- 7 months ago
"Each project is such a unique and specific chapter of my life." Tom Hiddleston takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'Kong: Skull Island,' 'Thor,' 'The Life of Chuck,' 'Crimson Peak,' 'The Night Manager,' and more.
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Jeremy Ray Smolik
Talent: Tom Hiddleston
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Associate Producer: Zayna Allen
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins; Paige Garbarini (on set)
Camera Operator: Oliver Lukacs
Audio Engineer: Gloria Marie
Production Assistant: Brock Spitaels; Hollie Oritz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Samantha DiVito
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Jeremy Ray Smolik
Talent: Tom Hiddleston
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Associate Producer: Zayna Allen
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins; Paige Garbarini (on set)
Camera Operator: Oliver Lukacs
Audio Engineer: Gloria Marie
Production Assistant: Brock Spitaels; Hollie Oritz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Samantha DiVito
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00We danced for seven minutes, yeah.
00:04It's a seven-minute sequence and we did it, I can't think how many times.
00:07Maybe a hundred.
00:08Oh goodness, this is so recent.
00:10I'm so much older.
00:14Hello, I'm Tom Hiddleston and today I'm going to be watching some scenes from throughout my career.
00:21What was that quote?
00:22Life is something you live forwards, but it only makes sense when you look at it backwards.
00:26So maybe it'll make sense.
00:28Let's hope.
00:30What am I?
00:45You're my son.
00:47What more than that?
01:00This changed my life, this film.
01:02There are two ways about it.
01:03It's, in many ways, it's defined huge chapters of my life.
01:08It's been a role of such complexity and range that it's never felt the same.
01:13He's a boundary crosser.
01:15He's a shape shifter.
01:16He's this mercurial element of unpredictability and chaos that's also enormous fun.
01:23But this scene, as I've always looked back at this scene with enormous poignancy and gratitude because it's very unusual that films feel momentous.
01:34I was very aware of its significance as I approached it, and so was Kenneth Branagh, and so was Anthony Hopkins.
01:42I couldn't believe that I was in such a position of privilege and good fortune that I was working with these two greats.
01:49What was so sweet, and I may have never said this before, was they were so delighted to be working with each other, but so embarrassed about telling each other that they told me.
02:01So, Kenneth Branagh would come up to me and go, can you believe we're working with Anthony Hopkins? Look at him go, he's just the most majestic actor I've always wanted to work with him.
02:11And then he'd go off and talk to the crew and position the camera, and then Anthony Hopkins would come up to me and go, hey, Kenneth Branagh, he's pretty amazing, isn't he? Pretty impressive guy.
02:20Why would you take me?
02:21You were an innocent child.
02:23No, you took me for a purpose.
02:26What was it?
02:31Tell me!
02:33He was so generous and so kind to me, and we had sort of just met, and the professional requirement was to kind of throwing the emotional kitchen sink at each other.
02:46And that takes great trust and great connection and intimacy.
02:50And he recognized I was, I was 29 years old, and I was, you know, this is my, kind of my first big film, and I'd only really met Anthony Hopkins in the read through, and a little bit in rehearsal.
03:04But I knew from the screenplay that this was a completely transformative moment in the film, and certainly the most transformative moment for Loki as a character.
03:14And it became and remains the cornerstone of the whole characterization for me, because Loki is an antagonist.
03:21I mean, it's amazing to look at it now.
03:39What makes me smile looking at it is just remembering how obviously this is seen with the whole group on this expedition.
03:47And we were all there in this valley, which the production design was amazing with all these old bones in it, but there was no skull crawler.
03:57Skull crawler, this sort of giant, four-legged monster, trying to synchronize our imaginations about where it was, and how close it was, and how dangerous it was.
04:08Just imagining something is there that isn't there.
04:17There was a poor guy behind the rock who was, like, trying to roll this thing, and it kept rolling too far.
04:23And then it rolled and it hit my foot, and we just, I remember doing, like, so many resets.
04:28Yeah, he was bowling, and he was kind of missing his mark every time.
04:31So we just kind of, this repetition of looking horrified over and over and over again, like, roll.
04:36Oh, no, no, it needs to be a bit closer.
04:39And so it makes me laugh to look at it.
04:41Rally up, rally up!
04:43Somebody cover the civilian six, let's move!
04:46This moment was actually, like, we were all just getting to know each other.
04:50Because it was quite early in our filming schedule, and it was in this amazing company of people,
04:57from, you know, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman, and John C. Reilly, and Brie Larson.
05:05I remember she had just come from the Toronto Film Festival with her film Room, which, you know, she went on to win an Academy Award for.
