If 2014 was the Year of Benedict Cumberbatch, I’m hoping that 2016 is the Year of Tom Hiddleston. We haven’t achieved Peak Hiddles yet, but maybe by the end of April? Because he still has to do more promotion for High Rise and The Night Manager in America. Speaking of High Rise, Tom just won a British National Film Award for Best Actor for his role. Those awards are like Britain’s People’s Choice, and “the people” get to vote. And so I think we can safely assume that the Dragonflies flooded the polls. There are a few other Hiddles stories out there, so enjoy:
Tommy and Ethan Hawke talk about musical bio-pics. Ethan Hawke plays Chet Baker in a new bio-pic and Tom is obviously talking about Hank Williams. This Time Mag video is actually why I’m always an Ethan Hawke Apologist – Ethan LOVES actors. He loves to talk to other actors about process and how they work. And Ethan just loves to talk – I’ve started to think of him as a wonderful gossip. Putting Ethan and Tom in a room could have ended badly, but it strangely works, mostly because Ethan loves to chat and you can see Tom turning off his need to be a performing, dancing, singing bear. I love this video.
Tom chats with Esquire. You can read the full piece here – it’s just a piece about I Saw the Light, and Tom is nice but not really noteworthy in it. He’s been working on a soundbyte during his American promotional tour and it’s been landing pretty well – he always says something about how Americans don’t realize how American films and music have a very far reach around the world. He’s been saying versions of that in nearly every interview, including this Esquire piece: “The thing Americans don’t realize is that the British and Europeans grow up watching American movies. So the soundtrack of America and the raw material of American culture was very exotic to me growing up, because it was foreign.”
Tom chats with The Verge. This one is also a good read, especially if you enjoy soaking up all of Tom’s words. He was especially chatty with The Verge, but again, he stays on-topic and there’s no major pull quote. He does talk about fame, saying: “I don’t actually attach any significance to it. And I should qualify that by saying, the only thing that matters to me is the work. Other people’s opinions of me are things I can’t control, and that’s all fame really is, is a collection of other people’s opinions.” Sigh… I miss the old Tommy.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I’m starting to really like him.
Sit down on the veranda here and have a mimosa and some waffles with us.
Ooh, he comes with waffles and drinks? I’m in.
Served by Colin Firth. Welcome to my online fantasy veranda
I just fainted.
And now, our security officer Mark Strong is summoning medical attention for you.
I have key lime truffles to share!
And I like this Tom just fine. His observation about fame is insightful and accurate.
Please pass the key lime truffles!
@lilacflowers, so pleased to see that Colin and Mark are still on deck to look after those of us who gather at the verandah. I suspect they will have to gird their loins to keep going through the increasingly grueling publicity parade that is coming in 2016 for the year of the LEGS. Perhaps they might like to imbibe some fortifying liquids such as a good stout, Guiness perchance, that will both put more hair on their chests, and increase their stamina. The dear boys are so faithful, and deserve all the help they can get. If LEGS is too busy, I volunteer myself as willing and able for any service required, and I bring a tasty bundt cake as an offering.
@antipodean, that is very kind of you. Our calendars tell us that the LEGS tour will be winding down quite a bit by the end of this month, once TNM starts to air in the US. Colin and Mark are prepared. Once the final interview is complete, we’ll be bundling Thomas back home to London to recover/get some sleep before packing him off to Australia again for Thor3. (Yes, a brief weekend of WizardWorld or whatever comes first) We’re aware that a SDCC appearance may be in our July future, either to promote Kong or the MCU or both. That Variety Actor on Actor thing done yesterday, whenever that is released might be our only other late spring/summer release. Although I do hope we can squeeze in another Wimbledon match. No idea what the fall will bring as we have no film/tv releases until next March and no work announced either.
I’m the opposite, I used to like him but he’s becoming more and more annoyig with every interview. I call bullshit on not attaching significance to fame. He craves it just like all of them. His twitter from a few years ago shows it clearly. Be honest and admit it.
Agree. I still like him but he is such as try hard, and lately he just seems fake to me.
Yep, my first reaction too: bullshit.
I think all actors like and want attention, but I think wanting game for game’s sake is a little different. There are people who just want to be rich and famous and I don’t think he’s into that. I do think he likes to be the center of attention a lot, and I think that’s a trait a lot of entertainers have, because it’s kind of a trait they need to have. But that’s different from just wanting to be famous.
But he didn’t say he doesn’t want to be famous for fame’s sake, he said he doesn’t attach any siginificance to fame, which I doubt is true.
He may have made that comment given the fact that ISTL is getting mixed reviews. He seems to reiterate in every interview how hard he worked on being HW. I think he does want fame, but not from the frenzied bunch of mostly teenage girls that forms the bulk of his fan base now. After Loki, I wonder what role he’ll be offered? Keep the popcorn popping….
