Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston at the Thor: The Dark World premiere, October 2013
Born	Thomas William Hiddleston (1981-02-09) 9 February 1981 Westminster, London, England, UK
Education	The Dragon School
Alma mater	Eton College Pembroke College, Cambridge Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2001–present
Relatives	Emma Hiddleston (sister)

Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981)^[1] is an English actor. He is best known for playing the character of Loki in the Marvel Studios films Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Thor: The Dark World (2013). Other notable roles have included Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse (2011), the British drama The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the 2012 BBC series Henry IV and Henry V.

He won the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight and Best Villain in 2013 for his role in The Avengers.

Early life and education

Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London,^[1] to parents Diana Patricia (née Servaes), a former stage manager and arts administrator, and James Norman Hiddleston, a scientist in physical chemistry who was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company.^[2] His father is from Greenock, Scotland and his mother from Suffolk, England.^[3] He is the middle child with two sisters, Sarah (born 1979),^[4] a journalist in India,^[5] and Emma (born 1986),^[4] also an actor. Through his mother, he is a great-great-grandson of Sir Edmund Vestey. He was raised in Wimbledon, in his early years, and later in Oxford.^[3] He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School^[6] in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He stated, "I think I started acting because I found being away at school while my parents were divorcing really distressing." Hiddleston continued on to Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics.^[7] He graduated from RADA in 2005.^[8]

Career

Film and television

While still doing student plays, he began doing British television, landing parts in Stephen Whittaker’s adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby for ITV^[9] the BBC/HBO co-production Conspiracy, and as Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, in the BBC/HBO drama The Gathering Storm.^[8]

Hiddleston at a press conference for Thor in April 2011

On graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Hiddleston won his first film role, playing Oakley in Joanna Hogg’s first feature, Unrelated. He also appeared in the leading role of Edward in Joanna Hogg's second feature, Archipelago. His TV credits include Magnus Martinsson in the BBC detective drama Wallander, Bill Hazledine in Suburban Shootout, John Plumptre in the BBC costume drama TV film Miss Austen Regrets and William Buxton in the BBC drama series Return to Cranford. In 2007, he joined a list of British actors, including Kate Winslet and Orlando Bloom, to have guest starred in the long-running medical drama Casualty.^[8]

He is best known for his portrayal of Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film, Thor. He was invited to audition by Kenneth Branagh, the film's director, after having previously worked with Branagh on Ivanov and Wallander. "Ken has had a life-changing effect. He was able to say to the executives, 'Trust me on this, you can cast Tom and he will deliver'. It was massive and it's completely changed the course of what is available to me to do. Ken gave me my break."^[10] In the beginning, he originally auditioned for the part of Thor. "I initially auditioned to play Thor. That was what I was being considered for, because I’m tall and blonde and classically trained, and that seemed to be the mold for what Thor was, he was to be a classical character. And it was in my auditions. I owe this entirely to Marvel and their open-mindedness, they saw something that they thought was interesting. They saw some temperament that they liked."^[11] The casting director gave Hiddleston six weeks to bulk up, so he went on a strict diet and gained twenty pounds of muscle.^[12] In the end, Branagh decided he was more suitable as the antagonist and cast him as Loki. To prepare for his role as Loki, Hiddleston trained in the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.^[13]

Hiddleston at the Thor: The Dark World booth at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International

In 2011, he portrayed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in writer-director Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, the noble Captain Nicholls in War Horse, a film based on the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo, directed by Steven Spielberg, and Freddie Page, a RAF pilot in the British drama The Deep Blue Sea, alongside Rachel Weisz.

He reprised his role as the supervillain Loki in the 2012 movie The Avengers. While filming a scene with Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, the film's director, Joss Whedon told the fighting duo that the scene did not look real enough, so Hiddleston told Hemsworth to really hit him for the fight scene. "I said to Chris, 'Dude, just hit me. Just hit me because I'm protected here and it's fine.' He's like, 'Are you sure?' I was like, 'Yeah, it will look great. Just go for it.'"^[14] Hiddleston played Loki again in Thor: The Dark World, which started filming in July 2012 and was released in October 2013.^[15]

In 2012 he appeared in the BBC Two series The Hollow Crown, portraying Prince Hal in the TV-movie adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I & II and Henry V in Henry V.^[16]

Hiddleston will star in the film adaptation of Elliott Chaze's 1953 crime novel Black Wings Has My Angel, as escaped con Tim Sunblade.^[17] Costarring with Anna Paquin and Elijah Wood,^[18] filming was originally supposed to start in September 2012 but in an October 2012 interview, Hiddleston said that filming would be put on hold due to the recent births of Paquin's twins and her wanting to take time to be a mother. Hiddleston said, "It was a sort of fun noir thing, but it's way, way off in the future. It's just Thor 2 at the moment."^[19]

In 2013, Hiddleston will play vampire, Adam, in Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive with Tilda Swinton as Eve and Mia Wasikowska.^[20] It was announced that Hiddleston would play Robert Capa, the Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist, in the upcoming film Close Enough, alongside Hayley Atwell.^[21][22] He replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in the upcoming gothic horror film Crimson Peak directed by Guillermo Del Toro.^[23] The film is set to start filming in Toronto in February 2014 with an April 2015 release date.^[24][25]

It was announced in February 2014 that Hiddleston will play Robert Laing in the film adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel High Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley. The film will start shooting in the summer.^[26]

Theatre

During Hiddleston's second term at Cambridge, he was seen in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire by talent agent Lorraine Hamilton, of Hamilton Hodell.^[8]

He had leading roles in Declan Donnellan's company Cheek by Jowl's productions The Changeling, and Cymbeline. His Donmar Warehouse credits include Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Shakespeare's Othello alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor to critical acclaim^[27][28][29] and later Lvov in their West End revival of Chekhov's Ivanov.

From 6 December 2013 to 13 February 2014, Hiddleston will play the title character in William Shakespeare's theatre adaptation of Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden ^[30] directed by Josie Rourke. It was also aired live internationally on 30 January 2014.^[31]

Narrations

Hiddleston narrated the audio book The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner,^[32] poetry for iF Poems and The Love Book^[33] on iTunes,^[34] for the British Museum on the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, and was the voiceover for BBC's documentary on the Galapagos Island.^[35]

Filmography

Film

Hiddleston in character as Loki at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International promoting Thor: The Dark World.

Television

Theatre

Hiddleston at the New York premiere of The Avengers in April 2012 during the Tribeca Film Festival.

Radio

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tom Hiddleston.

• Tom Hiddleston at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Hiddleston on Twitter