MTV Stars: Tom Hiddleston Has A Banner Year With 'Avengers,' 'Thor'

With five releases in 2011, Brit even made time for a Woody Allen movie, and he talks about it all in MTV News' Thankful Week.
By Kara Warner with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Tom Hiddleston
Photo: AFP

To say that 2011 has been a banner year for relative newcomer Tom Hiddleston would be a serious understatement. If you didn't see him beginning to discover his mischievous roots as Loki in "Thor," you may have caught him in "Midnight in Paris" as F. Scott Fitzgerald, or noticed his name and/or face in trailers and posters for the upcoming dramas "War Horse" and "The Deep Blue Sea." Not to mention all the attention paid to the filming of his villainous role in next year's surefire summer smash "The Avengers."

It's been a banner year indeed for Hiddleston, and from the looks of things, the very talented and delightfully disarmingly charming Englishman is just getting started. It should therefore come as no surprise to see that Tom Hiddleston is one of the actors for whom we're most thankful this year.

MTV News recently caught up with the 30-year-old to discuss his big year, what he is most thankful for and what the future has in store for him.

MTV: With "Thor," "Midnight in Paris," "War Horse" and "The Avengers," this has been an amazing year for you, yes?

Tom Hiddleston: Yeah, it has been amazing. Amazing that I was even remotely considered for any of those roles. Amazing that I got them, and amazing that they turned into the films that they turned into. It's hard enough to make a film ... God knows anyone involved in the business, no one ever sets out to make a bad one. I've just been so very lucky. I've worked with some incredibly talented people whose chances of making a bad film are certainly slimmer, but they're all extraordinary films in their own right.

MTV: Looking back at the start of your career, is this the kind of success you wanted?

Hiddleston: Oh yeah, but you dare not dream about it, you dare not dream. Sometimes to dream it, you think, almost, you kill the dream by trying to conceive it in your imagination. So my way, my process of making my way in the world is to put one foot in front of the other, accept each job for its own merits and that will lead to whatever it will lead to. And suddenly you're doing five films in one year and they're all awesome.

MTV: In the spirit of being one of the actors for whom we're most thankful, what are you thankful for this year?

Hiddleston: I can't believe you're thankful for me! I am so beyond proud. I am thankful for so much. I am thankful for the things I hope I never take for granted: the love and support of my family, for my friends and their successes, and for the fact that life is generally pretty damn amazing if you let it be. I'm thankful for the fact that I can sleep on planes. ... I know many people can't. ... I am thankful for my Nike "Flywire" red-stripe/ white-tick running shoes. ... I'm thankful for my iPod Shuffle too and the music that propels me round these wonderful places. Come to think of it, I am thankful that I can run at all. There is nothing like the feeling of health: mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a healthy body). I only realized that fully when I hit my late 20s. I am thankful that I made it to 30 in one piece! Thankful for my 30th birthday party, which was incredible and featured the greatest dance-off between my friends that I have ever seen. The dance floor was the star. It was raised up like a stage and had flashing lights underneath it like a cross between the sidewalk in Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and the floor in "Saturday Night Fever." ... I'm thankful for the new album by Bon Iver, which I've just seen is the most played music in my iTunes Library. I am thankful for some incredible movies. My top five for 2011 are, in no particular order: "The Tree of Life," "Warrior," "Drive," "Bridesmaids" and "The Help." But I also haven't seen a lot of the most talked-about yet: "Shame," "The Descendants," "The Artist," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." I'm looking forward to all of those enormously.

MTV: How would you summarize this last year for you, career-wise? What kind of recognition are you now getting that you might not have had before?

Hiddleston: It has been an extraordinary year. Quite literally out of the ordinary. If the 30 years leading up to this one could be classified as "ordinary," this one definitely has the "extra" on the front. ... I feel incredibly fortunate: fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest directors alive and working today; fortunate to have been in films that have affected people and ignited in their imagination; fortunate to have played such a diverse range of roles across such different projects. I have shuffled in the shoes of Scott Fitzgerald, filled the boots of a First World War cavalry captain, fallen in and out of love with Rachel Weisz and run riot (twice) as the chaos-craving comic-book mischief-maker himself. I couldn't have dreamed it better. ... In terms of what I get now that I might not have gotten before: letters! I have received letters written with such passion and fervor that they reinvigorate and reinspire me to get back to work. An actor is not an actor without an audience. And if the audience is moved and inspired, as some have beautifully expressed that they have been in their writing, then I find that more meaningful than anything in the world. But I can still walk down the street to buy bananas without getting recognized, if that's what you mean.

MTV: What's next? Where do you go from here?

Hiddleston: At the moment, I am playing Prince Hal in Shakespeare's "Henry IV" part 1 and part 2, and Henry V in "Henry V." Hal was a drunken rebel, and Henry V was the greatest warrior king of England, and the fun part is that they're the same man. It's a great character arc. We are shooting the three plays as three separate films for BBC and NBCUniversal, directed by Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock, and produced by Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions. They'll be on TV at the same time as the broadcast of the London Olympics. It's mud, blood and warrior poetry for me. Back to my roots. "The Avengers" is released on May 4, 2012, which is, um ... exciting! And then Chris Hemsworth and I will beam back up to Asgard for "Thor 2." The rest is a blank page. Just the way I like it. The surprises are the best part.

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