When Tom Blyth signed on to play the Old West gunfighter Billy the Kid in a new Epix series by the same name, he was interested in more than just an infamous outlaw. The British-born, New York-based actor—who not too long ago graduated from Juilliard and recently appeared on The Gilded Age—was inspired by the Westerns he watched and read as a kid to tell a story about independence, immigration, and standing up for what you believe in. He was also keen to do his own stunts.
Blyth appears alongside model and artist Ivy Getty on the cover of Town & Country's May 2022 issue, in a story inspired by the idea of a glamorous jewel heist, but here he dives deep into the vision and process it took to create his new series, Billy the Kid, airing now on Epix.
You’re a Brit living in the U.S. Did you know much about Billy the Kid and the American West before taking this role?
I was living upstate in a cabin in the woods when the email came through, and I was kind of living a slightly frontier life as it was, because it was the middle of the pandemic. I was renting this little cabin from a friend in the Catskills, and I was getting up at 8 a.m. every day to chop wood for the wood-burning stove to keep warm. I was living this slightly reclusive kind of life and doing audition tapes every day and just looking for the right job. This came through in early March of 2020, and something just kind of clicked. I mean, the minute it came through, I knew that it was right. Every now and again you're like, ‘I connect to this one.’ And I think it was partly because I was living this bizarre, frontier life by accident, but also because I loved Westerns as a kid.
You did?
I read about Billy when I was a kid, and it all kind of came flooding back when I read the script, and [series creator] Michael Hirst's writing is so rich and delicious, and you can kind of smell the mud in the streets and the flies on the horses. He describes everything so richly that it's hard not to fall in love with it immediately. I taped for it, and then after a series of five auditions and meetings with Otto Bathurst, the director, and some screen tests, it ended up going my way. Then I had to learn to ride and shoot and stuff. That was a whole other saga.
It sounds like they put you through Western bootcamp.
Everything was quite serendipitous. I was living in upstate New York, and I knew of a friend of a friend who had a ranch that saved horses, so I reached out to her and asked if I could take some lessons, and she said yes. I went on day one with some boots and jeans on and expected to jump on the back of a horse and learn to ride. We went through the basics, and we got a horse out of the pen and into the field, and she says, "Okay, cool, take your shoes off." I took my shoes off, and then she says, "Take your jacket off so you're just in a shirt. Now lie on the back of the horse." And so, she had me lay over the horse, and it turns out that this person’s specialty is doing Reiki and yoga with horses and veterans. The first thing she had me do was energy work with this horse as the first step to learn to ride.
That probably wasn’t what you were expecting.
I was in over my head from the get-go, but then she did eventually get me up on the horse, and I learned to ride, and I'm sure the energy work helped because it was quite therapeutic. I had about six lessons with her and then had to go up to Canada, and up there, I worked with the local cowboys and wranglers who were on the show and taught me to ride quickly. Before I knew it, I was riding full gallop and was able to do all my own stunts throughout the show.
What makes Billy the Kid someone whose story will resonate with contemporary audiences?
First and foremost, it's an immigration story. I think he's searching for a better life, and he's been promised this American dream that a lot of people can still relate to. His family came from Ireland, they were escaping the potato famine and came to New York, where they were living in abject poverty. They were promised that if they left New York and went West, they would find everything they wanted, but the reality was they got there, and it hadn't even been built, and there were other communities being pushed out of their homes for them to make a home there. I also think he's someone who dares to stand up—that's what's so appealing about him to me personally. He was left to fend for himself from a very young age, and he was a survivor, but was fearless in his morals. He's such an enigmatic character. I could go on for days.
What speaks to you about a part? And after playing Billy, is there something you’re hoping to tackle next?
I'm always looking to mesh childlike wonder with stories that mean something. For me, there's no point in doing this storytelling unless it holds up a mirror to society. The next thing I would love to do is something completely different; I'm always looking to test myself and do something that stretches the muscles. Having graduated from Juilliard during the pandemic, I didn't really get a chance to use my theater training much in the past couple of years. I'm kind of keeping an eye out for the right play if one comes along.
Adam Rathe is Town & Country's Deputy Features Director, covering arts and culture and a range of other subjects.
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