Tom Bryce and Russell Toby have a secret love affair in “Plain Cross”
“The Hunger Games” breakout Tom Blythe portrays a closet police officer caught up in the forbidden romance of the new gay drama “Plain Cross.”
NEW YORK – When Russell Toby came to Hollywood, he received two pieces of advice.
“Stay your ears so that they don’t come out,” recalls the former child actor, who was openly gay for most of his adult career. “I’m talking to USA today against both those demands. Who’s laughing now?!”
Tovey, 43, proudly tells the odd stories he has abundantly in television “watching,” “feuding,” and “American horror stories.” The latest is “Plain Clothes” (now theatre), a Woozy New thriller set in New York in the 1990s. However, when he falls in love with one of his targets, Andrew (Toby), he begins to question everything.
Bryce, 30, says he was actively looking for something “intimate and gritty” after starring as the snow of young Coriolanus in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” He soon “turned the script” by writer and director Carmen Emmy.
“Carmen leads with strength through vulnerability and you can see that in the film,” says Bryce. This applies to the much discussed sex scene in the film as Lucas and Andrew unleash their pent-up desires behind the van.
“I don’t think it’s done that beautifully because I really don’t care about talking about it,” Blythe says. “The main thing that holds Lucas back in his life is that sex feels important and urgent, as he can’t be honest with himself. They realize that they are falling on each other, but they never get this chance again.”
Tom Bryce and Russell Toby say the school was a “toxic masculinity movement.”
From a young age, boys have been taught that punches are better than embraces. That’s the idea that Emi encountered in his research and resonated strongly with the film’s star. Both were born and raised in the UK.
“High school was just an exercise of toxic masculinity,” says Bryce. “I remember being so afraid of going to the PE changing room because there were people who wanted to fight and always wanted to take control.
“Then I think back and say, ‘God, most people there probably felt the same way,'” he adds. “It would be much easier to go through school if everyone was taught to talk about their feelings.”
Toby recalls how “tiring” and “stressing” it was to be in the closet before he came out at 18.
“As strange people, we essentially have more shame than our generation, especially,” Tovey says. “When I was young, I tried so hard not to become gay and try to hide it from so many people,” he viscerally remembers playing stupidly, causing trouble, not to be teased at school.
“If you’re smart or show interest in something other than football, you’re gay and you’re a target,” Toby says. He recalls certain experiences in religious education classes. “When the teacher says, ‘One or two of this class will be statistically gay.’ Every single person in the class looked at me and they all said, “What the hell?”
“After that, I went. That’s scary.”
“Plain Cross” is horribly related to members of the queer community
In conversation, both actors passionately talk about theatre. Toby raves the revival of James Corden’s “Brilliant” Broadway “Art,” and Blythe marvels at her best friend, Rachel Zegler, who recently starred in London’s “Evita.” (“I felt like I was watching a generation of performances,” he smiled.
As Preteens, they discovered that they each had taken shelter to stage and drama classes. This was probably the first space I promoted calm and vulnerable masculinity,” says Bryce.
“That’s what you hope schools promote. They’re taking that away from education,” adds Tovey. “That outlet should be like, ‘OK, I can guide all these emotions.’ ”
They are impressed with the answers they have received so far on “Plain Cross.” This is even more timely given New York’s recent crackdown at a queer hookup spot in midtown Manhattan, and has been arrested in more than 200 arrests since June.
“Carmen recently saw a comment (online) from a guy who said, ‘I’m a retired Chicago PD officer and this is what happened to me,'” Blythe says. “It’s insane to hear people know that they’ve lived Lucas’s story, but the fact that people feel they’re being seen in it is amazing.”
