David Jonsson, Tom Blyth on Prison Thriller Wasteman
Back in 2017 and fresh out of drama school, David Jonsson auditioned for “Wasteman,” Cal McMau’s debut feature and a violent pressure cooker thriller set in a British prison. The drama bows Sept. 6 at Toronto.
“It was my first film audition,” says the actor. “I read the script and thought it was fucking amazing. So I went in full character. The casting director threw a chair at me. I threw a punch back. I was like, I’ve nailed this. And then I heard nothing.”
Few people heard anything. “As is often the case with film, the whole thing fell through,” says McMau, who continued to work on commercials, music videos and shorts. “So it all went quiet for a little bit.”
In that “little bit” of time, however, Jonsson shot onto the scene as one of the most exciting young actors working today. “Industry” would give him his big break on the small screen, but it was the Brit rom-com “Rye Lane” that catapulted him on the big screen, leading to “Alien: Romulus” and several major upcoming roles (not to mention the BAFTA Rising Star award earlier this year).
It was sometime between “Rye Lane” and “Alien” that Jonsson — still thinking about “Wasteman” — learned that the script was still “floating in the ether” and was actually in the hands of producer Sophie Gibber, who he’d just met. The wheels got moving again and now “Wasteman” world premieres in Toronto as part of the Centrepiece program.
McMau admits that while Jonsson may not have been cast the first time around, such was his rising star power and obvious talent that the film’s script was re-written, making it “younger” (his character was originally going to be a “broken old raver”).
Another fast-rising name, “Hunger Games” star Tom Blyth, joined the cast, playing the menacing and volatile new cellmate to Jonsson’s soft-spoken longtime inmate and whose arrival jeopardizes his chances of an early parole. It’s tense, raw and very brutal — showcasing a prison life rarely seen on screen, one rife with drug use and illicit trading networks (one of McMau’s early inspirations had been secret phone footage put on social media from inside). It’s also authentic, with the producers working closely with a charity supporting men coming out of the justice system.
“We’d constantly be like: is this legit? Does it feel legit? And they’d be like, it is scarily legit, if feels a little bit too real,” says McMau.
“Our North Star was not to exoticize anything,” adds Blyth. “It’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be violent. But we’re not doing prison tourism.”
“Wasteman” also cast several people who had been incarcerated themselves.
“It reminded me of what Chloe Zhao did with ‘The Rider’ and ‘Nomadland,’ where you’ve got a couple of proper actors surround by ‘real people,’” says Blyth. “I think it’s this amazing blend where everyone then gets to play in the sandpit together.”
For both of “Wasteman’s” two young actors, both with experience working on big-budget studio productions, they praise the filmmaking team for, as Johnson notes, “allowing actors to be actors.”
While Jonsson may have not gotten the role when the first iteration of “Wasteman” was in development almost a decade ago, he admits to feeling a certain sense of fate in it coming together how and when it did.
“I’m not joking, but I do believe filmmaking is alchemy,” says Jonsson. “It’s all about trying to find the right pieces at the right time and trying to convincing other people that these are the right pieces to make this movie.”
“Wasteman” has also — and already — proved to be formulative. Such was Jonsson’s experience working with producer Gibber that the two recently launched their own production company, greyarea. Films like this are exactly what they want to be developing.
“It’s what I want be able to make as an actor and hopefully as a producer as well — films that kind of live on, that talk for themselves and also let people be brilliant, that let the director and the actors just thrive.”
