He hasn't seen Timothée Chalamet's 'A Complete Unknown' yet, but British actor Tom Hiddleston is a huge Bob Dylan fan. As his new film 'The Life Of Chuck' hits UK cinemas, Hiddleston reminisces about his days posting 'Song Of The Day' tips on Twitter.
00:00But if you have heart, you have hope, and you have heart in you.
00:10Hi, I'm Alex from NME, and today I'm joined by the star of new film, Life of Chuck, and many more besides.
00:16It's Tom Hiddleston.
00:17Hello, nice to see you.
00:19First things first, how long did it take you to learn to moonwalk?
00:23Yes, it's a good question. It took me a while, and I needed it sort of to be broken down into little parts.
00:31I want to say a week. Once I got started, once I understood it, I just did it every single...
00:36I actually got up at like between five and six every morning and spent like an hour just doing it.
00:42That's been tricky, did you have to like put on shoes just like in your pyjamas practicing?
00:45In socks, yeah.
00:47Is that not harder?
00:49So, socks is good. Socks in a...
00:52I actually, you know, there was a, where I was staying, where there was a gym, and I would just take my trainers off in the gym.
00:58There was nobody else in there, and it was kind of like a slidey floor, so it was actually perfect.
01:01So, dance scenes are quite, they go viral a lot now from films and TV shows.
01:05Right.
01:06And often, I feel like there's more dance scenes in films these days.
01:09So, I wondered if you had like a favorite one, because...
01:12That's so interesting. I feel like there's less.
01:14Really?
01:15Yeah, when you think of like when films, that used to be the...
01:19What people wanted to see, you know, like back in the forties and fifties, you think of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.
01:28That dancing was part of like, that was part of the magic of cinema.
01:33In fact, I think that dancing is somehow stitched into the DNA of cinema.
01:39Yeah.
01:40Like if you think of the history of cinema as a motion picture, part of the thrill of it was seeing...
01:45I think the very first film is like basically just a train arriving in a station.
01:50And people were overwhelmed because it seemed like a train was coming towards them.
01:54But very quickly, you know, moving pictures, dancing is like, well, dancing is movement.
01:59So, anyway, it's an abstract thought or a rabbit hole. I'm disappearing now.
02:04Do I have a favorite dancing scene?
02:06I just, I wondered because one of the big ones recently on TV was in Severance.
02:10So, it's called The Music Dance Experience.
02:13Oh.
02:14It's like, it's gone absolutely wild and...
02:16Amazing.
02:17You should check it out.
02:18I will, yeah.
02:19I mean, for me, honestly, my first thing that I think of when you ask me the question,
02:23I would be lying if I said something else, is Gene Kelly and Singing in the Rain.
02:28I really do think that's a piece of eternal footage.
02:31I think, honestly, you can show that to a three-year-old or a 93-year-old and they will smile.
02:38And they'll understand it.
02:40Yeah.
02:41I really think there's this sort of a grace and athleticism and the freedom and the presence that he has.
02:49It's just pure.
02:51It's just the purest thing.
02:52Because somehow he's this powerful athlete flying through the air and it's raining.
02:57And we all know what that's like.
02:59And I just think it's magic.
03:02Yeah.
03:03And you didn't have to get as wet to do...
03:04I didn't have to get as wet to do.
03:05I know.
03:06Yeah.
03:07Deep Cut, Fred Astaire in Carefree.
03:10I've not seen that one.
03:11Dance sequence with a range of golf clubs, which defies your brain to comprehend it.
03:19You keep thinking he's now going to bash himself in the face with a golf club, but it doesn't happen.
03:23It's a kind of magical thing.
03:24So, look that up.
03:25Carefree, Fred Astaire, golf clubs.
03:27Enemies Music Magazine.
03:29Yeah.
03:30And one of our readers' favourite things about you used to be your Song of the Day tweets that you did.
03:36Oh, wow.
03:37Which is, I think...
03:38That's going back, yeah.
03:39Over a decade ago.
03:40Yeah, yeah.
03:41I thought we'd use some of them as a jumping off point to chat about your favourite music.
03:45That's fantastic, okay.
03:46So, I apologise for sort of dragging up.
03:48No, that's amazing.
03:49Also, these are old, like, old...
03:51I always thought, like, doing when I did the Song of the Day, I just thought it was a way of...
03:56I don't know.
03:57It was a way of sharing something that was meant to be shared.
04:01I feel like music is meant to be, you know, enjoyed.
04:04Well, let's see if you're still thinking that after rereading it.
04:06Okay, some of them might wonder what they are.
04:08They're not bad at work.
