As a ‘gender-fluid, masc-presenting’ actor, Colette Dalal Tchantcho can’t stress how rewarding it was for them to play a queer character on No Escape. “It’s everything when you come to work and you’re doing something that you love and they say, ‘We see you. We accept you. Let’s figure out how to do this and bring yourself to your character,'” she tells GAY TIMES. “Not a lot of people get that in this industry.”
Based on Lucy Clarke’s best-selling novel of the same name, No Escape stars Abigail Lawrie and Rhianne Barreto as Lana and Kitty, two best friends who, after committing a mysterious crime, have fled their lives in the UK. The duo find refuge on a yacht sailing across South East Asia, The Blue, which also consists of Aaron (Jay Ryan), Denny (Sean Keenan), Heinrich (Elmo Anton Stratz) Joseph (Narayan David Hecter) and Tchantcho’s queer character Shell.
Tchantcho shares that the “only reason” they boarded the project – besides their admiration for Clarke’s novel – was “because the queer story was so important, especially the way that it’s presented”. The actor, who previously starred in Sky Atlantic’s Domina and Starz’s Dangerous Liaisons, adds: “It was important that we got it right and did it justice, and that it was honest, relatable. Yes, there are plenty of stories within the community that are horror stories, but not all of our stories are like that.”
Read ahead for our interview with Colette Dalal Tchantcho, where they discuss how crucial it is for the LGBTQ+ experience to be normalised on-screen, why filming No Escape was – at times – “scary as hell” and their upcoming celebration (and education) of the Afro-Arab community in their forthcoming show Dreamer. (Spoilers ahead.)
Colette, I have to say: if the characters on No Escape listened to Shell then they wouldn’t be in this goddamn mess.
Exactly! Exactly my thoughts. There were also times where I was questioning why Shell was on the boat. Does she have a past that’s a bit suss? As Narayan’s character Joseph says, “We’re all running away, aren’t we?” What is Shell running away from that’s got her on this boat? Why does she adhere to whatever Aaron says? She does support him all the way through, she’s like his right hand. I wonder what skeletons she has in her closet.
My impression was that Shell and Aaron have known each other for a long time. I assumed they were best friends or lovers. Following on from what you said, what is your perception of Shell’s journey? How did she come to be on this boat?
Me and Jay were talking about it quite a lot at the beginning of the process, and we kept on building on our backstory as the series went along. Jay is amazing, he’s such a seasoned actor that he brings out the best in any of his scene partners. I give my commendments – is that a word? – because it made my clocks turn. We decided that they met long before at a boating training school and had parted ways, but once Aaron inherited this boat, the first person he called was Shell. They were probably the most original crew members of the boat. His relationship with Denny is a bit sketchy, so I feel she came into the family fold and mediated where she can, but probably thinks Denny is a bit of an asshole as well. And she’s an empath, isn’t she? Everything that Aaron goes through, I think Shell has endless empathy for him and is able to chime in when he’s in on a mad one.
