David Jonsson and Tom Blyth tell a taut tale in Wasteman, a prison thriller stacked with unglorified violence, psychological warfare and the promise of freedom.
Both rising stars in British film, the Industry star plays Taylor, a longtime convict who is given an imminent chance to leave and reunite with his son after 14 years, when Dee (Tom) arrives as his troublemaking new cellmate.
Although Taylor attempts to keep his head down ahead of his release, topdog Dee decides to take Taylor under his wing as he wreaks havoc in his new home – and Taylor’s life.
Trapped in a labyrinth of life-altering stakes, Wasteman attempts to ultimately portray a very human story of life behind bars in UK prisons – and the chronic flaws within the system.
Filmed in a real prison (Shepton Mallet Prison), the producers brought on board the prison rehabilitation charity Switchback to consult on the movie, and even cast actual ex-incarcerated men to add to the authenticity.
Discussing their involvement with Metro, David said: ‘That was everything, that was the best thing about this. I don’t think there’s a version of this film that we would have wanted to make without having Switchback be a part of it – they were integral.
‘Obviously, Tom and I are actors. This is not our lives. But it’s definitely based on people that we know, we’ve come across. Having people who had that lived experience made sure that we were making something that felt grounded.’
It was a sentiment echoed by the Hunger Games star, who had particular praise for chief consultant Cameron who ‘was on set every single day from the moment we started rolling to the moment we said cut.’
He continued: ‘[Cam] was so grounded and forthcoming with his experience and was really willing to be vulnerable about it because he worked so closely with the charity and with men who are coming out who were previously incarcerated.
‘[That was a] really special experience… and unique to this project, because so rarely do you do something that is about such a raw, volatile, true experience, and actually connect with someone who’s experienced [it].’
In the spirit of the ‘scrappy’ nature of the movie, beyond some basic fight choreography rehearsal, the cast had at it when it came to the violent collisions.
‘I learned how to puke in David’s mouth…. over and over again,’ Tom joked about one stomach-turning scene as David quipped: ‘That’s what you were practising. I quite liked it.’
Discussing the actual fights, David added: ‘There was no over-preparation we could really do. We just said: “Right, we’re ready for it” and Tom and I have an immense amount of trust with each other so we just we just dived in and got what we got.’
As Tom explained, the aim was ‘to mess it up so that it could feel very lived in and very raw.’
‘Because the whole thing was [that] we didn’t ever want to glamourise the violence or make it feel like Hollywood, exoticising prison violence,’ he pointed out.
Co-star Alex Hassel (Rivals), who plays Dee’s prison archnemesis Paul, recounted what it was like filming the mid-scene confrontation with the leads.
‘The level of commitment being brought by everyone around you, especially Tom in that instance, is really impressive. It really helps you imagine what it would be like to be in that situation.
‘It didn’t feel dangerous, because you’ve checked everything around you, [but] it felt emotionally dangerous, which I think comes across in the film in a really good way.’
In another scene, when the riot police storm the prison and Paul is on the ground, passed out, he recalled Tom’s ‘level of ferocity’, calling him ‘just terrifying’.
For David, this movie has been a long time in the making, as he first auditioned for the project in 2017 before he had made a name for himself in the industry.
He never heard back until, years later, the movie came his way once more, this time with Taylor rewritten specifically with him in mind – and he was even brought on board as a producer.
‘I can tell you that films are hard to get made,’ he laughed.
‘When I auditioned for it, I thought I did a decent audition and then heard nothing. I was like: “Well, I guess films aren’t for me.”
‘Then obviously you go off and gain a little bit of agency, and then you chase the scripts that mean something to you and connect to you. So the second I could find it, I did, and Sophia, [our] wonderful producer, found the script and never let it go.
‘Coming on board as a producer as well, to find this character and sculpt it, I wouldn’t [have been] ready to play [it then], you know what I mean. Now was the right time. So, yeah, it turns out my audition wasn’t bad. It just never happened.’
The undercurrent of the entire movie is socio-political, exposing just how rotten the system has grown to its core and the way society is failing young men – a message Alex hopes viewers take from this movie.
‘[We live in] a political system that makes certain economic backgrounds extremely much more likely to end up in prison than others,’ he said.
Ultimately, however, this is an ‘intimate’ story between two men.
As the actor concluded: ‘For certain types of young men, it can be very scary to be vulnerable and intimate, and actually [this movie shows] how incredibly important it is that we try and encourage people being intimate and vulnerable and open with each other.’
Wasteman comes out in UK cinemas on February 20, 2025.
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