Interviews are almost always unpredictable, but it must be a new norm for entertainment journalists to ask their male guests—promoting their new movie or TV series—if they are ready to meet their fate as the new TikTok “man crush”. Funny as it may sound, this trend is slowly but surely adding more to an actor’s rise to fame.
And clearly, it really would because extremely detailed and highly-skilled edits made by fan accounts on the platform are so well done. Even casual scrollers can’t help but interact with the videos and slowly fall into the depths of the white man of the month rabbit hole.
Jonah Hauer-King of the live action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” did not leave unscathed by this, nor did Chris Briney and Gavin Casalegno during “The Summer I Turned Pretty” season two’s run when the #TeamConrad or #TeamJeremiah debates were going strong. But now, it seems that we have another man taking the throne on TikTok. It’s none other than Tom Blyth of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” who portrayed the young Coriolanus Snow himself (before he was the President Snow that we’ve known to universally loathe).
Is it the accent? Perhaps it was the blonde buzzcut that did it? Or do we all just simply have a penchant for baddies? The Draco Malfoy to young Coriolanius Snow pipeline seems to be real for one too many fans on the internet.
If you go on TikTok now, edits of the rising British actor are gradually taking over the platform, almost making it close to his series predecessors Sam Claflin (as the ever-charming best tribute ever Finnick Odair) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta “if it weren’t for the baby” Mellark).
In the beginning, as a fan of the original “Hunger Games” series, both the movie adaptations and the books, I was already excited for the prologue film when it first got announced. But the excitement wasn’t without apprehension, if I am being honest, knowing it was going to be about the young President Snow. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see his origin story and maybe even feel the slightest humanity in him during his earlier days, being aware of how he would later turn out as a character.
Although I had read “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” before watching their movie adaptations, I came into the theater with little knowledge of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”—not because I didn’t want to get spoiled on anything, but because going in blindly on the film was my own little way to rebel against Coriolanus. To be fair though, at least for Lucy Gray Baird, I had watched a few fan-made explainers about their connection as I was always more curious towards her character, which made me dislike Coriolanus even more.
However, that all changed when I watched Tom Blyth on the big screen.
It further proved the point that “The Hunger Games” casting crew never misses, and I think I wasn’t the only one who noticed how stellar Tom was in the film. Even though fans are all aware of his character’s fate, as his prequel was released after the ending of the initial trilogy, fans somehow find themselves (me included) enthralled over a man who will have a future one-sided beef with a 17-year-old Swamp Potato (IYKYK). Also: The man responsible for thousands of completely unnecessary teenage deaths in the “Hunger Games” (although at this point, he was probably unaware of this himself, but not completely ruling out that fact this early on).
When asked by PopBuzz if Tom was ready for the “Snow Thirst Edits,” the 28-year-old actor mentioned that he is actually not on the platform and he tries to stay offline so he doesn’t get to see the edits until he gets sent them. He jokingly added, “So stop sending me them.”
Later on, Tom added that he hopes people fall in love with the character even with the awareness that his character’s future self will later on become an “actual baddie”. Although the character starts off somewhat redeemable in the film, that only adds more on the letdown aspect that fans and viewers will see when his character goes south toward the end.
Besides his awareness of his character and how well he portrays him, fans also noticed how much of a gentleman the Juilliard graduate is. Apart from being an actual sweetheart with his co-star Rachel Zegler—whom people say he gives major bestie vibes with—when asked if he’s made out with multiple women in the same night in a “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” interview, Tom coolly answered, “I don’t kiss and tell, so I can’t say that.”
And that is exactly why we love Tom Blyth, our man crush of the month, who we hope will continue to rise to fame because he deserves it. Like many of the TikTok edits go, “in a world of boys, he’s a gentleman” who does his job really well to the fact that he made us feel for someone we absolutely detest—and for these, he’s the opposite of the “baddie” Coriolanus, and a “baddie” (in a positively awesome sense) for his impactful qualities as Tom.
Of course, we don’t want to romanticize a man who supports killings of teenagers on live television and someone who *spoiler alert* might have killed his love interest because he let the voices in his head win literally two seconds after she left him, just because he is literally gorgeous. But what we can do is appreciate the actor who portrayed his character so well that we were able to root for him in the beginning, only to feel betrayed in the end for how he chose to let things happen.
If this (and the many edits) aren’t enough to get you on the Tom Blyth train, watch “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”’ official trailer here:
Art by Anna Louise Flores
Photos (L to R) from lionsgate, @tomblyth/Instagram, and @panempropaganda/X