BRITISH-French crime drama Death in Paradise introduced new police officer Naomi Thomas in its eleventh series.
However, actress Shantol Jackson broke down after she was originally turned away from another role in the show.
After deciding to spend more time with his wife and children, Sergeant JP Hooper (played by Tobi Bakare) left his spot in Saint Marie, leaving a free space for a new face.
Series eleven of Robert Thorogood’s Death in Paradise (which first aired in January, 2022) saw the arrival of newcomer Shantol Jackson aka officer Naomi Thomas to replace Hooper.
While she was keen to impress detective Neville Parker (Ralf Little) and Florence Cassell (Josephine Jobert), Naomi was appalled to find out that her colleague Marlon Pryce (portrayed by Tahj Miles) used to be a criminal.
But during a recent interview with her co-star Tahj, in his podcast titled The Table Read, Shantol admitted that securing herself a spot on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie had been no easy feat.
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It took her three years to finally get the role she wanted.
Shantol admitted she had auditioned for the BBC One programme a first time in 2018 and was actually turned down on numerous occasions.
This was despite her and her agent feeling confident she had the part.
“I did five auditions”, she recalled, “and they kept saying ‘Hey, we love your performance, but you need to change this and change that.”
“Tahj, I won’t lie, I balled”, added the Death in Paradise star, remembering she had cried after receiving an email breaking the news to her.
“I was so devastated and I cried, I was like ‘This industry is so awful, why am I doing this?'”
After having what she described as a “proper breakdown”, Shantol remained positive she could get her dream role at another time.
“That was 2018 and I got my agent in 2017 when I came here, and every year since then I’ve done 1,545 self-tapes, I am going to round it up to that.”
“Every year I would send them an email saying, ‘Thank you for still being here with me’ because nothing was happening”, she remembered.
Thankfully for Shantol, and much like her on-screen character, perseverance is one of her main qualities and this didn’t go unnoticed.
While she may not had received the role she had originally auditioned for, Shantol was pleased when bosses reached out to offer her the part of Naomi Thomas in 2021.
But this wasn’t her first experience in acting as the Jamaican actress has five years of experience in the industry.
She has appeared in many staged plays and starred in her first feature film, Sprinter, in 2021.
Shantol has also worked with Idris Elba in 2017, when she appeared in Yardie, which was a selected at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, in January, 2018.
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Aside from her impressive acting credits, Shantol is also the 2017 recipient of the Jamaica’s Prime Minister Youth Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture.
As for Death in Paradise, the BBC has already given a green light for a twelfth series.
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