Tovey was interviewed by Pascal to promote his new queer film, Plainclothes.
Russell Tovey plays a closeted queer man in Plainclothes — a new film by Carmen Emmi in which the out actor costars alongside Tom Blyth.
During a very candid interview with Pedro Pascal for Man About Town, the actors discuss why being “vers is the best,” how the power dynamics completely shift in Plainclothes, and Tovey even lands on a new drag name.
Pedro Pascal enjoys the film’s ‘eroticism of danger.’
Pascal highlights the “nostalgic” element of Plainclothes and how it is evocative of independent queer cinema in the 1990s.
“You have a priest, you have a cop, so there’s all this fantasy there,” Pascal notes. “And then the eroticism of danger, and also just beneath all of that, the grief of shame, and the poison of shame, and the liberation from it, which is really, really beautiful.”
Tovey agrees, “I like ‘shame’ as a theme, and how we can be highly functioning and full of shame.”
“How we basically are highly functioning and full of shame…” Pascal adds.
Russell Tovey reflects on gay ‘shame.’
Tovey underscores how hard it was to come of age as a gay man during the period he became a teenager and young adult.
“I just didn’t feel like I was safe, and I think I had inherent shame. And I think you always have that,” Russell muses. “I feel like my character, Andrew, is filled with shame, but he’s highly functioning, and he knows how to survive.”
Things change when Tovey’s character, Andrew, is thrown off balance after meeting Blyth’s character, Lucas, and realizing that they have actual feelings for each other.
The down-low relationship between Andrew and Lucas is “meant to just be a hookup, but there are emotions involved. For him, emotions are dangerous,” Tovey observes. “They aren’t things that he wants to have to think about. It’s just functional.”
Pedro Pascal and Russell Tovey agree that ‘vers is the best.’
Magnolia Pictures
Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in Plainclothes.
Andrew meeting Lucas “completely flips him around — literally, metaphorically and physically,” Tovey says.
Pascal teases, “He’s vers…”
“Yeah, and so is Lucas. It’s the best way to be. Vers is the best,” Tovey responds.
Russell Tovey shares his perspective on Andrew and explains how ‘power dynamics’ shift in the film.
Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Director Carmen Emmi alongside actors Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey on set filming Plainclothes.
Tovey recalls bringing up characterization choices with Emmi, the director of Plainclothes.
“I said, ‘I want condoms to be visible. I want Andrew to make sure that he’s kind to him. He’s very clear,” Tovey recalls. “I wanted Andrew to be someone that, when Lucas walks away from it, he can be like, ‘I practiced safe sex.’ He was very clear with me.”
Tovey goes on, “It’s a power dynamic where I [Andrew] have all the power. I’m the older man, I’m the more experienced. Then you find out suddenly that [Lucas is] a cop, and the power shifts incrementally in a second.
“[Andrew is] like, ‘Oh, fuck. So you were trying to target me in the bathroom?’ It’s all of those conversations. And I love the fact that this film just flips it around like that. And I’d say it is a romantic thriller, because you do care about this couple.”
Pedro Pascal teases Russell Tovey: ‘You’ve been busted 100 times.’
While discussing that Plainclothes takes place in 1997 — set around the time when British singer George Michael was arrested in Los Angeles for “public lewdness” — Pascal points out how “ridiculous” that entire situation felt. “He got targeted,” Pascal remarks. “It’s targeting, because you’re sort of manipulating a taboo; number one — a vulnerability. And some good-looking cop flirting with a closeted man, or a man just going through their innocent day.”
“It resonates,” Tovey adds.
Pascal teases, “And we know you’ve been busted 100 times.”
Tovey laughs. “Yeah, this [Plainclothes] is a documentary.”
“‘Inspired by true events’ was in the talking points,” Pascal says. “How did this come your way?”
Russell Tovey finds his new drag name.
Tovey and Pascal have a hilarious back and forth about the British actor’s pronunciation of Syracuse — where Plainclothes director Carmen Emmi is from.
“I remember I dated someone from Syracuse, and it always sounded so like a nursery rhyme, ‘Sir-uh-coos.’ It’s something about the word…”
Pascal interjects, “Well, it’s pronounced ‘Sir-uh-kyoos,’ so your nursery rhyme is already off [Laughs]. If you’re gonna romanticize it, at least romanticize it correctly.”
“Syra-cute?” Tovey asks, tentatively.
Pascal replies, “Syra-cutie…”
“That’s my drag name,” Tovey jokes.