I think y’all missed the part where he said fame=other peoples’ opinions. So he doesn’t attach any significance to other people’s opinions about his work. That just sounds like a vague defense of his work as HW. I wonder where he’ll go next after Marvel. I’m kinda hoping for a return to indie, maybe with some self produced projects in there somewhere.
The piece with Ethan is lots of fun. I want them to do a road trip movie together. Ethan will talk over and through and around anyone but he does take enough time to listen to what they’ve said to incorporate it into his talking.
Saw the trailer for Born to be Blue before ISTL the other day. I think it’s Ethan’s “Its MY turn for an Oscar and if Leo can get one for spitting up blood and stuff, I should too! Look at me spit blood” film.
I feel like I’ve watched the cast of Dead Poet’s Society grow up, and I’ll always have an affection for them. (Can’t even watch the Good Wife any more.)
So true, right? They all turned out quite well.
Neil came back as a doctor even!
You can watch the Good Wife now. Will died and hasn’t been on for two seasons.
Without fame you can’t really do anything you need it in this industry, so people know who you are and can support what you do. So even if you don’t attach anything to it, it still benefits you and is important.
He sure attached importance to it three or four years ago when he trolled his fans on Twitter constantly… 😉
Those were my thoughts. I remember his celebratory twitter posts when he hit certain milestones in fan numbers. He knows perfectly well how much fame affects the work that comes his way, and he has never she’d away from cultivating it.
I don’t get the Twitter hate. Seriously. Just because he was down to earth and gave them a tiny view into his private life, doesn’t mean that he trolled them. It is a shame that because of a bunch of stupid fangirls who clearly had no private life he shut people down. Yes, I like actors and actresses and I like seeing private stuff but only when they allow it. He allowed access and was burned by those fangirls. How anyone could not like this guy is beyond me. As for fame: there is a huge difference between recognition and fame. I for one think that he wants recognition which he clearly deserves, not real fame. And the guy can’t win. If he says funny stuff people complain and say he is extra. If he stays serious, they say that they miss the old Tom. I for one don’t think that he changed petsonality wise. He just adapted to the business which is hard enough.
I think he matches the behavior to the product he is selling. The dancing bear matches up with the role of a comic book villain, so he shows the dancing bear side. But it doesn’t match up with the role of a tragic country western icon so we get stories of learning how to yodel and demonstrations of how to play the spoons and no dancing bear. The weather report was delivered in the style of Loki, not the style of Jonathan Pine or Hank Williams, because Loki is better suited for a comic weather report than a musician who died at 29 or a spy.
Thank you Anon.
Cultivating interest and recognition is not the same as “trolling” for fame. Regardless of how famous or not Tom was when he was more twitter active, he had a fan base and if you’re an actor serious about getting into big roles then you can’t just ignore your fans. Besides Tom is naturally gregarious and enjoys engaging with his fans. Where people want to call him fake or try hard over this is beyond me and frankly smack more of “trolling” than anything Tom’s ever done.
Your definition of trolling must be very different from the one I’m familiar with.
Cultivating a fanbase as a means to an end (i.e. having one’s pick of interesting roles and having people actually watch one’s work) is different from craving fame for fame’s sake. The latter is what he’s saying he doesn’t care about. He has said repeatedly that an actor can’t call himself an actor without an audience.
^^^Yep.
I think he does feel validated by it though. But let’s face it– this is the way with most actors. He is not an exception.
Lol, I just posted something similar. Great minds
yeah, and he has never had an issue acknowledging the boost playing Loki gave his career, simply because more people knew his name now.
That’s one of the few things I really respect about him. He knows what made him and gives credit where it’s due. Actors who eventually try to downplay the importance of their one big role (or some person who helped them, in his case Branagh) annoy me. Never go there, mr. Hiddleston.
I certainly walked out of the The Avengers thinking ‘who the hell was that Loki guy’?
Exactly. If Tom only wanted fame then why even bother to go to RADA? He could have gone straight into the business before even graduating from Cambridge. He’d already signed up with an agent that was getting him roles while he was still in school. In fact going to RADA was kind of a risk for him. He has said he was torn because it would take him three years to finish whereas he could have just started working in TV or go straight into theater like Eddie Redmayne.
If fame was all this work was for then why did he join the Cheek By Jowl Shakespeare theater for two seasons AFTER RADA? If fame is his ultimate goal he could have bypassed theater altogether and just gone for TV/film work. He could have just tried his luck in US where a large percent of our actors don’t even have any acting training. They have something even more important, looks and marketability, which is all you really need to be famous as an actor. Talent and experience don’t even rate third place as necessary ingredients to achieve fame.
