46 j THE BLOCKBUSTER
46 j THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE TOUGH, LOVE Three scenes from his acclaimed lead role in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, this page: Delivering a beat-down to Aufidius (Hadley Fraser). Right: Bloodied but focused and below right, a more tender moment with stage wife Virgilia (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen)
PEOPLE Guillermo del Toro says Hiddleston “has a timeless leading-man quality, vulnerable and magnetic” Spielberg once called him “the new Errol Flynn” He worked with her again on 2010’s Archipelago, but between their first and second collaborations notched up films with Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris), Kenneth Branagh (Thor) and Steven Spielberg (War Horse). The character of Loki keeps drawing him back to the Marvel Universe and in 2017 he’ll make his fourth outing as Thor’s arch-enemy in Thor: Ragnarok. Leading film-makers continue to draw Hiddleston into their worlds too. One of the more recent is Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican behind this year’s gothic ghost story Crimson Peak, who has said that Hiddleston “has a timeless leading-man quality. He is simultaneously vulnerable and magnetic.” Spielberg once called him “the new Errol Flynn”. Hiddleston is comfortable with his background and proud of what he’s achieved but thinks it lazy when he’s automatically lumped in with other well-spoken, well-educated British actors of his age. His name is often mentioned in the same breath as Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne or his friend Cumberbatch, and he’s regularly cited as an example of how acting is dominated by those from privileged backgrounds. “Let’s be clear, at the beginning of my career, I had an easier ride through the lean times,” he says, calmly taking those criticisms head-on. “I’m lucky. And I understand negative perspectives. But sometimes it feels like ammunition for someone who’s got an axe to grind. They write things about me and I think, I’m not this person, it’s just an accident of birth, and I’m sorry if you’re offended by that.” And Hiddleston clearly believes in giving something back. He’s a vocal and active supporter of the charity Unicef. In 2013, he went on a well-publicised trip to Guinea in west Africa to draw attention to hunger and malnutrition in the developing world and in 2014 wrote about his experiences, again for Unicef, of trying to live on less than £1 in the UK for five days. He has also spoken about having no time for actors who are arrogant and lack the common decency to treat colleagues and fans with dignity and respect. “I remember as a young actor being treated contemptuously by people I hoped would be great,” he explains. “And I thought: ‘You’ve got this amazing life, you’ve probably got everything you want, why are you behaving like this?’ I knew that if I ever found myself in that position, I’d remember to treat people with equanimity and kindness.” Playing the stylish, malevolent Loki has brought with it a level of global fandom reserved for few actors. When THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE j 47