Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. Thor sets upon his most dangerous and personal journey yet, forced into an alliance with the treacherous Loki to save not only his people and those he loves…but our universe itself. And here is Tom Hiddleston, Loki!
Right off the bat, Tom Hiddleston, co-star of Thor: The Dark World, walked into the blogger interview room with a big smile on his face and it became immediately apparent that this was a humble and generous man. I will let you know up front that this actually held true for all our Thor interviews so I will be repeating myself 2 more times this week.
Tom introduced himself and I guess when he is being interviewed he doesn’t usually have 25 interviewers sitting in front of him, he said he felt like the president of some kind of group! Then he had us laughing as he shared that he was going to be the bad guy in the movie and he felt that he should be sitting stroking a white cat (reminiscent of Dr. Evil!).
I hung on his every word, those British accents can be quite charming! Can you see me studiously scribbling notes in the back row?
Our first big question was pretty basic, how did you get the role of the bad guy: Tom said he sees all acting roles like a piano where there are 88 keys and there are some white keys and some black keys and each character is a different chord on the piano. “And I love, basically I hope that in the course of my life I will have played all 88 keys in lots of different ways. So I’ll have played heroes, and villains, and princes and kings and warriors and beggars and thieves and lovers and, fathers and wizards and all of those things. So that’s it, for me that’s why I’m an actor, I love studying people.” What a great goal for an actor, to want to play every different type of role, to have the fullest possible range of acting ability. I was impressed. Mostly impressed because this wonderful, humble, friendly man has pulled off a tremendous acting feat by being such a believable bad guy!
Tom talked about playing the the God of Mischief, Loki, and how things had changed since the last movie for the character: “He’s back and he’s in prison.Yes, he could be wearing an Asgardian version of a kind of boiler suit and, yeah he’s not in a good way. He’s basically been written out of history, condemned to be forgotten, unseen and unheard and haunted by his demons for eternity. I think he’s keeping himself sharp by reading a lot and, keeping his mind exercised.” This is a character who always needs to be sharp for the next opportunity to be taken advantage of, and Loki is ready when called upon to help and turn a situation into his advantage. I know, I saw the movie! He was predictable and supportive of his brother Thor, but you never knew when he might turn the situation to his advantage.
Our interview sessions were done a few hours before the premiere so Tom tried hard not to reveal too much information. He did talk about how Loki and Thor had grown up as best friends: “What’s wonderful about this particular film is I think, the need to come together and work as a team, which actually gave Chris Hemsworth and myself amazing opportunities to explore that particular tension between them, that they were two brothers who were brought up as equals and best friends. ” We saw that equality in the first Thor movie: “they loved each other and they fought and they played and they competed and they were rivals, but ultimately they were best friends. And then the circumstances of their adult lives have pushed them to absolute extremes. The difference is in the first film and in Avengers Thor is consistently appealing to Loki to say, “Come back, We still love you, come back into the family” and Loki is rejecting that olive branch, but this is not so here. This third Marvel movie explores how the brothers are bonded due to a certain circumstance (I will not give you that spoiler!) and must work together to save Asgard. We see in this movie Thor learns that forgiveness is no longer something to give away freely: In this film Thor makes no bones about that there’s no olive branch, “I need you, and if you betray me I will kill you.” That’s some tough love!
Here’s Tom on the red carpet a few hours after sitting with us (picture courtesy of Marvel). Sorry, had to take a #FreeLoki break!
And then Tom talked about the guidance he received for the role through the course of the movies. Joss Whedon wanted him to have fun with the role, because Loki is not as predictable a God as the others. Let me take a moment to say that Joss Whedon created one of my favorite shows of all times, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just the mention of his name in the interview brought chills to me. He is a brilliant writer. His brother Jed Whedon was at the Premiere, just knowing that gave this fanboy another chill!
We asked Tom for information about future Loki movies, spin-offs, etc., but he claimed to have no information to share, even after we promised not to tell! He did share that working with Chris Hemsworth was one of his biggest thrills. Tom also shared that he would no longer have expectations about the projects ahead as the ones so far had far exceeded his expectations.
We also acknowledged that we had seen that he had shown up at a NY preview for a charity event, he was happy to support a good cause, even if they are going to boo him as he is the villain! Again, he is a terrific actor if he is that giving in real life, and so evil as his Loki character!
Lastly, we saw him in the lobby after the movie. He slowed his pace and asked the few of us bloggers milling about if we enjoyed the film. He wasn’t caught up in that celebrity ego that you see at some premieres. We all appreciated that.
As I said before, do not leave before the last credit rolls. Cause we all had a twinkle in our eye from that!
Like Thor on Facebook:Facebook.com/Thor
Follow Thor on Twitter: Twitter.com/ThorMovies
Tweet the official hashtag: #ThorDarkWorld
Visit the website: Marvel.com/Thor
Disclosure: Disney invited me on a press trip and paid all of my expenses. No other compensation was received. All opinions are always 100% my own and honest. The red carpet picture is courtesy of Marvel, the other pictures are courtesy of MomStart.com.
Can you see me next to Tom in the back!
Looks like you had a great time! I told you, you would be attending red carpet events in no time!
must have been a fun interview, what an awesome move!
I’m so jealous! I love him! I know you had a great time!
He was so fun, right? And humble! Plus that dreamy accent… 🙂
Seems like he is a really nice guy. Can’t wait to see his role in the new film.
I love his analogy of the piano keys. He sounds like an interesting guy. And wow does he look different out of the Loki getup!
Lucky man. I love Tom Hiddleston! He did a great job as Loki, too.
I love how genuine he was! I’m definitely one of #LokisLadies now. Like Kate, I loved his piano keys analogy.
It looks like you had such a great time! I think my favorite part of this interview is the piano reference. It makes me think of all my favorite actors. All of them seem to have the ability to play any character on the spectrum, with just as much skill and passion as the last. Moving from good guy to bad guy, serious role to comedy, I think that is one of the keys to a great actor, and not everyone can do it.
I’m a little bit jealous that you got to meet “Loki” in person! He’s one of my favorite bad guys, for sure.
what a great experience, he seems like such a cool guy, it must have been exciting to meet him!
I love this quote! The piano quote is amazing. I can see you in the back row studiously copying notes down. Love that you got this experience and wish I had been there too.
And he called you gorgeous too! 😉 Ohhh, I want that pic too, send it to me?
Oooo the accent!! He definitely knows how to make a room swoon 🙂
He’s so charming! Loki is one of my favorite movie villains because of his inner conflict, and I think that Tom Hiddleston was the PERFECT actor to cast for Loki!
That must have been so much fun for you. He seems like a pretty neat guy!
How neat that you got to meet him! Must have been lots of fun.
I have to admit..these Marvel movies are getting old..am I the only one who just wont see it based on the hype?