlie is addicted to heroine and Heather is addicted to speed and they become magnetically attracted and addicted to each other.  They learn to accept each other for who they are.  I play the character of Heather, who eventually finds faith through finding the love within herself.  Through playing this character and the ups and downs of producing this film I found faith in the love within myself. 
Amber Dawn Lee and Noelle Messier in Lot Lizard Set Photo in Texas
Amber Dawn Lee at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee in photo shoot by Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard aka Black Tar Road
Noelle Messier with Black Tar Road Magnetic at Gay Pride, 2012
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee celebrating Gay Pride in West Hollywood, 2012
I am feeling that gay pride, that camaraderie, and that love that unites every one of us.  The magnetic flow is unstoppable on this long Black Tar Road paved with good intentions.
Black Tar Road Magnet at Gay Pride, West Hollywood, 2012
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Stretching Myself Between Three Sisters And A Truck Stop Prostitute

7/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
I stand tall, take in a deep breath, spread my legs, and stretch my arms in opposite directions reaching for infinity.  Lines flow effortlessly through my mind.  Lines from a play I performed in, lines from a movie I starred in, and lines from my ex-girlfriend in the throws of love.  I tilt my body towards my right leg to complete the triangle. The movement into Triangle pose softens the lines on my face as I attempt to balance my fictitious characters, my romantic life, and reality.
Yoga helps me to find balance, stretch my brain, and my body at the same time.   In this world of multitasking, I have gotten in the habit of going over my acting lines for auditions or performances while I breathe and bend. I hear Olga from the play Three Sisters saying, “In a little while we will know what we are living for.  Why we are suffering.  If we only knew. .. If we only knew...”  Heather from the movie Lot Lizard, in an emotional moment, reaches out to her lover and says “What I really want is to cut myself to pieces, but I thought maybe just maybe, if you touched me, I might not feel it for a minute. “ A romantic line from my ex-girlfriend on the other side of the world creeps in,  “You send me shooting stars and I send you sunshine.”
Noelle Messier Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
Noelle Messier as Olga in Three Sisters of Perestroika directed by Pavel Cerny
I recently finished performing the role of Olga in a world premier translation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play, Three Sisters, set in Russia during Perestroika in the 1980’s, adapted and directed by Pavel Cerny. Cerny re-imagined the role of Olga, typically played as the spinster sister, as a lesbian, trapped in small town Siberia longing to escape to the freedom of liberal Moscow.  Olga is the strength and matriarch of the family, comforting her two sisters through their romantic ups and downs, sacrificing her own chance at love for their happiness.  My challenge was suggesting “lesbian” without stereotyping and staying true to those beautiful feminine emotional sections as Chekhov originally wrote them.
Picture
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
Just before rehearsals began for Three Sisters Or Perestroika, I played the role of Heather, a down on her luck, truck stop prostitute, in the independent feature film, Lot Lizard.  Truckers use the term, “lot lizard” to describe the ladies of the night that skulk around the rest stop parking lots offering sex for money.  Heather, a former beauty queen, trapped in a dysfunctional desert town gets involved in a drug deal gone bad and becomes a speed queen and a lot lizard indebted to her abusive drug dealer with a god complex.   Like a lizard with a hard shell and a soft center, Heather falls for Charlie, a female, drifter junkie who gives her the strength to find hope and love in a world of darkness.
Picture
I lift my leg and reach out for a Half Moon pose.  After two weeks of shooting, Lot Lizard got put on hold for refunding, restructuring, and possible recasting.  I may or may not get the opportunity to finish the film.  My foot starts to twitch and my body starts to teeter.  Right after the filming stopped, my fairytale long distance romance came to an end. The bright white sunlight of reality throws me off balance and it is too late to stop from falling.  I hit the mat hard.  I stretched my love life as far as I could to Australia and back and in the end neither of us was flexible enough to reach Nirvana. Olga wanted to escape from cold Siberia, Heather needed to escape her dessert truck stop, and I just wanted to escape from myself.  “Breathe, just breathe,” I say to myself as I lift my posterior and stretch into a Down Dog.
Noelle Messier Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
As I do a Shoulder Stand, I think, “What is the next step?”  I hold my Tree Pose and wonder, “How long can I last?”  I attempt another Half Moon and I think, “How will I ever achieve balance?” and ”How do I link the center of my mind with the center of my body?”  I retreat into Child’s pose and surrender into Corpse pose.  “When do I give up if it isn’t working?”  When I first started doing Yoga a few years ago I could barely touch my toes.  Now I can literally kiss my knees.  It may not sound like much but to me it is huge.  I am more flexible now than I was in High School.  My strength and flexibility have increased dramatically.
