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MY LIFE IN PICTURES LOKI
He’s fought the Avengers, been killed by Thanos, traversed timelines and befriended an alligator variant of himself – no wonder Loki is the God of Mischief. With the Asgardian’s Disney+ series returning for a second season, Total Film looks back at the character’s on-screen journey from audition to MCU mainstay via TF chats over the years with the trickster himself, Tom Hiddleston.
BEFORE THOR
When Tom Hiddleston auditioned to become part of the Marvel universe, he initially tried out for the role of Thor.
‘It had been six or seven weeks since my final audition [for Thor], and in that time, I had been made aware of [director] Kenneth Branagh’s vision, and the scope, and the epic nature of the story. So, I understood that Loki was going to be a very significant role and a thrilling antagonist, and apart from anything else, a really complex character with a huge amount to explore and investigate and represent. Those things made me feel really excited because I loved his complexity and contradiction.
‘My first response [to finding out I was Loki] was one of just delight and excitement. I couldn’t wait to get started. It was very quick. It was very shortly after that that Chris [Hemsworth] and I met together with Natalie Portman and Kenneth Branagh for some early rehearsals. Chris and I had a very immediate rapport. It was a fast and firm friendship formed in an afternoon. I saw exactly how the dynamic was going to work. We both felt like we’d won the lottery. We couldn’t believe our luck.’
THOR (2011)
Loki made his devious debut as the God of Thunder’s brotherly nemesis in this early MCU entry.
‘[One of my favourite moments of the whole film series] is where Thor and Loki are standing shoulder to shoulder, staring up at [Loki’s biological father] Laufey in Jotunheim. It was the very first day of principal photography and the very first shot by either myself or Chris as these characters, looking up at Laufey, who’s the king of the Frost Giants. It was the first moment these characters existed.
‘It’s weirdly unforgettable. Chris was wearing the red cape and holding the hammer. He said something like, “Know your place, brother.” It just felt like we’d started something. That particular shot has a very close place in my heart.
‘We love playing these characters. Thor and Loki have become two characters that have exceeded our expectations in every way. When I signed on, these sequels were planned, but both our agents said they’ll probably make the first one and maybe not the second. You don’t dare to dream that things will go as well as they have… Whenever we go to work, we hope that the story is going to make a connection. But I never knew it would be like this.’
MORE THAN JUST THOR
After filming Thor, Hiddleston found out there was more in store.
‘I went into work one day, and somebody said that Kevin Feige would like to see me in his office. He called me into his office, and said, “Congratulations on Thor. This is going to be great. And I’d like to talk to you about The Avengers.” I said, “What?”
‘He said, “Well, this is what I’m planning to do. I’m going to make a Captain America film after this, and then we’re going to put them all together. We’ve made Iron Man. And we’re going to make The Avengers. It’s going to be all of them, plus the Hulk and Black Widow. And I want you to be the villain, because in 1963, Loki was the villain for the first Avengers comic.” I thought, “OK, this is a slightly longer and more epic journey than I had initially imagined.” ‘I never expected that it would go beyond Thor. I just wanted to play the role as truthfully as I could, and bring all his mischief and wit and charm and damage and complexity, and hope for the best – as we all do as actors.’
THE AVENGERS (2012)
For his second trick, Loki took on the Avengers – and was smashed like a puny God.
‘The scene between Black Widow and Loki in the cell on the Helicarrier, Scarlett [Johansson] and I had an amazing time playing it. We shot on a Monday, and we had spent all weekend running it at her house. Whenever I got to “mewling quim”, I couldn’t say it because we would collapse into a fit of giggles. And I wondered if I was going to be able to say it and look her in the face without laughing. It just so happens I did.
‘There’s also the moment just before Loki is smashed by the Hulk, when he gets up off the floor and says, “I am a God, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by an animal.” But before he gets the word “animal” out, he is whipped out of frame, about to be smashed like a wet fish all over the floor of Stark Tower. Before we shot it, there was a wire attached to my right foot with three stuntmen on the other end. I said, “If you pull on the B-U-L of ‘bullied’, then I’ll be out of frame before I can finish my line.” It was like slipping on a banana skin. It was an old-school farce. I love that moment.’
THOR: RAGNAROK (2017)
An up-and-coming indie director by the name of Taika Waititi came and changed up the Thor formula.
