Tom Bryce could have starred in Francis Lawrence's fieldwork blockbuster The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but that doesn't mean the British actor is giving up on doing the film justice.
Worked Example: “Plain Clothes”. In writer-director Carmen Aimi's feature debut, Bryce stars as Lucas, an undercover cop in 1890s Syracuse, New York who falls in love with Andrew (Russell Tovey), Andrew is one of his targets in a sting operation targeting men for public lewdness. In the restroom of the mall.
“There's something really refreshing about the fighting spirit of a small movie like this [“Plainclothes”],” Bryce told me during this week’s Zoom video interview for the Just for Choice podcast from Senegal, where he was filming Claire Denis’s The Cry of the Guard. “This 12 months and the last 12 months I've done a lot of them. I'm back to that on function. It reminds you why you bought this product in the first place. It reminds you of being a 15 year old and filming these zombie movies with my neighbor in my yard with a video camera. ”
“Undercover” will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26.
Bryce isn't considering returning for the upcoming sequel to “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
“Rachel [Zegler]I will not attend this one because the next one will be held 45 years later than ours. It makes me unhappy because I miss everyone involved. “I texted Francis the next day and he said, 'I miss you,'” he said. '” I mentioned, 'Well, prosthetics are actually pretty good these days. It's not that hard to make me look 65.”
This Q&A has been edited for length and readability. You can keep an eye out for the full conversation on the Just for Choice podcast.
How did the script for “Undercover” come about?
I was filming the second season of the TV show Billy the Kid in Calgary, Canada. I had been working on a lot of scripts at the time, and this was the first one and the one place where I sat in my seat and said, “Oh my gosh, I have to do this.” Carmen flew to Calgary in a snowstorm and walked through the script. We went out for dinner and drinks, and it was a very creative competition from the beginning and we kept thinking, “Let's do this together.”
How much do you know about these sting operations?
I didn't know it existed until the 1950s, but I think I mistakenly and naively assumed it had disappeared. One of the first issues Carmen did was send me an article about a story from the early 2000s, and I was really impressed. I remember being shocked at how popular it was.
Did you study chemistry with Russell?
Carmen and I have been working on the script and the character of Lucas and building it together, and we've been brainstorming who might play Andrew. I texted Carmen: “Fuck, where’s Russell Tovey?” Carmen texted again: “He’s on my bucket list. We’ll try to offer it to him.” Without a doubt, they did. , he also responded. We did a chemistry test on Zoom, but I think Carmen already knew he was going to be good in the first half. This is just a formality.
How much intimacy coordinator did you use in your sex scenes with Russell?
We have an incredible intimacy coordinator, Joey Massa. I've worked with a lot of intimacy coordinators, so they've always been great. Generally speaking, I really feel like they're being called when the scenes aren't even that intimate because now everyone is rightly trying to course-correct and make sure everyone is protected. Normally you have a kissing scene and you're like, “We probably know how to do that.” However, this is really an intimate thing. It was actually intimate, it was actually vivid, Joey couldn't imagine it. It feels natural. It felt like we were rehearsing it in a way that I felt Russell and I both felt confident and comfortable enough that we could lead it. I think it works best when the actor really feels brave and empowered to take charge of the choreography and make it feel very natural.
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