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
Yoga poses alternate between strength and softness.  Yin and Yang.  masculine and feminine.  I return to these themes over and over.  I workout with weights not only to maintain my health but because I love to feel the power in my muscles and I love the look of a toned body. I have also come to appreciate the beauty of softness and the flexibility that yoga gives me.  Oddly they complement each other because my stretching has allowed me to strengthen muscles that were not previously accessible and my strength has allowed me to stretch into poses I couldn’t previously hold.  It is the same journey with my sexuality and relationships.  “Am I too butch or too femme?” And how does that dynamic influence the relationship to the other person I’m with?  My butch side gives me the strength to open up my feminine side and the emotion of my feminine side makes me so much stronger.  It is a stretching of myself, a molding of my body and mind, strength and vulnerability that give me the power to know who I am and the power to be one with someone else.
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
Noelle Messier
Hollis McLachlan and Noelle Messier in PieHead A Kinda True Story
Hollis McLachlan and Noelle Messier in PieHead A Kinda True Story
I get back up into Mountain pose and flow into Warrior 1 as I regain my energy and determination.  Last year I was cast as a lot of stereotypical hard, tough, lesbian characters.   I played the role of  “butch lesbian” twice on television and “butch leather biker lesbian” in a film, a secret service agent in a web series, and a butch gym teacher, Mrs. Greasby, in the movie, Piehead (coming soon, hopefully, to a theater near you). I also performed the role of a woman disguised as a man in the play, Slaughter City and got my teeth knocked out in a stage fight (see last blog).   More recently however, my characters have become more of a combination of that strength and softness I strive for in my yoga practice and in life.  I played an A.D. on the T.V. show, Law and Order, Olga in Three Sisters Or Perestroika, and Heather, the truckstop prostitute, in Lot Lizard.  Heather is by far the girliest role I’ve played in a long time and the sexiest in a traditional heterosexual sense.  As you can well imagine, none of the wardrobe was mine.  The other difference from last year is that none of these characters had to be lesbians but they all could be.   Is this a sign of the times or a change in society?  Perhaps diversity is becoming more diverse? Or am I just becoming more diverse and flexible in my craft? Either way it is exciting.
Noelle Messier as Coach Greasby in Piehead (A Kinda True Story) written and directed by Hollis McLachlan
Noelle
Noelle Messier on the set of Lot Lizard
I open my body into the Lotus position to fill myself with the beauty of breath.  How do I cast myself in my own life?  My ex-girlfriend said I changed after I started filming Lot Lizard.  Maybe I did?  Or maybe that character allowed me to connect with that feminine part of myself which has always been there.  Every character I play becomes a new exploration into the unknown.  Every day I must take another step forward whether it is in improving the flexibility and strength of my body or my acting and writing career. The progress is slow and the dynamics are constantly changing and growing along with my characters, auditions, and relationships.  The harder the pose the more I am challenged and my body learns to adapt.  The darker the character the more I stretch and grow.  The harder the audition the more I improve. The more heart breaking the relationship, the more I learn.  The journey can be frightening, disconcerting, and devastating.  Yet also fascinating, ecstatic, and enlightening.  As I succeed and fail simultaneously from one audition to the next and one relationship to the next I persevere and continue to connect the puzzle pieces to cultivate the softness and the strength to progress on to the next step of the path.  By opening my heart and building the muscles to support myself I can power through the bad times and glide effortlessly forward into the sunlight of happiness.
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee Photo Shoot with Lisa Boyle for Lot Lizard released as Black Tar Road
Three Sisters Or Perestroika directed by Pavel Cerny
Three Sisters Or Perestroika directed by Pavel Cerny
Three Sisters Or Perestroika directed by Pavel Cerny
A final Sun Salutation and I am ready to face the world.  Every role I play in fantasy or reality, every audition, every thing I write, and every relationship brings me closer to that balance between career, love and myself.  Those are my three sisters.  I navigate the three-sided triangle balancing on the tip.  Between action and inaction there is only breath.  Just breathe.
Noelle Messier and Amber Dawn Lee with Lot Lizard Crew aka Black Tar Road
Amber Dawn Lee and Noelle Messier with Lot Lizard Cast and Crew
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Sinking My Teeth Into Gender Play and The Synchronicity of Art and Love

