The “People We Meet on Vacation” actor recalled the harrowing incident that occurred during production of the new film.

*Hunger Games *star Tom Blyth almost died choking at restaurant: ‘Genuinely, seriously choked’

The "People We Meet on Vacation" actor recalled the harrowing incident that occurred during production of the new film.

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes *RuPaul's Drag Race* video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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January 13, 2026 1:22 p.m. ET

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Tom Blyth at the Academy Museum Gala in October 2025. Credit:

Monica Schipper/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

*The Hunger Games *and *People We Meet on Vacation* actor Tom Blyth has opened up about nearly dying at a restaurant while he was in New Orleans making his new movie.

During a Tuesday morning appearance on *The View*, the 30-year-old — who starred in the 2023 *Hunger Games* film *The* *Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* — revealed that an incident involving chicken jambalaya almost killed him in the Louisiana city.

Invoking the title of his new *People We Meet on Vacation* book adaptation, cohost Joy Behar asked about any mishaps that Blyth has endured while traveling, to which he responded with a "near-death experience" he had while making the project in New Orleans.**

Tom Blyth in 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'.

"We were towards the end of the film. My relatively new girlfriend at the time was coming to visit, and I was trying to impress her. I took her out to dinner. I choked on some chicken jambalaya," he said. "Genuinely, seriously choked, and I did what you're not supposed to do, and I took myself off to the bathroom. I was embarrassed because we'd only been together for a little while."

Blyth said that he wasn't able to breathe for about 90 seconds, and when he came out of the bathroom, "I looked at her and I looked at the waiter, and no one knew what to do" in the moment.

"I looked the waiter dead in the eye," he said, and made silent motions pointing behind him to indicate that the employee needed to help him with the Heimlich maneuver.

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Blyth said the waiter complied, and "literally saved my life," and that the action earned him a "big tip" in the end.

Upon exiting the restaurant, Blyth said that a small table of women stopped him to tell him that they recognized him from his earlier work, which annoyed him.

"I was like, are you kidding me?" Blyth recalled, noting that he told them that they were mistaken about his identity, but they asked for a picture anyway. He added, "I was like, you just watched me almost die in the most embarrassing circumstances."

'People We Meet on Vacation' star Tom Blyth.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

In addition to playing a young Coriolanus Snow (portrayed by the late Donald Sutherland in the prior *Hunger Games* films) in *The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes*, Blyth also fronted three seasons of the MGM+ series *Billy the Kid *in the titular role.

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His performance in *People We Meet on Vacation *came in Netflix's adaptation of author Emily Henry's popular 2021 romance novel.

*People We Meet on Vacation* is now streaming on Netflix.

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