TikTok Star Noah Beck on His Acting Debut in ‘Sidelined: The QB and Me’ and Facing Online Haters: ‘People Can Be Cruel and Nasty for No Reason’
TikTok star Noah Beck is ready for his close-up.
The 23-year-old former soccer player makes his acting debut in director Justin Wu’s “Sidelined: The QB and Me.” He stars in the Tubi teen romance as high school quarterback heartthrob Drayton opposite Siena Agudong (TV’s “Resident Evil”) as his dancer love interest Dallas. The film is based on the Wattpad YA novel “The QB Bad Boy and Me” by Tay Marley.
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“For the longest time, when the idea of acting floated in my head, I was like, ‘I want to do this.’ And I liked the idea of starting from scratch, not really knowing much about the space,” Beck tells me. “I was constantly seeking something more and wanting to do something creatively that felt bigger than me and collaborative. And I think acting and the industry and movies, it does just that.”
Beck’s social media stardom took off about four years ago. He now has 32.9 million followers (with 2.5 billion likes) and 8 million followers on Instagram.
I first met Beck about a year ago at the GQ Men of the Year party in Los Angeles. “I think my next big goal is to go from a small screen to a big screen,” he said at the time.
He not only started taking acting classes, but also began reading scripts. “I felt like I was hitting this thing with social media where I was like, ‘Where do I go from here? What’s the next thing you do?’ And I think the last thing I wanted to do was just keep myself in this box,” Beck says. “And I was like, ‘Why not? If the opportunity presents itself, why would I not try and say yes to everything that comes my way?'”
However, Beck, who is also a producer on “Sidelined,” isn’t ready nor even thinking about leaving social media behind. “I don’t ever want to neglect TikTok, because it has truly made me who I am, as a person, one, but two, career-wise, I wouldn’t be here without TikTok,” he said. “I do owe a lot of my success to that, and I have fun with it. It’s not really a job, you know what I mean? It is a part of life that yes, it does pay the bills, it’s been very kind to me, but I think I still have fun with it. As long as I’m still having fun with it, I will continue to post on it and be active and in the meantime, continue to hopefully make movies, if they’ll have me.”
Beck acknowledges that his foray into acting will come with criticism. “People can be cruel and nasty for no reason,” he says. “I don’t think I have a bone in my body that wants to be problematic. Peace has been my mantra for the past few years, honestly. I am a much happier person when I have good morals, when I do things that make me feel good and make others around me feel good. So I know these things that are being said online, if it becomes toxic or whatnot, they don’t affect me personally because…they don’t know me.”
He continues, “With this movie coming out, there will be people who have something to say, but I’m proud of the project and I am so happy with everything that went into it.”
James Van Der Beek plays Beck’s father in “Sidelined.” Beck recalls the day Van Der Beek went public in People magazine in early November that he has colorectal cancer. “It was gut-wrenching,” Beck says. “I immediately sent him a text and I was like, ‘I don’t have many words, but you know that I’m here for you.’”
Not long after, Van Der Beek attended the “Sidelined” premiere in Los Angeles. “When I first saw him, I got goosebumps because him making the trip was amazing,” Beck says. “And him sitting through the whole movie and just, again, sharing a moment with him after was pretty amazing.”
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