Thor's Tom Hiddleston Looked At Peter O'Toole As Inspiration For Loki

Marvel have just posted a new interview with Hiddleston. In it he discusses Loki's motivations and which comic incarnation they looked to when brining him to the big screen. A lot of it is stuff we have heard in previous interviews, but we do get a glimpse into some of the influences Hiddleston looked to when getting into character.

“Interestingly enough, he(Branagh) said to look at Peter O’Toole in two specific films, ‘The Lion in Winter’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia. What’s interesting about ‘The Lion in Winter’ is, [O’Toole] plays Prince Henry, and what’s beautiful about his performance is you see how damaged he is. There’s a rawness [to his performance], it’s almost as if he’s living with a layer of skin peeled away. He’s grandiose and teary and, in a moment, by turns hilarious and then terrifying. What we wanted was that emotional volatility. It’s a different acting style, it’s not quite the same thing, but it’s fascinating to go back and watch an actor as great as O’Toole head for those great high hills.”

“On set, we used to do different takes of different scenes, and we’d have [four] different versions. The first one, he always said you can have one for free. The second take would be the Peter O’Toole take. The third one would be the Clint Eastwood take. And the fourth take would be the Jack Nicholson. So I had these three great actors I was trying to pull stuff from.

“[Branagh] used to love the Clint, actually. It was between the Clint and the Jack, because the Clint would be like, whatever you’re feeling, put it away in a drawer somewhere at the bottom of you and throw away the key. And Jack would be, have a really good time! A relish, a deep sense of enjoyment, he was really enjoying himself.”