Jaguar Magazine BLOCKBUSTER – English

PEO PLE
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