Five years ago rising star Tom Hiddleston could not have imagined that he would have a year like 2011. At the time, as the theater actor was shooting the “Wallender” crime series with Kenneth Branagh in Sweden, he went to see Marvel’s “Iron Man” and asked himself if he could ever star in a film like that.
Cut to 2011 and Hiddleston not only starred as villain Loki in Marvel’s “Thor,” directed by mentor Branagh, but also played light-hearted F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s surprise hit “Midnight in Paris” and the stalwart cavalry captain Nichols in Steven Spielberg’s year-end Oscar contender “War Horse.”
And that’s not all: Hiddleston played Loki again in Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” (May 4, trailer below). This time Loki is so powerful that it takes Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America and Thor to rise up against him. “He’s the agent of chaos, his power has increased 1000-fold,” says Hiddleston in our wide-ranging interview below. “He has a few extraordinary tricks up his sleeve.”
And the actor made passionate love–and war–with Rachel Weisz in British filmmaker Terence Davies’ grim post-World War II relationship drama The Deep Blue Sea, an adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play. After the stylized two-hander debuted at Toronto, it was acquired by Music Box Films (March 23).
Next up: Hiddleston is playing Shakespeare’s Henry V in the BBC teleplays of “Henry V” and “Henry IV,” I and II. He may join Jim Jarmusch’s ensemble on “Only Lovers Left Alive” later this year, and is attached to co-star with Anna Paquin and Elijah Wood in a pending film of the Elliott Chaze 1953 heist novel “Black Wings Has My Angel,” about a thief and a call girl.
Now Hiddleston is getting his pick of parts. He says he chooses based on “instinct,” and a wish list of directors. Way to go. Flipcam interviews below.
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