Warning: This article contains plot spoilers about next Sunday's episode of Footballers' Wives.

Twenty-five year old British actor Marcel McCalla had his first professional acting role at fourteen, playing the Artful Dodger in a stage production of Oliver! directed by Sam Mendes. More recently, he has appeared in two politically charged dramas by UK playwright Roy Williams. Fallout, which dealt with black-on-black murder and police attitudes toward race, and Little Sweet Thing, which dealt with gang culture and a teenager trying to ‘go straight' after being released from prison.

But McCalla is best known for his equally topical television role as closeted gay football player Noah Alexander on UK soap-melodrama Footballers' Wives. Noah was introduced on the series in Season Three, which premiered in February on BBC America. In Season Four, currently showing in the U.S., his story is continued.

Although he had never seen Footballers' Wives before auditioning, McCalla says that he “knew a bit about the character [of Noah], and I made my decision based on that. As soon as I heard about it, I was like ‘OK, it's quite a controversial role, so I'm going to go up for it'. So I did, and then I got a recall, and then I got the part.”

Reflecting on his string of roles as angst-ridden heroes suffering hardships, he laughs, “I think it's just my face. I've got one of those faces that looks like it should be going through some pain, you know. Those just seem to be the roles I play. Which I don't mind, because it's a big learning experience for me.”

In Season Three, Noah went through some big learning experiences of his own. Initially secretive about and ashamed of his sexuality, he was slowly drawn out of his shell via a clandestine relationship with his discreetly bisexual Captain, Conrad Gates (played by Ben Price.

Encouraged by Conrad's carefree attitudes, Noah began to take his first steps out of the closet, visiting gay bars and buying gay magazines. But he found himself in big trouble once his management realized what was going on. In the last episode of the season, he was brutally and spectacularly outed by the show's uber-villain Tanya Turner, who wanted to secure Conrad for herself.

McCalla says that he and Price discussed the dynamics of the Noah/Conrad relationship: “It was almost seducing, and it was the older guy, and the role model, somebody who Noah looks up to, and just a bit of manipulation from Conrad. I think that was their relationship.”

Although McCalla acknowledges that some of Conrad's advice may have been useful to Noah, and that Conrad doesn't actively mean Noah any harm, “Conrad is able just to switch on and off [his feelings for Noah]. He's saying ‘It's fine, yeah, gay, I'm gay, you know, whatever', because he wants to get something, and that's the manipulative side. ‘‘Do what you've got to do, don't worry about it--and I'll see you at your flat at eight o'clock.'”

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