While at the San Diego Comic-Con 2010, following the amazing Avengers panel where they had the likes of Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and others on stage, Movies Online got a chance to snag an interview with Tom Hiddleston, who can be seen in the May 6, 2011 film 'Thor'.
Q: Did you have a wide range to have at it or were there specific parameters to your villainy?
Tom Hiddleston: Ken and I discussed a lot very early on because we both read a lot of the comics and there were so many facets of him in the comics. There was kind of an agent of chaos who would go down to earth and turn whales into sea serpents and plows into dragons and whole streets of cars in New York into ice cream. But then there was also this damaged brother, this younger brother who didn’t receive as much love as his elder brother and who was passed over, rejected, betrayed, and I think that became really interesting for both of us actually. Ken and I suddenly decided we wanted to root all of his mischief in a truthful, psychological damage. He essentially was the younger brother. He was never going to be king and he wished that he could, so all of his stuff comes from wanting to please his father, although there’s a big reveal about who his father really is in the course of the film which I won’t reveal. But it was rooted in that. I found the duality of that, the sort of he’s a villain, he has a lot of fun, he’s a mischievous prankster but at the same time he’s in deep, deep pain.
Q: Is that reveal something that’s not in the comic book?
Tom Hiddleston: No, it’s in the comics.
Q: So we can do our research.
Tom Hiddleston: You can. Look into the truth of Loki’s lineage and you will find it.
Q: Kenneth seems to give his actors a lot of stuff to work with such as books and movies. What did he give you to play the villain? Where did you start?
Tom Hiddleston: Interestingly enough, he said to have a look at Peter O’Toole in two specific films: The Lion in Winter and Lawrence of Arabia. I mean, two magnificent performances. What’s interesting about The Lion in Winter is he plays King Henry and what’s beautiful about his performance is that you see how damaged he is. And there’s a rawness. 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 kind of emotional volatility. He said, “Just have a look. Don’t necessarily…” It’s a different acting style. It’s not quite the same thing. What’s fascinating is to go back and watch an actor as great as O’Toole and head for those high hills. And then actually on set, we used to do different takes of different scenes and we’d have three different versions. The first one would always be like he’d say you can have one for free. The second take would be the Peter O’Toole take. The third take would be the Clint Eastwood take and the fourth take would be the Jack Nicholson. So it was like I had these three great actors who I was trying to pull stuff from.
Q: Which one did you end up using more often?
Tom Hiddleston: He 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’s would be just like [imitating Nicholson’s voice and delivery] “Have a *really* good time!” There was that kind of relish, a deep sense of enjoyment like he was really enjoying himself.
'Thor' will be released May 6, 2011, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Idris Elba, Jaime Alexander, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard, Clark Gregg, Joshua Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, and Ray Stevenson. The film will be directed by Kenneth Branagh.