05:13And John C., he was like Mother Hen, in a way.
05:25That was an amazing day, actually.
05:27I think when John C. throws me the katana, that was our first day together on set.
05:33And I had just met him.
05:36Yeah, it was very exciting, and obviously a huge piece of action.
05:40I remember the day we did it.
05:42Everything is real except for the monsters themselves.
05:45And we'd set off these canisters of green gas.
05:48And I was actually, you know, on the terrain, and we had a bit of choreography.
05:53And it was so thrilling to learn it, because Conrad, that's my character's name, James Conrad,
05:58is a Special Forces soldier in the truest sense of the word, in that he's just incredibly capable.
06:03There was definitely some training involved.
06:04You know, it was some very intense physical stuff.
06:07Bye, Kong.
06:08It's good to see you.
06:10The whole point of this film is that it's about life can be hard,
06:39and life is often, for many of us, a struggle.
06:44And we all have to overcome obstacles in our lives,
06:48and our lives are sometimes full of loss and grief,
06:52but that our lives are also full of joy.
06:54And every seemingly ordinary life is magic.
06:57And actually, in the last hours of our lives,
07:00it may be that the things we remember are the people we loved
07:04and the experiences we shared.
07:07And the whole point of this sequence was that you meet Chuck,
07:11and he, you know, in the external world seems to be an ordinary guy,
07:16Mr. Businessman, wearing a business suit on his way to the business conference,
07:20staying at the business hotel, and nobody would even turn to look.
07:25He seems unremarkable.
07:26But actually, he contains this internal world of infinite possibility and joy.
07:35And he was a dancer at high school and middle school.
07:38And there's suddenly, he doesn't know this, but his life will end in six months' time.
07:43And at this moment of complete spontaneity on a Thursday afternoon,
07:47he decides to put his briefcase down and start dancing.
07:50And it's the freest and the most committed and the most passionate and the most joyful that he's ever been.
07:56There are a few signature moves of mine which is going to sneak their way in there.
07:59But the thing that was new for me was learning all the things I didn't know how to do,
08:02like learning the bossa nova and the polka and swing and jazz and salsa and the Charleston and the moonwalk as well,
08:12which is trickier than you might think out on the asphalt in Alabama.
08:16I had amazing teachers in Mandy Moore and Stephanie Powell and Jonathan Redavid.
08:21They were the most joyful, inspiring kind of guides, really, that kind of retaught me the language of dance,
08:27that dancing is something we instinctively know how to do.
08:30We come into the world as children, pretty sure every child dances,
08:33and it's like a language we forget somehow.
08:35And it's like Chuck is remembering how much he loves it and how happy it makes him.
08:40And hopefully that joy is something that transmits and connects to everyone around him.
08:46But it was just so, it was such a fun sequence to shoot.
08:50And honestly, it's something I never thought I would get to do.
08:53Like when I was growing up, I was such an admirer.
08:56Gene Kelly movies and the Fred and Ginger movies.
08:59And I was a teenager in the 90s and there was like so much dance in pop culture.
09:04And around that time, I suppose it was like MTV and there was a lot of break dancing.
09:09And people, like all the music videos were full of these incredible like different moves.
09:13And that Fatboy Slim video with Christopher Walken and he was also a trained dancer.
09:17Getting to do this was something I never thought I would get to do.
09:20I'm so happy that I was given the opportunity.
09:23I used to carve toys for Lucille.
09:35Make little trinkets to keep her happy.
09:37Were you alone here in the attic all the time?
09:42Father was always traveling.
09:44The family fortune didn't lose itself.
09:46Hmm.
09:47God, this really is, this is going back in time for me.
09:50I haven't seen this film for a while and it was a very meaningful experience to make it.
09:57Guillermo del Toro asked me to do it and just the privilege of working with him.
10:03He's such a master filmmaker.
10:05He knows his knowledge of cinema and of his craft is total.
10:10Everything you see in every frame of his films has been very carefully chosen and very carefully imagined.
10:15And he understands story at such a deep level.
10:19He's such a deep admirer of literature and classical literature.
10:23But he also understands cinematography and props and art direction and costume and tone.
10:29And to be near his authority was a real education and a real honor.
10:33We shot the film at I think what was then the biggest sound stage in North America,
10:39which was Pinewood in Toronto.
10:42The house in the film is called Allerdale Hall, built on three or four stories
10:46and the most elaborate set I have ever seen in my entire life.
10:50It was a real place as far as I could tell.
10:53And getting to live inside it and be inspired by it, there was nothing left of the imagination.
