T.K. Carter The Thing (1982)
T.K. Carter (born June 24, 1956, in St. Louis, Missouri) played Nauls, the cook at U.S. Outpost 31, in The Thing (1982). Carter was a stand-up comedian and improv performer in his mid-twenties when he was cast in the part; he is the second of two Black actors in a twelve-man cast (the other is Keith David) and the only one whose character is presented in the comic register the camera holds for most of the film's first half.
From The Comedy Store to Carpenter
Carter cut his teeth at The Comedy Store and The Improv in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, working the same circuit as Eddie Murphy, Jay Leno, and Robin Williams. His first significant film role was in Doctor Detroit (1983); his first significant television role was on Just Our Luck (1983), a one-season ABC sitcom that paired him with a genie. The Thing was the role that brought him to feature-film attention. (wikipedia)
"I was twenty-five years old, doing stand-up at The Comedy Store five nights a week. Carpenter saw me there. He came backstage and said: 'Have you ever been to Antarctica?' I said: 'Have you?'" — T.K. Carter, Yahoo Entertainment (2018 oral history of The Thing)
Nauls is the camp's roller-skater
The Nauls character is introduced in the camp's rec-room sequences as a roller-skating cook who plays Stevie Wonder loud over the kitchen speakers. Carter's Nauls is the comic register the film keeps in reserve through the first hour: he skates through the corridors, he serves food, he is the human being most visibly enjoying being at Antarctica until everything goes wrong. The roller-skates were Carter's own contribution to the part.
"I asked Carpenter: can I roller-skate? He said: in Antarctica? I said: he's the cook, he's bored, he can roller-skate in the corridors. He said: try it. We tried it. It stayed." — T.K. Carter, Yahoo Entertainment (2018)
The towline scene
Nauls's central plot moment is in beat 27, where he slips into MacReady's outlying shack during a search-team split, finds shredded long-johns stuffed in the oil furnace, and reads the find as evidence that MacReady has been taken. He gets ahead of MacReady on the towline back to the main compound and cuts the rope.b27 This is the camp's first move against MacReady — the moment the post-midpoint approach is openly contested by the men he has been trying to test — and it is given to the comic-relief character because Carpenter's argument about the situation is that anyone, in that moment, could read the evidence and act on it.
"Nauls cuts the rope because he is the only man in the camp not running on procedure. He sees the long-johns, he reads them, he acts. That is the bravest thing anybody does in the picture." — T.K. Carter, The A.V. Club (2017)
Disappearance in the dark
Nauls disappears in the dark in beat 38, sent to plant dynamite somewhere in the compound. The film does not show his death; his flashlight goes out and is not heard from again.b38 b39 Carter has said the lack of an on-screen death scene was a deliberate choice and one he was happy with.
"Carpenter asked me if I wanted a death scene. I said no — I want him to just be gone. The audience doesn't need to see Nauls die. The audience needs to know that he didn't make it." — T.K. Carter, Yahoo Entertainment (2018)
The career after
Carter's post-Thing career was largely television. He worked through the 1980s on Just Our Luck, Punky Brewster (recurring), and a long string of sitcom guest spots. His major post-Thing film roles were Runaway Train (1985, Andrei Konchalovsky), He's My Girl (1987), and The Corner (2000, HBO miniseries). He has also been a working voice actor — King Bowser in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World television series.
Selected filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Doctor Detroit | Diavolo | |
| 1982 | The Thing | Nauls | Carpenter |
| 1983 | Just Our Luck | Keith Barrow | TV series |
| 1985 | Runaway Train | Dave Prince | Konchalovsky |
| 1987 | He's My Girl | Reggie Tibbs | |
| 2000 | The Corner | Curt | HBO |