The new
The new Mr Big Oscar-tipped acting thoroughbred TOM HIDDLESTON plays the new ultra-villain in Jaguar’s latest ad campaign. So J-Magazine thought it high time to chat about the role, his upcoming Hollywood blockbusters and a certain XJS WORDS: Dave Calhoun 42 j THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE
PEOPLE IN CHARGE... ...but there’s nothing thuggish about his new villain role in Jaguar’s latest advertising campaign TOM HIDDLESTON Nationality: English Age: 34 Job: Actor Other interests: Unicef, very long breakfasts and old films Who needs good guys when evil ones are so much more entertaining? During Tom Hiddleston’s short, brilliant acting career his villainous moments have lingered long in the mind. His most widely watched and loved role to date is surely the cunning Norse god Loki in both The Avengers and Thor film franchises. When you watch this British actor in these vividly imagined Marvel movies, his dyedblack hair slicked back, his stare piercing and his Cheshire cat grin menacing, you know he’s drawing on his Shakespearean stage background to play a character adored and feared the world over. These films are based on comic books, but they’re anything but child’s play. It’s little surprise, then, that last year Jaguar invited Hiddleston, now 34, to join the likes of Ben Kingsley and Mark Strong and star in its Good to be Bad campaign. Hiddleston’s second film for the campaign was The Art of Villainy, in which we see him smartly suited and booted and driving a F-TYPE Coupé out of a subterranean London car park on his way to an unknown criminal mission. But this being a classic Hiddleston role there is nothing remotely thuggish about his villain. His bad guy is a sophisticate through and through. We meet him listening to John of Gaunt’s This scepter’d isle speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II through his car’s audio system. Very THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE j 43