Tom Blyth loved Challengers. Then again, who didn’t? Chatting down the phone from Paris en route to Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2025 show, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes actor is waxing lyrical about Jonathan Anderson’s costuming for the year’s horniest tennis drama. “In the same way the Trent Reznor soundtrack made the film, Jonathan’s designs made the film and pulled it all together,” he says. “Luca [Guadagnino] is so good at directing actors but he’s got such an aesthetic eye. So you can see why someone like him and Jonathan have bonded and made great work together.”
Ever since he anchored The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as a young, morally clapped Coriolanus Snow, Blyth has reached new levels of booked and busy. He released a new season of Billy the Kid earlier this month. He wrapped a gritty prison drama, Wasteman, a day before we speak (“I got to play someone I’ve never played before: this pretty crazed, violent prisoner. I got to bounce off the wall and be a little bit nutty for a few weeks”), and the day after we speak he’s flying to Bulgaria to shoot Watch Dogs, an action-adventure based on the video game series of the same. At some point he’s set to star in adaptations of A Farewell to Arms and Discussion Materials. He may also sleep. But most intriguingly, Blyth mentions he had lunch with Luca Guadagnino “a couple of weeks ago in LA.” He says little else on the matter, other than reaffirming his fandom for the director.
For the Loewe show, Blyth stepped out in a burgundy sweater vest with a green arrow in the centre and pleated black trousers. “I’m wearing a knitwear sweater vest and it feels sexy,” he says. “And that’s what they do at Loewe: they make knitwear sexy.” After a juggernaut press tour for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Blyth has more or less got the hang of dressing up for red carpets and dinners. “I think most people from most backgrounds don’t have access to these kinds of things early in their life, so when you do, it feels like a very strange world to be in,” he says. “It can feel quite tense because you’re not sure how to act. Then you go to a few more events and a couple of shows and you don’t feel like such an imposter.”
Initially, Blyth found the process of being dressed a bit overwhelming, when PRs would weigh in on his fashion choices: “It was decision making by committee and I find that difficult. It honestly takes the fun out of it.” He’s formed a close bond with his stylist, Michael Fisher, and the pair have refined their way of working, with grooming expert Bjorn Krischker drafted in for Paris Fashion Week. “If the aim here is to feel good then I should lead with my impulse,” he says. “Me and Michael have streamlined it to the point where I tell him what vibe I’m going for and he pulls some options. For the press tour I was taking 31 different looks for each event and it just felt so not like me. I had to find a way to make it feel like something I could do and make it more personal.”
Blyth sought to channel the essence of a ‘60s French film star for his The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes premiere fits, because he felt most at home in “slouchy suits and flowy shirts.” But he was also mindful of who his co-stars were: “When I’m stood next to Hunter Schafer, who is the fashion queen of the century on the red carpet, there’s no way you’re going to outshine her so don’t even try,” he says. “And I don’t even want to – that’s her thing. I love her a lot, so it’s nice to stand next to her and be able to share in her limelight when she’s looking amazing.”
Blyth isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to fashion, and that suits him just fine. “I feel like everyone’s dressing to go viral, which I find a bit exhausting,” he says. “Especially when men do it, because it can feel a bit try-hard. It really only works when someone’s dressing because they want to wear it and not because they think it’s going to hit on the internet.”
