Tom Hiddleston is an English film, television and theatre actor as well as musical performer. His career began mostly in television and theatre, eventually leading to his role in Thor (2011) as the main antagonist, Loki. Since then, Hiddleston has performed various types of small and lead roles which differ dramatically from the God of mischief.
Hiddleston’s career on the big screen broke through with his most famous role to this day in the Marvel franchise. The actor already knew director Kenneth Branagh from having worked with him in Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov (2008) and starring at his side in the drama TV show, Wallander as one of the detective’s annoying and pretentious colleague, Magnus Martinsson. Originally auditioning for the part of Thor, Tom Hiddleston caught the attention of the casting director and was cast as Loki.
Hiddleston has already reprised this role in Avengers Assemble (2012) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) showcasing his amazing acting skills and flawless interpretation the best villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Indeed, the actor gave a true soul to the character and made him highly likeable, even though Loki remains a villain who tried to destroy Earth so that he could get rid of his big brother and reign on Asgard. Nevertheless, this is not the only role Hiddleston should be praised for.
During 2011, he continued to get small parts in films from well-known directors such as Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris in which he appears briefly as the late famous writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Spielberg’s War Horse in which he played Captain Nicholls.
In 2014, Hiddleston did a commercial campaign ‘Good to be bad’ for Jaguar in which he explained the art of villainy while driving one of the cars along with actor Mark Strong. After that, he briefly appeared in films outside of the the MCU (Deep Blue Sea in 2012) until 2015 when he finally got to perform the leading role in three movies, the gothic horror Crimson Peak directed by Guillermo del Toro, a famous name in the gothic genre, the strange and retro High-Rise as well as the biographical drama film I Saw the Light.
The most impressive feature of his performances in those three films without a doubt, is the fundamental differences they all show in contrasting from his villaineous performances. While Sir Thomas Sharpe still shares Loki’s look, he is a romantic, dominated and perturbed man. High-Rise shows him performing as Dr. Robert Laing, a classy, nice guy losing control.Whereas Hank Williams is an American musician and songwriter in I Saw the Light, in which he also performed the singing part, and even though some criticism arose concerning his singing skills, the diversity in the characters played by Tom Hiddleston are evidence of his brilliant talent.
While 2016 didn’t bring him back to the big screen, the actor still appeared in John Lecaree’s adaption The Night Manager in which Hiddleston became a credible spy and man of action facing Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), one of the best duos in the history of espionage drama, resulting in public rumours that he could possibly end up playing the next James Bond.
Fortunately, this year the famous Marvel villain will come back to our cinemas in the new Kong: Skull Island directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and Thor: Ragnarok at Chris Hemsworth’s side, one of the most anticipated films of this year. Let’s hope that Tom Hiddleston will perform more lead roles on the big screen in the coming year.
Did You Know ?
- Tom Hiddleston had to train in the Brazilian martial art of capoeira to prepare for the role of Loki.
- When Hiddleston auditioned for Thor he gained 20 pounds of muscles to look like the Nordic God.
- Usually the actor prepares himself for a role by watching similar films
Tom Hiddleston’s favourite:
- He loves electronic and classical music
- Recognised as a stylish man, Hiddleston is fond of leather jackets.
The Film To Watch: Thor: The Dark World