3/17/2010

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir, Son of Semele Ensemble Theater
His carefully controlled fist slices through the air just missing my face as his solid elbow connects with a deafening thud under my chin, snapping my jaw up and sideways, as my teeth and tongue collide and become one.  I fall slowly as if in a dream until I smack the cold, hard stage of reality.  Fake blood oozes from my mouth between the sharp edges and fragments of broken teeth floating in my mouth.  The theater audience has no idea that this fight has become all too real.
Program Cover for Slaughter City, directed by Barbara Kallir, Son of Semele Ensemble Theater
Noelle Messier after a stage fight gone wrong.
On March 8th, 2010, in the middle of a choreographed stage fight during a performance of the play, Slaughter City by Naomi Wallace, at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in Los Angeles, I chipped my four top front teeth.  Stabbing reality and the colorful haze of the imaginary world blended as I stumbled through the long scene and into the next before I could make my exit stage right.  The show must go on.  And life goes on.  The almost spiritual connection I have with this play had suddenly taken a deeper turn and literally altered my body forever.
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Does life imitate art?  Or does art imitate life?  From the moment I read Slaughter City, I knew I had to play the lead role of “Cod”, an immortal woman traveling back and forth through time, disguised as a man, to act as “a spark for all eternity” fueling the fire of protest of the laborer against the capitalist machine repeated throughout history.  I have always been pro-union but that aspect is not what hooked me.  The author, Naomi Wallace, adds a cross gender love story, marrying her socialist agenda to a politics of love and sexuality as a way of freeing ourselves from oppression.  Take control of your body and take control of your life.  “Coming is the body’s way of saying fuck you to the rules and regulations,” Cod says gathering union support.  “I am radiant and I am fearless and I will not be disposed of; I am not a piece of meat.”
Noelle Messier
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
As an out, lesbian actress, this role was an enticing opportunity to indulge my butch side along with the acting challenge of passing as a man through most of the play, as well as, an opportunity to further explore my personal sexual androgynous freedom.  Cod dresses as a man not only to work in the slaughterhouse but because that is how she feels most comfortable.  “Working like a man I feel more like a gal, know what I mean?” she says to her female lover after her secret is revealed.  
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
In a special coaching session with Lisa Wolpe, the artistic director of the LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, I learned to literally walk like a man, presenting “the package”, taking up as much space as possible, and crushing tiny Lilliputian people beneath my feet like Gulliver from the book, Gulliver’s Travels.  Lisa also stressed the importants of finding areas in the play where my vulnerability and femininity could still shine through.  In my real life I appear as a soft butch on the outside but am all girl inside and I have no desire to change that because it is who I am. 
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
During the course of the play, Cod, falls in love with, Maggot, a female worker, who believes Cod is a man.  Cod is like an indentured servant forced to repeat her role as the spark of the worker capitalist conflict because of a promise made between Cod’s mother, a textile worker who died in a factory fire, and his nemesis, Sausage Man, who diabolically grinds up bodies with his sausage grinder throughout history.  As conflict increases so does Cod’s temperature and she can literally burn something with the touch of her hand, including the love of her life:  “If I touch what I desire, I’ll destroy it.  Just one touch and toast.”
