Tom Blyth wants to avoid being "pigeonholed".
The 30-year-old actor is keen to take on a range of challenges during his career - but he didn't have any hesitations about starring in People We Meet on Vacation, the new Netflix romcom.
He explained to The Hollywood Reporter: "Will people think I’m the rom-com guy now? Will I get pigeonholed? You always go through those motions. But I think it always comes down to what the intentions are here. And the intentions [here] were to make a really good piece of work in that genre, and it’s a genre that I love."
Tom is very conscious of how he's perceived by cinemagoers and by people within the movie industry.
He said: "As an actor or as any kind of artist, you’re aware of the story that might be told about your work and how that might affect you down the line when you’re trying to get other work and do other things. Whether people will let you do that because you’re the guy who did the rom-com or the guy who did the big blockbuster. But the end of the day, the only person who can actually shape that is you.
"I always come back to this — even if people momentarily think I’m that thing, all it will take is for me to pick up a camera and 5,000 pounds of my own money and go and make a short film in the woods that is something I want to do and show it to people and [tell them] this what I want to do. Maybe that’s idealistic, but I think if you fully believe in the thing that you’re trying to do, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
"People tend to rally around that clarity of vision. Also, there’s value in keeping people guessing. Then, they can’t pin you down because you’re not pinning yourself down either."
Tom is now keen to return to theatre work, having focused on films in recent years.
The actor - who has starred in movies such as Plainclothes, Wasteman, and The Fence - shared: "You found me in a moment where I’m desperate to do theatre.
"I started by doing plays when I was younger and went to drama school to do plays. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to do film and TV at a relatively high level since I kind of became a professional actor, but I’m dying to do a play again."