I think The PuddleTom knows intellectually that fame doesn’t mean he’s Somebody Special. But I’d bet the farm that when he hits some new fame milestone (i.e. the humblebrag tweets every million followers) and feels the outpouring of adoration, emotionally he’s feeling pretty damn significant to the world. As most will. It’s the human condition to look for validation through applause.
When I read that quote I laughed out loud, especially in light of his reputation for Hathaway tryhardness just a couple of years ago.
I dunno, I think Tom may have learned a few lessons about fame along the way these last few years. He wouldn’t be the first person (famous or not) who craved something only to find out when they got it that it wasn’t what they wanted after all.
I agree, Dara.
Well said, Dara. It’s a classic case of be careful what you wish for. And the advent of social media has redefined fame and success in this industry. It’s a double-edged sword, and I think TH has probably learned that the hard way. People and their opinions can change.
That was actually what I got from it as well. Having now achieved some degree of fame (he’s still not super famous outside the internet), I think he’s probably seen what it can do and what it can’t. Like almost every other actor, he still doesn’t get every part he wants, nor are his films guaranteed to be either blockbuster hits or critical darlings. I suspect a lot of his ambition was pointed in those directions, and I think it only makes sense for him to be a little more realistic about it now than a few years ago.
I’d note that he doesn’t sound at all bitter about fame, and that he hasn’t made any silly statements about wishing he was completely obscure again as some actors who’ve been famous for a very long time do.
@lunchcoma, he hasn’t compared appearing at a comic con to rape or the Holocaust either, as others have done, so there’s that.
@lilacflowers:
True! Though I hold Tom to a higher standard than “not as much of an ass as Jesse Eisenberg.” Almost everyone passes that test! And Tom still does pretty well even when held to a higher bar.
To be honest I think he was referring to the gossip side of things, and the random opinions people form of him. He’s never going to stop wanting to entertain people, it’s all the conspiracy theories and judgemental bullshit that he is ignoring.
This is how I see it too. He courted fame or rather appreciation because it’s natural in the field of entertainment and also because of the way the business works if you want to have more opportunities. But he enjoyed himself on social media and shared that with his fans. Now that the social media and fans have become so big and beyond any significant personal engagement, it’s probably not as fun as it used to be. Plus the man doesn’t have any time because he’s busy taking on challenging roles like ISTL and High Rise.
We should perhaps bear in mind that there is a difference between wanting success in your career and wanting fame. Keeping in mind that fame means something different probably to what it meant even 5/10 years ago with the advent of social media.
Yeah and why go through all the training and paying your dues if all you want is fame. There’s a much shorter path to fame than that – years shorter.
“The truth is, anybody that becomes famous is an ass for a year and a half. You’ve got to give them a year and a half, two years. They are getting so much smoke blown, and their whole world gets so turned upside down, their responses become distorted. I give everybody a year or two to pull it together because, when it first happens, I know how it is.” -Bill Murray
I think he’s at the “pulled together” point now.
This is an excellent comment, InvaderTak. Food for thought.
I love this quote. Although, isn’t Bill Murray kinda known for being a famous ass for decades now? 😀
No. He’s been known to have it together for decades now.
I enjoyed reading an interview from The Daily Beast –
http://thebea.st/1UMhpL3
They have a good talk about music, Adam (from OLLA), having Hank Williams up on his wall of heros – Jim J. saying, ‘Well, obviously He’s one of the great American poets.’
I note a few of his interviews make sure and say he and Olsen are friends…he’s not grabbing the nearest woman and putting a ring on her (Hello Mag)…
“So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” (or maybe JArthy put her foot down).
Dear lord he’s an Oasis fan. No. Blur FTW
He likes Blur, Pulp, and Oasis. I’ve seen him list songs from all of them before.
And knows how to play at least one Oasis song on piano, which means it’s not a stretch to imagine him as That Guy Who Keeps Playing Songs At You when he went to parties in college. I may need to block that interview from my mind so my crush can continue!
I thought it was interesting that he doesn’t get as much pleasure out of the Beatles’ music as The Stones. I love both bands but I wore the grooves off Sticky Fingers.
I picture him playing air guitar to Blur’s Song 2 after a few pints…
I was shocked about the Beatles vs. RS part…. The Beatles obviously. All the way for me. Bad Hiddleston. Just kidding.
Strange, I only saw her mentioned in one of the articles Kaiser linked.
It had to be humbling for TH, after all the talk about him being nominated for best actor for ISTL to work with Brie Larson all throughout her successful awards campaign. Granted it was Leo’s year, but still, it had to sting.
I’m sure no one wants to be held accountable for things they said 3-4 years ago. He was new to the game and was an enthusiastic puppy. Quite obviously he is careful now as people STILL hold his fun twittering against him as well as that Graham Norton appearance. He’s right in saying he’s careful for a reason and feelings are transient. What you feel one day will be different the next. If it’s written down, those feelings stay forever.