Coincidentally, just after being cast in Slaughter City, I became involved in a passionate long distance relationship with the love of my life who found me through an article on the website, AfterEllen.com written about Hellbent For Hollywood, the crash and burn acting reality television show I taped a few months ago.  My girlfriend likes to describe our relationship as, “an international love buzz,” and although we have not officially met we have stayed together for five months over the course of phone calls, Facebook messages, email, texting, video Skype, and the old fashioned romance of letter writing.  I know it sounds crazy and I do have a history of being a bit of a commitment-phobe, only having two relationships in my life that have lasted more than a year, but I do believe I have finally met “the one.”  ​
Picture
As Cod has been wandering through history, lost, not knowing who or where she is, I too have been looking all my life for that one soul mate that could stop time and change my course of history.  She completes the puzzle and compliments me in ways I have only dreamed of but I can’t touch her.  The frustration is almost unbearable.  As Cod says, “I am alone, I have never been anything but alone.  Let her touch me and I’ll know where I am.” Through the fire of love, Cod finally gets the confidence and drive to challenge her destiny: “Sometimes history’s just not ready for you and so you have to give it a shove.”   She is accepted and touched by her lover and no one gets burned as the workers save themselves from their hell on earth by putting out the fire in the slaughterhouse fueled by the Sausage Man during a lock-in protest.
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Now, throughout this play I have been ridiculously accident-prone.  I have various cuts, bumps, and bruises from the fight, chains, and knives, and almost caught the stage and myself on fire, and of course, the final blow that knocked my teeth out.   For the love of theatre, what’s next? And this is an Equity (stage actors union) waiver play that I am not getting paid for.  The good news however is that the union requires insurance for just this kind of thing.  Go union! ​
Noelle Messier after stage fight gone wrong.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, NYC March 25, 1911
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, NYC March 25, 1911
So what is the universe trying to tell me?  There are way too many coincidences coming together with this play to ignore.  As much as I have bounced in and out of relationships, I have bounced in and out of my acting career, never being fully committed to either, out of fear of failure. I have recently identified feelings of inadequacy in both areas and it is coming to a head now with my new relationship and this play and it is time to change before I lose far more than my teeth. Dreams about losing one’s teeth are traditionally associated with such things as insecurity, helplessness, issues with self-image, and transitions in life. Perhaps I needed to get my teeth knocked out to drill it into my skull that I need to focus and be committed to my acting career and my love life and that they can co-exist together. As a lesbian I need to believe that my loving sexual relationship with a woman is just as strong as a heterosexual one.  My girlfriend is one of the few people in my life who gets my creativity, my career choice, and me. I need to be willing to lose a small part of myself to let her in completely.  I need to believe I am a talented actress and I deserve to be paid and be successful. Sometimes it is the negative experiences that lead us to the positive ones.  Positive and negative, yin and yang, are intrinsically linked as are conflict and change.  ​
Noelle Messier and cast of Slaughter City with director Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Noelle Messier and Cast of Slaughter City with director Barbara Kallir
If I am going to change, I need to have faith in myself, be comfortable with who I am, and be focused and committed to the belief that I can and deserve to be successful in my art and in love. Due to time and financial constraints, my girlfriend and I won’t be able to see each other for another few months but when she does finally make it over here, I will greet her with a huge smile with my new set of teeth and we will embraces change together. Our love will give us the strength to push through doubt and fear and change history forever.  To quote Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage.  And all the men and women merely players.”
Noelle Messier as Cod in Slaughter City directed by Barbara Kallir at the Son of Semele Ensemble Theater in 2010 in Los Angeles
Picture
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Let Everything Sexy Be I Am Naked