10:58You had it.
10:59If you had a prop, it was tangibly in your hands.
11:01I remember there was a wall of plaster by the wooden staircase and there were cracks in the plaster.
11:08And from a certain angle on the landing, if you looked at the plaster, the cracks spelt out the word fear.
11:15Was it ever creepy filming in this house?
11:17No, because it was actually because Guillermo's sets are so full of laughter and they're so full of joy.
11:23So you just feel like you're all on this adventure together to try and tell the story.
11:27And gothic romance was such a curious genre because it was at the time very rebellious and very new
11:33in that often the archetypes were that a young, innocent, open-hearted heroine
11:38was drawn to a tall, dark stranger with a house on the hill.
11:42And you were the tall, dark stranger?
11:43I was the tall, dark stranger.
11:45I know!
11:48Do you know what? Very recently, we just did a season two of The Night Manager.
11:52We were filming on location in England.
11:54I drove up and parked my car and somebody came to meet me and they were so enthusiastic.
11:59And I thought, you know, this is kind of extraordinary hospitality.
12:04And then as he was showing me to my room, he said, I just had to tell you,
12:08I became a night manager in hotels because I saw you in The Night Manager.
12:13And I was like, okay.
12:20What the hell is that? What is this? What is this?
12:23Corky sit down.
12:24It is for another day, Walter.
12:26I'll tell you what it is, my naughty little grease ball.
12:28This is a lobster-sodding sign.
12:30Yes, sir.
12:31It was so interesting.
12:32So the whole point of this scene was that it's actually that there's a moment of completely spontaneous chaos.
12:40Corky, so brilliantly played by Tom Hollander, knows he's kind of being replaced,
12:45that actually he's losing favour at the right-hand side of the boss and is furious about it.
12:51Roper, as played by the great, the one and only Hugh Laurie, sees pine smooth over the cracks and that he does it with a kind of effortlessness and charm and competence that thinks, actually this guy is such a calm hand on the tiller.
13:09He's such a, he's so switched on. I really should make him my right hand. And then at the table next door, the people who are kind of witnessing this violence are very disturbed by it.
13:22The leading guest was John Le Carre, who took his role very seriously.
13:28So sorry.
13:29My dear man, what the hell's going on?
13:31Andrew Birch, I must apologise for my friend's misbehaviour.
13:34I think you're bloody well shot.
13:36Allow me to buy you lunch.
13:37So that scene takes about maybe 25 seconds in the show, but actually on the ice, John Le Carre was so brilliant at improvising that every time I tried to say, allow me to buy you lunch.
13:50Every time I tried to smooth things over, he would say, well, I don't think you should buy me lunch.
13:54I think your man there is very distressed. What are you going to do about it?
13:57And I'd say, don't worry about him. He's going to be absolutely fine. We'll take care of him.
14:00He doesn't look fine. He looks awful. He's sitting on the, he's sitting on the, my companion is very disturbed by it.
14:06What are you going to say to her? What can I get you? Can I get you a plate of oysters? Can I get you?
14:11I was just, I was just like, how can I, how can I just tie this up and wrap it?
14:16And he was such a powerful actor. He's so inventive in his improvisation that he just wouldn't let me rest.
14:23He wouldn't let me stop. And actually the take went on for about 10 minutes and we cut and I kind of failed to do the job of, of pacifying him.
14:29He was so mischievous and so playful. He knew what he was doing. And, um, and all of that stuff is improvised.
14:35It's such a happy memory for me. John le Carre has, uh, since passed away.
14:40And the night before we started, we had, we went out for dinner and he said this extraordinary thing.
14:47He said, um, well, of course, Tom, as you may have guessed, Jonathan Pine is me. And now he must be you.
14:55Take it on. Take possession of this. Don't feel it belongs to me. Make it belong to you.
15:00It's really unusual for an author of such stature and such esteem. He didn't need to say that.
15:07And, um, it was very, very generous of him.
15:10It's been, um, remarkable watching everything back. My thought is how young I look in these clips.
15:22That, uh, that these, these were made when I was a younger man, but that's okay.
15:27Each project is such a unique and specific chapter of my life.
15:32You know, every time you go to work to make a film, usually it's going to take six months of your life and you remember that.
15:38That's half a year or sometimes a whole year. And so the experience is so much more than the two hours traffic of what the film ends up being.
15:48Cause what you, what I'm remembering is all these people I met and all the friendships I made and the challenges we overcame.
15:55It's like a, you know, it's like, it really is like watching whole chapters of my life.
15:59So it's been, um, it's been a lovely honor.
16:03Have a great day.
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