Tom Blyth on Plainclothes and Wasteman

By the time Tom Blyth finishes describing his recent work, one word keeps resurfacing: empathy. Across two dramatically different films Plainclothes and Wasteman, Blyth has immersed himself in characters shaped by pressure, secrecy, and survival, approaching each not as an archetype, but as a human being caught in circumstances larger than himself.

Blyth offers a thoughtful look at how research, restraint, and emotional honesty guided two of his most demanding performances to date.

For Plainclothes, Blyth plays Lucas, an undercover police officer tasked with entrapping queer men while quietly grappling with his own unspoken identity. To prepare, Blyth began with real-world case studies that inspired the film, including accounts of entrapment practices that, disturbingly, took place less than a decade ago.

“I was surprised by how recent it was,” Blyth says. “And then I started imagining people I love in those situations. That’s where the emotional headspace came from, imagining how humiliating, how dangerous, how terrifying that would feel.”

That empathy extends to Lucas himself, a man caught on both sides of the system: enforcing harm while being vulnerable to it. Blyth describes the character as existing in a near constant state of tension, something written directly into the script through breath, silence, and physical restraint.

“The very last line of the script was simply: Lucas exhales,” he recalls. “That told me everything.”

Rather than leaning on dialogue, writer-director Carmen Emmi structured Lucas’s internal life through pauses and breath patterns, allowing Blyth to embody the character’s anxiety physically. Holding tension for weeks of filming was exhausting, sometimes painfully so but Blyth ultimately stopped resisting it.

“Lucas is tense for years. I only had to live there for five weeks.”

If Plainclothes is about holding everything in, Wasteman is about what happens when nothing is held back.

Blyth’s character Dee enters the film in full force, loud, disruptive, gleefully disrespectful of authority. The role came immediately after Plainclothes, offering a stark contrast.

“They couldn’t be further apart,” Blyth laughs. “Lucas is respectful to the point of self-destruction. Dee wants to tear everything down.”

Yet Blyth approaches Dee with the same curiosity and compassion. Beneath the bravado is a man shaped by trauma, someone who provokes and dominates as a form of self-protection.

“He’s decided, ‘I’ll hurt you before you hurt me.’ That’s his survival mechanism.”

Nowhere is that more apparent than in Wasteman’s prison riot sequence, where Dee repeatedly smashes himself against riot shields, refusing to yield even as his body gives out.

“He doesn’t have self-limiting beliefs,” Blyth explains. “He genuinely believes he can take everyone.”

That lack of restraint culminates in a chilling psychological turn later in the film, when Dee manipulates others into committing violence on his behalf. Blyth doesn’t shy away from the character’s cruelty but insists on understanding its roots.

“We were always trying to find the humanity, even when he’s being the ultimate villain.”

The film’s final moments strip Dee of his physical dominance entirely, leaving only rage, willpower, and fading vitality. Blyth likens the character to a “caged cannibal chimpanzee,” fighting until there’s nothing left, a comparison that underscores both the danger and tragedy of the role.

For Wasteman, authenticity was reinforced by the presence of formerly incarcerated cast members working with the charity Switchback. Their lived experience shaped the environment, lending the film an intimacy that Blyth describes as both claustrophobic and grounding.

“They were incredible collaborators,” he says. “And when people told us it felt scarily close to their real experiences, that’s alarming, but it also means you’ve told the truth.”

Blyth believes complexity and hope can coexist.

“Even when something is harrowing, it can still lead with hope,” he says. “Or at least with honesty.”

With Plainclothes and Wasteman, Tom Blyth delivers two performances that couldn’t be more different yet both are rooted in the same principle: a deep commitment to empathy, and a willingness to sit with discomfort long enough for something truthful to emerge.

Watch the full conversation below:

Q&A with actor Tom Blyth on his films Plainclothes and Wasteman. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.