Tom Blyth is drained, however he’s doing job of hiding it. When the star of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” sits down with Variety by way of Zoom, SAG-AFTRA continues to be on strike, and it’s been six quick days for the reason that Lionsgate thriller obtained an in- terim settlement from the guild.
That means the press tour main as much as the long-anticipated launch, sometimes unfold throughout a number of months, has been condensed to simply two weeks. But Blyth is animated as he talks about touchdown the function of Coriolanus Snow within the prequel story, which explores how a poor young man with a revolutionary spirit ultimately turns into the vicious dictator of Panem.
“When I got the call, I was ec- static for a moment,” recollects Blyth, 28, who’s finest referred to as the titular character within the MGM+ collection “Billy the Kid.” “And then I was like, ‘Oh, shit, I actually have to do this. I have to play this character, when there’s already such a big cinema folklore around him.” Donald Sutherland’s heartless President Snow within the authentic franchise is a far cry from Blyth’s obedient cadet, who’s balancing his old flame with crushing obligations to maintain his household afloat.
“I don’t think I anticipated how emotionally taxing the role was going to be,” admits Blyth, hours after the movie’s Berlin premiere. “I was like, ‘I’m part of a big block- buster franchise. This is gonna be fun!’”
Of course, sending kids into an area the place they’ll struggle to the dying isn’t precisely the stuff of sunshine comedy. When the story begins, 18-year-old Snow is chosen to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the District 12 tribute for the tenth annual Hunger Games. But in contrast to the primary movie within the Jennifer Lawrence-led collection, a good portion of the plot takes place after the video games are over, illustrating the grim actuality of life in totalitarian Panem.
For young Snow, the drive to outlive and succeed transforms him. “He ends in an entirely different place to where he begins,” Blyth says. “And everything that happens in between those two points is huge, life-changing stuff that most people in their lifetime don’t go through.” To assist him seize the character’s complexities, Blyth turned to the movie’s supply materials, Suzanne Collins’ novel of the identical identify.
“What Suzanne Collins is really good at is asking those questions: What makes a person bad? Were they born bad?” he says.
If Snow’s actions are morally questionable, there’s no doubting the unadulterated evil behind Viola Davis’ deliciously coldhearted Head Gamemaker, Dr. Volumnia Gaul. Davis shares a number of electrical scenes with Blyth as Gaul plots new methods to torture the tributes.
“That tension you feel in the scenes is partially acting and partially me being petrified of working with one of my idols,” Blyth says, laughing. “She’s just the most professional, down-to-earth, lovely human being with a massive heart, who also just happens to be a fucking genius. You get in a scene with her, and she just makes choices that you couldn’t have even imagined making yourself.”
Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Viola Davis as Dr Volumnia Gaul in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Photo Credit: Murray Close
Blyth might have been petrified taking part in reverse Davis, however the Juilliard-trained actor was fearless about embodying Snow. He underwent a serious bodily transformation, dyeing his brunet locks icy blond and dropping weight to realize Snow’s underfed body.
“It was an intense process,” he says. “I was pretty much just eating apple slices and almond butter for six months.”
The actor believes “Hunger Games” followers can be stunned after they see his tackle Snow. “People think they know the character. What I hope is that, if not to empathize with him, they understand him a little bit more and understand what makes him tick. And understand what a character like him would have to go through to make him become so evil.”
“For me, I kind of fell in love with him as a character,” he says. “I was heartbroken when I had to let him fall off the deep end.”
