Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures "Marvel’s The Avengers"--the super hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel super heroes Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.
Tom Hiddleston sat down with
Den of Geek where he chatted about
Warhorse and
The Avengers:
It was really interesting, because it’s very collegiate at Marvel. Kevin Feige, who’s the brilliant president of the studio, he’s the head of the whole thing. And each character has been taken possession of by different directors. So Iron Man was inhabited by both Mr Downey Jr and Jon Favreau; and Thor was given the Kenneth Branagh heartbeat and the shape and character of the magnificent Chris Hemsworth; and then Captain America with Joe Johnston and Chris Evans.
And Ken and Jon and Joe all swapped information, and Joss was brought on at a very early point on Avengers, and Ken showed him Thor, I think. They just sat down and watched it together, because Joss had asked, “Can I watch the film before I start writing, I just want to see what you’ve done with Thor and Loki”. And Joss really loved what Ken had done, and what we’d all done together.
And so we took that as a template, but then understood that, of course, in the Avengers, all those characters, not just Thor and Loki, but Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, Clint Barton, Nick Fury, they have to move forward and evolve into something else.
And that was just a real privilege. It’s like meeting an old friend after years of not having seen them. Coming back to play Loki, having played F Scott Fitzgerald, Captain Nicholls and Freddie Page in the interim, it was like meeting an old friend. But also, having the confidence that I’d already spent six months inhabiting him. I’d already built the house, I just had to move back in, and redecorate. And the thrill of changing him... I remember saying, “Let’s make his hair longer”.
Working with Alexandra Byrne, who was the costume designer again, saying let’s take the regality of the lost prince of Asgard, and make him a damaged pirate, so there’s evidence of some kind of experience beyond what happens at the end of Thor. And then talking with Joss about his evolved psychology and how, in the space between the end of Thor and the beginning of The Avengers, Loki has gone through a whole bunch of stuff which will register on his mind and on his body and will change who he has to become. It’s really exciting!
Click on the link below to read the rest of the interview that includes working with Steven Spielberg.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Cobie Smulders, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, Stellan Skarsgård, Mark Ruffalo, Amanda Righetti, Scarlett Johansson and Lou Ferrigno The Incredible Hulk (voice).
Directed by: Joss Whedon.
Written by: Zak Penn (screenplay), Joss Whedon (screenplay).
The Avengers releases 27 April 2012 (UK) and 4 May 2012 (US).