Marvel’s The Avengers-Interview with Tom Hiddleston

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Hey guys! Jennifer here,

I have THE most amazing interview to tell you about. Tom Hiddleston is adorable, funny, and just the most handsome evil villain ever.

In every superhero movie we always root for the good guys, right? I have never been a fan of the villains — that was until I met Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki in the new movie Marvel’s The Avengers. 

I’ve always seen Tom as his character Loki as pictured above. Honestly, that is what I expected to see when he walked through our interview door. What I did not expect was to have my heart catch in my throat. I was completely star struck as he bent down, smiled at me and looked intensely in my eyes and shook my hand as he said in his rich accented voice –“Good evening Jennifer, It’s so nice to meet you”. Then he lingered for a second keeping his eye contact.

Be still my beating heart.

He is amazing off the screen as much as he is on the screen. You are going to fall in love with him too and become a #lokisladies and become a member of #teamloki!

So, tell us how much you like playing such an evil bad guy.

Well, because I played him before, I kind of feel like I’ve got both my arms around him. And, I understand underneath all of his like, evil and anger and madness and mania, there’s a sort of emotional heartbreak. But it was really fun to cut loose and just let my hair down, literally and metaphorically.

Joss Whedon (the director) — said that we had to make him more dangerous. We had to make him more menacing. Because these superhero films, when they really work, and I think this one does, purely because of Joss’s immaculate writing and direction, the — the sort of fist-pumping redemption-drama is earned by the heroes having to overcome an obstacle.

And your fist is pumping for Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor and Captain America and all of those guys because I am that obstacle. Someone’s got to do it, basically, and it was really fun, and it was like being a kid, too. There were days where I had a harness underneath my costume, and wires, just underneath it, and I was just flying around, like a circus act, like a kid, basically.

When you signed on to be in “Thor” and “The Avengers,” did you actively want to be part of a superhero movie that could potentially inspire others?

Yeah. Absolutely. And I don’t think it was something that I really remembered until I had gone through a period of exploring other things, expanding my tastes in other directions.

Like, as a kid, I loved superhero films. “Superman.” “Indiana Jones.” Tim Burton’s “Batman.” Then as a teenager, I sort of went off into more of refined things, like I discovered foreign language cinema and foreign language stuff and, Shakespeare. Your taste is just more refined. Then I kind of remembered actually why I signed up in the first place.

It’s because of Christopher Reeve! I just thought, “Wouldn’t that be amazing?” Before I’d even conceived of acting as a job, before I knew you could make a living being an actor, I wanted to be Superman. If you get this kind of a film right, you can enter a child’s imagination in the most extraordinary way.

How do you find reactions from fans or kids to Loki’s character?

I kind of dedicate my performance to Mark Ruffalo’s ten-year old son, because he was on set a lot. Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige, the producer, they were enormously supportive on set. They were very complimentary when they liked something that I was doing. I would do a take, and they would say, “Awesome. You got it. Kevin Feige would be like, “God, that was great. Let’s move on.” And you get on with the day. The days that Mark’s son was there, he was like, “Awesome job, Tom. Kevin would say the same thing, and then Mark’s son would say, “Oh, my God! Tom! That was incredible! That was the most awesome thing I have ever seen!” And I’m like, “I am doing this for you.” And, you know, there were days when Mark would come in just to watch, because he wanted to watch. He’d be like, “I’m sorry. We’re here again. He just loves you.” And then you realize that that’s the power that these films can have.

It’s such a beautiful thing. It’s a really amazing privilege.

In bringing this character to life, it’s a huge thing, because you know they already have their stories established and things like that. So were there any particular details and nuances you tried to add to the character the audience should really look for?

I hope that anyone who has seen “Thor” can recognize him, and I have — there is still this spiritual damage at the heart of him, underneath his anarchy and his chaos and his anger and destructiveness. There is still a vulnerability there, and I hope that people kind of see that he is very stylish, you know?

Despite his hair?

[LAUGHS] Um. He’s like terrifying and hateful. There’s a sort of a strange elegance or something that he has. I just hope that people love to hate him or hate to love him.

So is Loki really a villain or is he just jealous of his big brother?

I always think of him as an antagonist as opposed to a villain, but only because every villain is a hero in his own mind. All of us in the world, as we move forward with our lives, we make choices, and we like to think that they’re the right choices. Loki is making all the wrong choices. So he’s tragically deluded, and borderline insane, but he still thinks, in the narrative of his life, he’s a hero. So, I guess, let’s just say I believe in flawed heroes and heroic villains, and I think he, Loki, is a kind of a heroic villain, in a way.

You have played other villains in the past. Was this one particularly hard to walk away from after you were done?

This was really the only villain I played, interestingly. I mean, the only out-and-out bad guy. It’s funny, as a kid, my sisters and my cousins and I used to write plays and perform them at the end of the summer for our parents, and I would always be the evil wizard, or a dastardly pirate. And then, something happened. When I got about the age of 16, I was constantly playing good guys. Romeo, Cassio, Othello,– just people, and then I played Capt. Nichols in “War Horse.” Some people who had a decency in them, or a warmth to them.

What I love about playing Loki is his complexity. There’s just so much there. You know, he is this fascist, basically. He’s a megalomaniac. He thinks he’s a king, but he’s also a brother and a son. And he’s really getting lost, like a lost child in the body of a very powerful chess master. Someone with a chess master’s intelligence, and it’s easy to manipulate people.

So he’s kind of a box of fireworks, really. There were days where I had such fun with him, and other days inevitably where I woke up with a spring in my step and a smile in my heart, and had to go into work and set those things to one side and try and cultivate all of his negative feeling. That was challenging. And that’s when you become a child. You go, “Oh. This is nothing — this character is feeling none of the things that I am feeling.

Like, I feel really good about my life right now, and he really doesn’t. And so I have to sort of find somehow, some way of going to this dark place.”

So, what would you say that Loki’s chasing in his efforts? We haven’t seen the film, but I know he’s trying to basically take down the human race or take down

He’s chasing power. But the reason he’s chasing power is because, really, he’s chasing self-esteem. Anyone — I think anyone who feels powerful has no need to reach for it. Those in the world who feel they aren’t powerful, they seem to have no self-love, no self-esteem, are constantly trying to get the power.

So, in this film, he’s not going after the acceptance of his father or brother anymore?

That’s probably part of it. I mean, the void that descends on him, the big, empty space, is a sort of wounded black hole, it’s caused by a sense that he was never loved by anyone, truly. And so that’s the case, then he has nowhere to belong. And if that’s the case, then he’ll find somewhere, which he will fashion as a place to belong. So that’s that! The earth it is. He’s come down to earth to make himself a kingdom.

Watch Tom in the May 4th opening of Marvel’s The Avengers! If your theater has a midnight showing — go to it! Watch Loki in action as he plans on taking over the world!