‘Billy the Kid’ star Tom Blyth on Westerns making a comeback in Hollywood: ‘People are longing for it again’
01.05.2022 - 09:15
/ foxnews.com
Tom Blyth was immediately lassoed in when he was offered to play gunfighter Billy the Kid. The British-born, New York-based actor is taking on the role of the legendary outlaw for a new EPIX series titled "Billy the Kid." The 27-year-old, who grew up watching American Westerns, said he was eager to explore the brief and bloody life of the 19th-century gunslinger. "I grew up with Westerns — reading and watching them," Blyth told Fox News Digital.
"I grew up very seriously wanting to embody that world. I remember how, at a very young age, I would stay up late at night reading articles about Billy the Kid, Jesse James and people like that. So, for me, this role feels fated to a certain extent.
It feels like it was always on the horizon as an actor." Tom Blyth stars as Billy the Kid in a new EPIX original series. (Chris Large/EPIX) "I moved here six years ago as a 21-year-old, coincidentally the same age that Billy died," Blyth shared. "I made America my home.
I came and trained here as an actor at Julliard. I’ve always felt this pull to America in the same way that his family did because it’s an immigration story.These were Irish immigrants who moved here. So actually, I found more in common, than differences, between us.The more I dug, the more I realized that, yes, he may have been born in New York, but … [his family] came here seeking a better life.
I did the same." "Billy the Kid" is written by Michael Hirst, creator of "Vikings" and "The Tudors." The show promises to be an epic adventure surrounding the life of the outlaw known as William H. Bonney — from his humble Irish roots to his early days as a cowboy on the American frontier and beyond. Billy the Kid was swept up in what was known as the "Lincoln County War"
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