{"id":489579,"date":"2026-06-08T21:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489579\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:11:13","slug":"matthew-rhys-on-what-propels-mayor-toms-outbursts-on-widows-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489579\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Rhys on What Propels Mayor Tom’s Outbursts on ‘Widow’s Bay’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Widow\u2019s Bay<\/a> has just two episodes left, meaning viewers are soon to be denied their weekly dose of Apple TV\u2019s excellently spooky cursed island<\/a>. But it\u2019s a show that rewards repeat viewing, not least of all because of Matthew Rhys\u2019 endearingly unhinged performance as the island\u2019s conflicted mayor<\/a>, Tom Loftis.<\/p>\n

Tom has long been well aware of the island\u2019s supernatural woes; he watched his wife transform from happy and healthy to dark and very unwell before his eyes when she tried to cross the invisible perimeter that keeps all Widow\u2019s Bay natives tethered to its shores. After her passing, he had to raise their son, Evan, as a single dad; now that Evan\u2019s a teenager, Evan has started raising some very legitimate questions about why he\u2019s never once left the island.<\/p>\n

Desperate to make Widow\u2019s Bay a more pleasant place (despite what he knows), Tom\u2019s spearheaded a big push toward tourism that\u2019s paying off as season one gets going, even if certain townspeople are against it. Unfortunately, the local curse has also started escalating its menace, and Tom is ripped between dreams of Widow\u2019s Bay being the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard, protecting his son, and trying to keep his own sanity amid creature attacks, accidental psychedelic mushroom doses, and angry omens that start rumbling to the surface.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>, Rhys reflected on what makes Tom tick\u2014and also punctuate his actions with the occasional bloodcurdling scream or burst of hilariously awkward physical comedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sitting on so much, everything with his son, his wife has passed away,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe town hates him. He\u2019s like a pressure cooker, and [there are] moments when it will erupt. That\u2019s what I was playing around with.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sounds like Rhys faced a challenge coming up with Tom\u2019s reaction to being pursued by an eager sea hag in episode three, \u201cThe Inaugural Swim\u201d\u2014a high-pitched vocalization that conveys how much terror he feels while at the same time being outrageously funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concerned about the shriek,\u201d he confessed. \u201cBecause sometimes I would do it as a joke in rehearsal, and [director] Hiro [Murai] goes, \u2018Try it, just try it, and we\u2019ll do different versions. If it\u2019s not ringing true, I\u2019m not going to use it.\u2019 We played around with it. It still makes me nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had more fun flexing his physical comedy skills, including one moment (the LA Times doesn\u2019t specify, so make your own guesses) where the star said \u201cI felt like Charlie Chaplin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Widow\u2019s Bay episode nine arrives Wednesday on Apple TV.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Widow\u2019s Bay has just two episodes left, meaning viewers are soon to be denied their weekly dose of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3288,93,61,60,14619,282,175421],"class_list":["post-489579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-matthew-rhys","tag-tv","tag-widows-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}