Considering The Night Manager is a six-part miniseries, I was kind of wondering if I should do next-day recaps. It feels unfair though, because British viewers have already seen it months ago and there will be concerns about spoilers, etc. Still, I wanted to say something about it, and you guys should feel free to use this as a TNM Open Post. TNM debuted on AMC last night and it was rather fantastic. I get why Brits were so obsessed with it – it looks great, it’s a glossy yet reality-based espionage story, the leads are charismatic, and there are lingering close-ups on Tom Hiddleston’s eyes, face and body. Of course I’m already rolling my eyes at some stuff – Pine is still hung up on a woman he slept with once five years ago? And politically, Western countries had every right to be concerned that the Arab Spring was empowering another, different brand of fanatic, right? But otherwise, it’s a good show so far.

Meanwhile, Tom is still talking. He seems very pleased by the great press around TNM and his good notices in particular. He told EW: “I think the most well-known things I’ve done have been actually at the extremes of my range and I don’t look like myself, to be honest. I look like somebody else. As Pine, I look like me in a way. So that, strangely for an actor, that felt new.” He does look like himself in TNM, and he’s quite lovely to look at. What else… USA Today asked him about James Bond again, and again he shrugged off the question. He also chatted with Rolling Stone – some highlights:

Doing his DeNiro impression in front of DeNiro: “I remember thinking, ‘Why the hell am I doing this, I hope he doesn’t hit me.’ Especially since my Pacino was a lot better.”

Watching autopsies: “To be fair, I only watched one autopsy being performed. My character is a pathologist, so I needed to make sure I was getting it right. And you can tell a lot about a person by how they remove someone’s brains.”

The disconnect: “There’s a disconnect between who I am and who people expect me to be because of my background. And I feel compelled to be rebellious and go against that.”

Playing slightly creepy-sexy characters: “People want to put their best face forward and when you peel that face back, you see a lot of turbulence. It’s not like I think society is one disaster away from orgies and eating household pets. But that’s the most interesting thing to me: what’s going on outside versus inside.”

He loves the Fast & Furious movies: “In fact, I was just telling someone how much I love Furious 7 and they said, ‘Are you kidding me?'” Hiddleston suddenly puffs himself up and adopts a gruff, Rock-like cadence. ”Dwayne Johnson flexes his arm, breaks open his cast and then says, ‘Daddy has to go to work’ – if you don’t love that, I don’t know how I can appreciate you as a human being.”

[From Rolling Stone]

I sort of need the receipts on Hiddleston mimicking The Rock. Mostly because I want to see and hear him refer to himself as “Daddy.” While I think Hiddleston is sort of tightly-wound and hyper-managed these days, it would be interesting to see him mix it up with a Fast & Furious film or something. Something light. He wouldn’t do it though.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.