Widow’s Bay has just two episodes left, meaning viewers are soon to be denied their weekly dose of Apple TV’s excellently spooky cursed island. But it’s a show that rewards repeat viewing, not least of all because of Matthew Rhys’ endearingly unhinged performance as the island’s conflicted mayor, Tom Loftis.
Tom has long been well aware of the island’s 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’s Bay natives tethered to its shores. After her passing, he had to raise their son, Evan, as a single dad; now that Evan’s a teenager, Evan has started raising some very legitimate questions about why he’s never once left the island.
Desperate to make Widow’s Bay a more pleasant place (despite what he knows), Tom’s spearheaded a big push toward tourism that’s 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’s Bay being the next Martha’s 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.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Rhys reflected on what makes Tom tick—and also punctuate his actions with the occasional bloodcurdling scream or burst of hilariously awkward physical comedy.
“He’s sitting on so much, everything with his son, his wife has passed away,” he explained. “The town hates him. He’s like a pressure cooker, and [there are] moments when it will erupt. That’s what I was playing around with.”
It sounds like Rhys faced a challenge coming up with Tom’s reaction to being pursued by an eager sea hag in episode three, “The Inaugural Swim”—a high-pitched vocalization that conveys how much terror he feels while at the same time being outrageously funny.
“I was concerned about the shriek,” he confessed. “Because sometimes I would do it as a joke in rehearsal, and [director] Hiro [Murai] goes, ‘Try it, just try it, and we’ll do different versions. If it’s not ringing true, I’m not going to use it.’ We played around with it. It still makes me nervous.”
He’s had more fun flexing his physical comedy skills, including one moment (the LA Times doesn’t specify, so make your own guesses) where the star said “I felt like Charlie Chaplin.”
Widow’s Bay episode nine arrives Wednesday on Apple TV.
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