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British actor Tom Hiddleston has a privileged view and understanding of the Marvel Cinematic Universe phenomenon, having starred as Loki in “Thor,” only the second film of a now ever-expanding franchise. Speaking at the Zurich
Film Festival, where he is presenting the opening film “Tenzing” and receiving a Golden Eye Award, the actor recalled those early Marvel days as “larger than life.”
Hiddleston said transitioning from working with British auteur Joanna Hogg on “Unrelated” and “Archipelago” was not so much of a shock, as both Hogg’s work and his role as Loki were about dealing with family issues, in a way. “The difference [with Marvel] was in the scale of the resources, the size of the crews, the size of the sets. It was so larger than life.” The actor would go on to play the famed character in seven movies and two seasons of “Loki.”
His memories of those early days are largely about “a very vivid, happy, immediate, fast friendship with Chris Hemsworth that had both of us feeling like we were the two luckiest guys in the world.” The actor said they were both very aware of being given “this extraordinary opportunity to play these magnificent characters and bring them to life for the first time.”
“We were immediately bonded,” he added. “It was a shared excitement about being invited to make a film like this. Marvel Studios had made one film at that time, which was ‘Iron Man,’ which we both loved, and we were being directed by Kenneth Branagh, Anthony Hopkins was playing our father, Rene Russo was playing our mother, and we had extraordinary resources. We had an amazing, brilliant creative stunt department where we would train for sequences of dizzying choreography. We both loved movement and these opportunities.”
Of the project’s scale, Hiddleston said, “It was a different dimension.” “The scenes themselves were very deep. They were full of turbulence, turmoil, soul and emotion […] The material was really deep, so the combination of those things was a thrill.”
The Brit thanked late screenwriter Don Payne for developing Loki’s “complex” backstory, and recalled an early conversation with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who told him “Thor” wasn’t “the only film you’re going to be in.”
“He said: ‘Well, we’ve made an ‘Iron Man’ film, we’re going to make a ‘Thor’ film, we’re going to make a ‘Captain America’ film, and then we’re going to make an ‘Avengers’ film, which is Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, the Hulk and Hawkeye forming a team. In the first edition of the first ‘Avengers’ comic, from 1967, the villain is Loki, and we want you to be the villain.”
“I never expected to be playing the character for this long,” he added. “But he’s a brilliant character of such depth and dimension […] “I knew where we had started in ‘Thor,’ and I wanted to get back to his capacity for love and his belonging to his family. I wanted to somehow find a way of completing that arc. It’s a long journey.”
Hiddleston kept his lips sealed about the highly anticipated “Avengers: Doomsday,” saying only that “it is coming.” And it is indeed, with the premiere date set for Dec. 18.
The “Crimson Peak” actor also spoke at length about Jennifer Peedom’s “Tenzing,” which chronicles the tale of the first-ever ascent of Mount Everest. The Brit plays climber Edmund Hillary, with Genden Phuntsok playing the titular Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Willem Dafoe, Caitríona Balfe and Tenzin Jigmey are also in the cast of the Apple TV film.
“I’ve been compelled by Everest for as long as I can remember,” he said, noting how he learned how to ski in the Swiss and French Alps, but has always been drawn by the highest of mountains. “What moved me so much about, um, about Jen’s screenplay and the premise and the promise of her film, which she sent to me three years ago with a beautiful letter, was that it was to put Tenzing Norgay at the center of his own story, to reframe that narrative from a different perspective and bring him into the foreground.”
Hiddleston praised Peedom’s 2015 documentary “Sherpa,” which portrayed in depth the Sherpa culture near Everest and the exploitation of local climbers by wealthy Westerners chasing the dream of summiting the mighty mountain. After reading the script, watching the documentary, and meeting Peedom, Hiddleston signed up for the project, which led him to climb to Everest’s base camp alongside the director, Phuntsok, and a high-altitude medical specialist. That experience connected him with the physicality of the role, but also its spirituality.
“I love that this film really reveals the deeply spiritual relationship that Tenzing had with the mountain, not a mountain to be conquered, but a goddess to be revered, a mother into whose lap he might climb,” he added.
“I think Hillary was really open to that depth of feeling,” he went on. “They did this extraordinary thing. Amazing. They achieved the impossible, like stepping on the moon. After that, their lives were changed forever; summiting Everest became possible, and thousands and thousands of people have done it since.”
The Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24 – Oct. 4.
