Tom Blyth opened up about the complex characters that he’s been drawn to portray.
The 29-year-old actor played a younger, more morally conflicted version of The Hunger Games‘ main villain Coriolanus Snow in the 2023 prequel movie The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. He also portrayed the titular outlaw in his series Billy the Kid.
During a recent interview, Tom opened up about getting into character to play the darker roles. He also revealed if he was interested in playing a “nice guy” next.
Keep reading to find out more…
Speaking to Vman, Tom said that he was “really drawn to bad guys for some reason.”
“Or to morally complex characters,” he continued. “I think that’s because I see the world that way. I look at people and think, no one’s really good or bad. Everyone’s this huge mix of ambitions and objectives, and they’re all kind of clashing every day. I’m fascinated by the gradients between the two. Like, what is the psychology behind people who maybe start off with good intentions and then wind up giving up on them?”
He continued, saying that it was “the ultimate exercise in empathy” to figure out people that you do not agree with.
“I could never really pull the trigger like Billy the Kid does, you know? I could never do what Coriolanus does in that movie,” he added.
When asked if he tries not to take the darker characters home with him, Tom said that he couldn’t necessarily leave them at work.
“It’s a fine line because if I don’t take the characters home a little bit, I find that I’m not going deep enough,” he said. “I do let it come home with me because I want to ruminate on them and almost think the character’s thoughts.”
That being said, Tom drew the line with his newest character for the movie Watch Dogs. He said that he stops thinking about him at 7pm, adding, “I don’t want him in my room at night,”
Will Tom continue to play this sort of character?
“I actually recently discussed with my agent that maybe it’s time to play some nice guys for a bit,” he said. “Just because the last two films I’ve done, including the one I’m doing right now, they’re very morally complex characters, if not verging on evil. It’s so much fun getting to do stuff that you would never do in real life, and I try to find what’s so delicious about it. But it does take a toll. I get more tired of playing those guys. At the end of the day, I’m emotionally taxed.”
We just recently learned that Tom was cast in another highly anticipated project.