Honestly, I think it’s just a very small number of people here who hold his totally mild, not-at-all-unusual for an up-and-coming actor Twitter activity against him.
All he did was chat to some people and post mundane status updates and the very occasional selfie. I really don’t understand why people call this ‘trolling’ or ‘fan-baiting’. Obviously once he hit a certain level of fame that was going to stop because the sheer amount of people tweeting him and news stories about him is going to overwhelm his mentions, and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
Twitter is in some ways like a virtual stage door. When you’re a supporting cast member you can walk out the stage door, sign a couple of autographs, have a chat with fans who you recognise and have gotten to know reasonably well and it’s all fine – it won’t take more than 10 minutes. When you’re a star you need barriers and security guards and a way of managing the crowds, and eventually even if you like signing autographs and chatting with fans you have to start sneaking out from another door.
@KTE great analogy. I’m going to use that.
I stage-doored The Crucible in NYC this weekend, so it’s fresh in my mind. Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okenedo and Sioarse Ronan all left by another door and avoided us (which is absolutely their perogative). Quite a few supporting cast members walked straight out without being stopped because we just didn’t recognise them out of costume. Carey Mulligan was visiting and walked straight past me out the stage door before I could even say hi – no-one was expecting her – and only got belatedly stopped when someone said ‘you’re a fantastic actress’ at her back and she turned round to say thanks.
We were told everyone had left, and most of the crowd had dispersed, and were only still standing there because we were having a chat amongst ourselves, when some of the supporting cast appeared who really were excellent. With only about 10 of us left we could individually chat to them, get autographs, and tell them how good they were in the play. They were very happy to be complimented and recognised.
I feel like when you’re an up-and-coming actor of course you appreciate the few people who spot you out of the crowd of aspiring actors, who make an effort to track you down and tell you they like your work. And yes, young performers these days have to cultivate Twitter followers etc, but that doesn’t mean the pleasure and excitement when people start recognising and appreciating your work isn’t genuine, or is calculated to gain more followers, or is ‘fan trolling’.
@KTE: “All he did was chat to some people and post mundane status updates and the very occasional selfie. I really don’t understand why people call this ‘trolling’ or ‘fan-baiting’. Obviously once he hit a certain level of fame that was going to stop because the sheer amount of people tweeting him and news stories about him is going to overwhelm his mentions, and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.”
Exactly so! And even worse is some people, who begged for a more serious Tom, got serious Tom and are now begging for silly Tom. The guy can’t ever be.
I’m sure I’m not the only Dragonfly watching the ACMs tonight, am I? Miranda Lambert singing Tush with Billy Gibbons jamming on guitar was such a treat. Keith Urban rockin’ the banjo was really good too.
I have no doubt Tommy Boy charmed the ladies there tonight. They would have swooned over his accent.
OMG. I just watch Tom Hiddleston, the most British Brit of the lot right now (or really up there) just announce and present the top, closing award of CMAs, Country Entertainer of the Year. I totally wasn’t expecting that he’d be given that category. I only started semi watching CMAs in the last hour and figured I missed his appearance. I thought he’d have been put somewhere in the middle.
IDK maybe it’s not that big of a deal, but it kinda was because even though other non-country entertainers Katy Perry, Nick Jonas and Keifer Sutherland were there, Tom is still pretty unknown to US mainstream audiences. He did well and kept it short but didn’t clam up or get too formal. He stated the obvious that he being British felt like an outsider but that they sure knew how to throw a party. Good job Tom.
Just TWITCHING, I’m trying so hard not to cross-post about the other guy. And I really don’t want Lilacflowers to kick me off of the verandah.
But after three (four?) years of hearing how thirsty our Mr. Hiddleston is, there is vindication in my mind. He has never been ‘go to a comic book store and cafe in NYC in costume with injury makeup’ thirsty! Hee! I really don’t know how one could top that.
(Unless it would be by making crazy leaps photobombing more famous folks’ selfies in the most public place imaginable. Oh, wait. 😉 )
Naughty TB. 😆 (You forgot “with wife in tow”)
Hey, I was trying to keep to SOME kind of boundary.
Hee.
Oh, Tom would totally do that, given the chance. It’s just he’d be very charming while doing it and so most people would find it adorable.
Nobody photo-bombs MY Larry Mullen, Jr.! And I agree with you completely. Have some cookies, TotallyBiased.
Aw, thanks Lilacflowers. Guess that means I’m safe, then, eh?
🙂
Honestly, if I was dressed up as Doctor Strange, I’d do the exact same thing for shits and giggles. It way too amusing not to! I’m not even a Bendy fan, but I found it hilarious and give him points for it 😛