Russell Tovey Says ‘Plainclothes’ Co-Star Tom Blyth ‘Is Full of Stardust’ and Teases ‘Doctor Who’ Spin-Off ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ Feels ‘Like an Indie Film’

variety.com:

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events It didn’t take much for Russell Tovey to connect with “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbird’ star Tom Blyth.

The actors first met on Zoom before filming writer-director Carmen Emmi’s gay indie drama “Plainclothes.” “Instantly I was just like, ‘This guy’s the real deal,’” Tovey says on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast. “He’s a Brit and I’m a Brit and we’re both out there doing our thing.

I was so charmed and excited to work with him and he is a real actor, and he’s got an absolute passion for independent film.

He is all about honesty and authenticity in telling the story, and that’s what I’m for. The relationship between those two and their connection and their chemistry is fundamental to this story working.” Those two in “Plainclothes” are Lucas (Blyth), an undercover cop in 1990s Syracuse, New York who is assigned to a sting operation going after gay men cruising in a mall bathroom, and Andrew (Tovey), the target who Lucas falls in love with. “He’s full of stardust,” Tovey says of Blyth. “He is so committed and so wonderful in the role and such a team player.