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Posted in: CW, Netflix, TV | Tagged: Glow, Reacher
GLOW Star Sydelle Noel Reflects on Legacy, Career Watershed Moment
Sydelle Noel (Reacher) spoke with us about her run as Cherry Bang in the Netflix wrestling drama GLOW being a career-defining role.
Article Summary
- Sydelle Noel calls GLOW’s Cherry Bang the role she’d most revisit, choosing it over her Arrow character Samanda Watson.
- Noel says GLOW was her first series-regular role and a career watershed that deepened her bond with the cast.
- Playing Cherry Bang let Sydelle Noel embrace the character’s flaws while discovering new strength through wrestling.
- Noel reflects on why GLOW remains so meaningful, from its locker-room sisterhood to its lasting impact on her career.
Sydelle Noel has come a long way in her 20-year career since her debut in the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Among her earlier works are ABC's Private Practice, CBS's Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, and Fox's Bones. The actress really started to hit her stride with memorable roles in Marvel's Black Panther (2018), The CW's Arrow, and Netflix's GLOW. While promoting her work on the Prime Video action series Reacher, Noel spoke to Bleeding Cool about which signature role she would revisit whether it's FBI Agent Samanda Watson, who investigated Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell on whether he was the vigilante known as Green Arrow, eventually working with him on Arrow, appearing in seasons 6 and 7; or Cherry Bang, one of the talents featured in the fictionalized version of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, who becomes a leader in the locker room.
GLOW star Sydelle Noel on Why Playing Cherry Bang Meant So Much
Bleeding Cool: I wanted to ask you about two of your signature roles. If you could revisit Samanda Watson from 'Arrow' or Cherry Bang from 'GLOW,' who would it be and why?
Noel: Like, which one would I choose?
Yeah, if you had to play a character one more time, who would you choose and why?
That's pretty hard. Wow! Oh my gosh! Dang, because I really like both. I mean, I guess I have to say Cherry Bang, more so because of her flaws. 'GLOW' was special. I had a special connection with all the girls on that set. It was my first series-regular role, my first big break. I loved everything about that experience and learning how to wrestle, like, what?! I control my body and lift girls over my head. I didn't even think I had that type of strength. So yeah, thank you, Cherry Bang.
GLOW, created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, is a dramatization based on the 1980s David McLane promotion of the same name, featuring an ensemble cast led by Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin playing original characters, Ruth Wilder and Debbie Eagan, struggling actresses who use the promotion to potentially bolster their careers through their personas in the Soviet-inspired "Zoya the Destroya," and the patriotic "Liberty Belle" with a promoter Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) doing everything he can to train the talent to become credible pro-wrestlers. Like the promotion, many of the recruits play caricatures and stereotypes that were atypical of 1980s pro-wrestling, which do get addressed on the show accordingly, since many of the gimmicks haven't aged well. Noel's Cherry Bang played the characters Junkchain and Black Magic; given the names, they don't exactly leave much to the imagination about African American ring personas. While the series lasted three seasons, the run ended up cut short as a casualty of the COVID pandemic, not that Netflix needs much of an excuse to cancel a show anymore these days. Reacher, which also stars Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Agnez Mo, Anggun, Christopher Marquette, and Kevin Corrigan.
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