8/25/2009

0 Comments

 
Noelle Messier in Vanessa Beecroft Exhibit, Gagosian Gallery, 2009
Noelle Messier posing nude in Vanessa Beecroft Exhibit, Gagosian Gallery
​I am alive.  I am alone.  I am one. I am many.  I am freedom.  I am powerful. I am awkward.  I am self-conscious. I am androgynous.  I am art.  I am sexy.  I am naked.
These are a few of the thoughts I experienced several years ago posing nude in an art exhibit at the Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills for Italian artist, Vanessa Beecroft.  Beecroft is famous for her live art installations of groups of women, often nude, viewed as you would a sculpture or picture. As scary as it was, that exhibit was one of the most empowering and life changing events I’ve ever experienced.  Right up there with coming out as a lesbian.  Both experiences forced me to come out of hiding and embrace my true self.  Now I am being faced with a new challenge. Exposing myself on a reality show.
Hellbent For Hollywood is the name of the acting competition reality show I have sold my soul to. The word “hell” conjures up images of reciting Shakespeare while dancing over hot coals or receiving electric shock treatments for forgetting lines.  The producers assure me this is not the case.  But since when do they tell the truth on a reality show?  I keep telling myself it will be one of those empowering and life changing events.
Noelle Messier in photo by Sean Twomey
Noelle Messier in Hellbent For Hollywood Reality Show Top Ten, 2009
Noelle Messier with Hellbent For Hollywood Top Ten
Hellbent For Hollywood Reality Show
Hellbent For Hollywood Reality Show
Being an introspective actor, I have battled with the concept of how best to get exposure.  What is my image?  My brand?  What is marketable?  I am an androgynous, shorthaired, pants wearing, low-voiced lesbian.  For years I was in denial and dated men, grew my hair out, raised my voice, and tried to become more feminine in an attempt to be what “they” wanted.  As a result, I wasted lots of time getting in and out of the closet and getting in and out of acting.  It took me a while to figure out that I would never be successful without first embracing who I am.  My agent has finally figured out that I get called in to audition when the post reads: androgynous, butch, lesbian, or cop; and I love it.  I did a small role recently on the ABC Family show, 10 Things I Hate About You and created quite an uproar on Facebook when I posted,  “nothing like having “butch lesbian” taped to your trailer.”  The angry, pitchfork carrying, Facebook throng thought someone had scrawled the obscenity across my door like a Nazi swastika.  “Butch Lesbian” was the name of the character and I was proud to be identified as such.  Maybe being all that you can be isn’t about being everything but about being who you are.
Noelle Messier on Hellbent For Hollywood, 2009
Noelle Messier in photo by Sean Twomey
Being cast in Hellbent for Hollywood is forcing me to market myself and grovel for votes on the Internet, but more importantly, it is giving me a chance to put my money where my mouth is.  I am always the first one to say how important it is for the LGBT community to be out and visible in the media. The more we are out there, the more people will slowly begin to accept us as normal and not scary, closeted, hell bent sinners.  If we can’t accept who we are, how can we expect anyone else to?  So, I am planning on winning this show as an out lesbian actress come hell or high water or fire or brimstone or electric shocks or whatever.  Let Everything Sexy Be I Am Naked.  LESBIAN!
Noelle Messier on set for Hellbent For Hollywood Reality Show
Noelle Messier in Hellbent For Hollywood Reality Show
Noelle Messier in Hellbent for Hollywood Reality Show
LetEverythingSexyBeIAmNaked
0 Comments

Hellbent For Hollywood - VOTE NOW!

8/21/2009

0 Comments

 
Picture
Noelle Messier Photo by David Rowe
I’ve just been cast in a new competition reality show.  Kind of an America’s Next Top Model but for actors.   The idea is to launch the career of an actor in Hollywood while highlighting the realities and problems with methods traditionally used by the powers that be of Hollywood entertainment.
Very top secret at the moment. I need your votes to increase my Q-factor before the taping begins.  It can help save me from elimination as the show progresses..
Wood Stove in New Harbor, Maine
Noelle Messier in Open House directed by Jen McGlone
Noelle Messier Open House Set Photo
Just go to the website (link no longer available) and register on the right hand side to vote.  Put in my #220 in the form provided. It’s easy and you can always remove yourself from the email list if you don’t want to receive email updates.  Thanks.  This is a new website so much more blogs, pictures, and videos to come…
Noelle Messier as Ash in GLEAM directed by Jeff LaPenna
Noelle Messier as Ash in GLEAM
0 Comments

    BLOGS

    Noelle Messier

    I am a homebody nomad exploring life through love and art.

    Archives

    July 2019
    November 2017
    July 2016
    November 2015
    June 2012
    July 2011
    March 2010
    August 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • ACTING
    • ACTING DEMO REELS
    • ACTING RESUME
    • DICHOTOMY
    • BLACK TAR ROAD
  • VOICE ARTIST
  • COMICS
  • SCREENPLAYS
  • BLOGS
  • BIO
  • CONTACT