04:09Okay.
04:10The first one is the Song of the Day is Blowing in the Wind by Bob Dylan, because it was playing
04:13where I had my dinner and I remembered how amazing it is.
04:16Do you have any memories of this dinner?
04:17Is that...
04:18Really?
04:19I said that.
04:20Yeah, yeah.
04:21It was April 18th, 2012.
04:22Wow.
04:23At 10.59pm.
04:24April...
04:25April when?
04:26The 18th, 2012.
04:2718th, 2012.
04:28Wow.
04:29That's a long time.
04:30I'd be very impressed if you could remember it.
04:31Yeah.
04:32But are you a big Bob Dylan fan?
04:33I am a big Bob Dylan fan.
04:34I remember actually like being aware of Bob Dylan growing up and aware of his extraordinary
04:39reputation as a lyricist, as a poet, as a musician, as a kind of figure of the time
04:46he was a part of.
04:49I came to him quite late in terms of my own connection.
04:52And I think it was in my 20s, I just started listening to his songs and to his lyrics.
04:57And maybe I just had to be a little bit older.
05:01And I think he's a master.
05:04And that song is probably his most famous, I think, or one of the most famous.
05:11I think.
05:12It is so beautiful.
05:14It's so...
05:15And those lyrics are eternal.
05:16I wasn't surprised when I saw you tweet that because obviously you played Hank Williams.
05:19Yeah.
05:20And Hank Williams was a big influence on Bob Dylan.
05:22Yes, exactly.
05:23Well, well remembered, you know.
05:24Yeah.
05:25That was one of the reasons I wanted to play Hank actually, was seeing where Hank Williams
05:30exists in the chain of musical inheritance.
05:33Because you've talked to any musician or any artist, frankly.
05:37They will always have profound influences that made them sort of appreciate their work
05:42or the art form in a different way.
05:44And Hank seems to be this link for so many people with music.
05:50I think it was not.
05:51Bob Dylan, Springsteen, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen.
05:58They all talk about how influential Hank Williams was.
06:01And I thought, wow, he's this gateway for them.
06:04And I loved all of those artists.
06:06So did you get to see Timothee Chalamet's film?
06:09I haven't yet.
06:10You haven't yet?
06:11I haven't yet.
06:12It reminded me a bit of your Hank Williams films, actually.
06:14Did it?
06:15Wow.
06:17That's a great compliment.
06:18It's an extraordinary actor.
06:19I have heard what a compelling and total performance it is.
06:23So I can't wait.
06:24Yeah.
06:25And one of my favourite Dylan songs, actually, is Simple Twist of Fate.
06:28I just love that song.
06:29I think you were maybe thinking a bit harder about this one.
06:31You really got quite deep.
06:32It was a song of the day, Holocene, by Bon Iver.
06:35Yeah, I love that.
06:36It reminds me that the world turns, and that amid all its teeming chaos,
06:39there is still beauty.
06:40Very profound.
06:41That was at 7.04 a.m. on August the 26th, 2012.
06:45Wow, that's early.
06:46Yeah.
06:47August the 26th, 2012.
06:48I know what I'm doing then.
06:50I think I'm making Only Love Is Left Alive with Jim Jarmusch.
06:56That's what was happening in August 2012.
06:59Although what I said about the song kind of sums up the film.
07:02Yeah.
07:03Life in all its teeming chaos still contains beauty.
07:05Yeah.
07:06I remember the album cover the artwork on it, and Holocene is the third track.
07:10It just really takes me to a place, that song.
07:12There's a guitar, and also Justin Vernon's falsetto.
07:17It's so beautiful.
07:18It's so serene.
07:19I don't know.
07:20He has this ability to, I find, write very joyful.
07:27Music that sometimes has a strain of melancholy, but also has a strain of joy in it.
07:32Like, he's just discovered a secret that we all know, but have forgotten.
07:36And sometimes when I listen to his music, that's what it makes me think of.
07:40He's actually your most chosen first song of the day.
07:43Really?
07:44Wow, that's interesting.
07:45I do think he's kind of got an extraordinary gift.
07:47Yeah.
07:48And I love how non-linear his artistry is.
07:53He's trying to express something that probably can't be expressed in words, so he's not wide-butt.
07:57He is using words, but he's also using instruments that don't often go together.
08:02An organ and a guitar and a saxophone, and they just make me feel something.
08:07Would you ever want to play him in a film?
08:10Or did you scratch that itch?
08:12Maybe.
08:13I mean, I've never thought of it until now, so I'd have to think about it.
08:16I'd have to think about what I could possibly bring to his...
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