Karl Walcott moved to Vancouver in the winter of 2022, immediately after participating Big Brother celebrities because he had heard that there was a lack of black actors in American productions. After taking acting lessons locally, he won his bet by getting a role in the final chapter of Riverdale.
But before filming 18 episodes of this hit teen series, he returned to Quebec last summer where Mara Joly was directing on the set of the new hard-hitting series After the Flood on Noovo, a role that allowed him to expand his role Horizons as performers.
Karl Walcott during a scheduled visit in September 2022. Joël Lemay / QMI Agency
His character Jimmy supports as best he can his single mother Pascale (excellent Marilyse Bourke), a woman with bipolar disorder who self-medicates with alcohol. Since she lives in a public housing project with her children, she can explode at any time and does not hesitate to hit her youngest, Dylane (Blanche Masse). The latter, who returns from a youth center, is like her mother; she quickly gets into arguments.
“Jimmy tries his best to guide his sister on the right path,” said Karl Walcott.
Blanche Masse plays Dylane, a young person who often gets into fights in the series “After the Flood”. PHOTO PROVIDED BY NOOVO
We exploit cycles of violence, we talk about poverty and crime, we talk about intergenerational and social trauma in After the Flood, all factors that keep the protagonists in a vicious circle, at least in the first two episodes seen by journalists.
“This role, even more than Riverdale and any other character I’ve played before, is something I’ve never considered. “It’s a complex character, then Mara Joly took me to different areas of acting…let’s just say it was time for me to be nurtured by a director and discover a new depth in my acting,” the comedian added.
Police officer Maxime Salomon (Penande Estime) and her boss (Stéphane Demers). PHOTO PROVIDED BY NOOVO
When Dylane is arrested, she has the chance to meet police officer Maxime Salomon (Penande Estime), who takes skinned young people under his wing by introducing them to mixed martial arts fights at the club that belongs to her heard. The story is inspired by the Espoir boxing club. By avoiding recording through extrajudicial measures like Dylane’s, young people break their isolation, develop life discipline, and channel their frustrations.
By channeling their frustrations into the Octagon, the young people we follow in After the Flood will find hope along the way. PHOTO PROVIDED BY NOOVO
Karl Walcott did not experience such a dysfunctional environment in his youth, but changed his lifestyle after the series The Chalet ended. Since then he has worked a lot on himself and on the interpretation. “What’s the point of playing if it’s not about improving,” he said.
Not a series about diversity
“After the Flood” is a deeply personal work for writer, director and co-producer Mara Joly, whose mother is African-American and her father is white. A mixed-race woman whose skin is more white than darker, she is a “child of the system” who, like her characters, experienced youth centers (her mother also wore them when she was in a youth center) and poverty.
Although the series is harsh and shows the reality of struggling Quebecers, Mara Joly promises light, resilience and redemption in the six episodes. She wanted to deconstruct certain stereotypes and offer less “thin” representations of disadvantaged people.
Mara Joly wrote, directed and co-produced After the Flood, a deeply personal work. We see her here during a scheduled visit in September 2022. Photo Agence QMI, Joël Lemay
After the Flood’s lesser-known faces are compelling, appearing in multiple languages, including Creole and Spanish. This is the case with Penande Estime, who plays the policewoman who thinks outside the box, but also with Blanche Masse and Érika Suarez, two young emerging talents who portray characters striving to take their place in a complex world.
The series After the Flood, produced by Zone3 and ZAMA Productions, starts on Thursday, September 14th at 9 p.m. in Noovo.