‘Each director across my experience had a different idea of who Loki was, and how they wanted to use Loki. Taika Waititi took what we did in the first Thor and put all sorts of bells and whistles and fireworks and Jeff Goldblum in it… He was so brilliant at honouring what people already knew about these characters, but also evolving them and developing them and taking them on. There are echoes of the past, but everything was developed and extended and given a fantastic new iteration. Taika is so inventive and so funny. He has such respect for what other people have done, but he’s also completely fearless about bringing his own interpretation to the world. ‘He’s not trying to reheat the same recipe in the microwave. It feels completely new, and it feels really fresh. His invention is remarkable. On these big movies, the machinery can be cumbersome. That can weigh heavily on the director. He feels so light. He’s constantly inventing on the floor, and that is where the life of the film came from.’
THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)
Loki returned again – and wasn’t quite as evil as last time…
‘I remember talking about what Thor 2 should be with Kevin Feige when we were on the Avengers tour. We were having these live responses to The Avengers, and we were like, “That’s what they made of that. What should we do next?” I remember pitching to Kevin. I said, “Okay, you’ve seen Thor and Loki be in antagonism. It would be amazing to see them fight side by side.” I had an image in my mind of them surrounded by a circle of bad boys, back to back, and fending them off.
‘When [Chris and I] have these big scenes together, we both get excited in advance. It feels like we’re kids. It comes from trust – trust that either of us can go as light or as dark as we want, and the other person will hit the ball back and keep the rally going. One take can be very safe, another take can be very dangerous. When you’re doing fight choreography, it’s almost like a dance. Chris and I know we have this great chemistry with these characters.’
HALL-H
Loki made a trip to the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic-Con 2013
‘Kevin had a brainwave. It was an idea in his mind. He literally called me one day – it was during Wimbledon, I remember – and said, “How about this: you turn up in costume.” I said, “First of all, we literally have to plan this. How do I get to San Diego? It should be top secret.” And I went away and thought about what it should be. I wrote it myself, which really was just me messing with things I said in the film. And then I just improvised. I planned on coercing the audience to say my name, because Loki’s a full-on diva and a megalomaniac.
‘It was such a nice way of saying thank you to all the people who loved it and supported the film and the character. Also, it sounds crazy, but I love performing live. To have a response like that emboldens the characterisation. That sounds probably really trippy and mysterious, but there’s something extraordinary about a live performance, which is the audience is complicit in the energy in the room, and they often don’t know that. In the theatre, if the audience is falling asleep, it’s incredibly hard for the actors to not respond to that. However, if the audience are chanting your name, it means you give as much back. That’s why it felt so amazing on the stage because it wasn’t a one-man show. It was a seven-thousand-and-one show.’
LOKI (2021)
Loki made a fleeting appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, but that wasn’t the endgame for the Asgardian – a TV show beckoned.
‘There was this really emotional goodbye after Infinity War between me and the producers. We had a hug and a, “Thank you so much, Tom. It’s been so great.” So when they called and said, “Look, Disney are going to do a streaming service, and it’s going to be called Disney+, and we’d love to do a Loki series,” I was like, “Guys, we did the whole emotional goodbye!”
‘[The series] felt new. If you strip Loki of the context that he’s accustomed to inhabiting – of his customary robes and powers – and put him in an alien environment, is there some confrontation with who he is? Is there something revealed by that? Without his brother standing next to him, without Asgard behind him, what makes Loki, Loki? That’s really what the series is about.
‘In Season 1, we made some bold choices, and Loki goes on a really big, internal journey that felt very new and fresh. And I thought, “OK, so he’s coming to terms with himself. He’s coming to terms with his past. He’s coming to terms with his mistakes. We haven’t done this. This feels new. I would like to explore this kind of story, whether it’s Loki or not. But the fact that it’s Loki is even more interesting, in a way.”’
LOKI: SEASON 2 (2023)
A time-slipping Loki tries to keep it together.
‘There are so many young people – that makes me sound so old – who were nine when Thor came out, and they’re now in their twenties. And their delight and affection for Loki is so inspiring… The way I feel about it now is, it’s a responsibility to deliver the character that they love, while also trying to keep it interesting, and trying to find new things to do, so that I’m not repeating myself.
‘It’s a privilege [to continue playing this character] because it’s really rare. Every time an actor plays a role, it’s what you’re hoping for – that it will catch the imagination of an audience and they’ll take the character to their hearts. It doesn’t happen every time. For every character where that’s happened, there are thousands where it hasn’t. So it’s a blessing, a privilege. It’s got to be, hasn’t it? [When we started] I think it would have been very difficult to see [this] far into the future. We could never have seen 10 years ahead. However, that would be to underestimate the intelligence of Kevin Feige. But maybe he did see into the future, and he predicted all this, and, in fact, he works for the TVA, and reality is unfolding as it should, and we’re all just along for the ride.’
LOKIS2 STREAMS ON DISNEY+ FROM 6 OCTOBER. All interviews completed prior to the SAG strike.