With a career spanning theater, television, and film, Tom Hiddleston has become one of Britain's most versatile and respected actors. Best known for his charismatic portrayal of Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 44-year-old has consistently balanced blockbuster success with stage and independent film work, cementing his reputation as a performer of both depth and dynamism.
Born and raised in London, Hiddleston's early years were steeped in literature and performance, leading him to study at the University of Cambridge before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). His breakthrough came in 2011 with Thor, where his nuanced take on Loki transformed the character into one of Marvel's most compelling figures, earning him a devoted global following.
Since then, Hiddleston's career has been a testament to range and refinement. He won a Golden Globe for his gripping performance in The Night Manager (2016), brought Shakespeare to life in Coriolanus and Henry V, and impressed critics with his turn as country music legend Hank Williams in I Saw the Light (2015). More recently, his role in Apple TV+'s The Essex Serpent (2022) showcased his ability to bring a quiet, emotional intensity to period drama.
In 2025, Hiddleston wowed in The Life of Chuck, plus made a triumphant return to the stage in Much Ado About Nothing, embracing the role of Benedick in a fresh, modern production that marks his latest collaboration with director Jamie Lloyd. Theatre, he insists, remains at the heart of his craft, a space where storytelling thrives in its purest form.
STRIPLV: While Marvel and the portrayal of Loki have been such a big part of who you are and what you have done over the past few years, it was interesting to see your diversion into sci-fi and the portrayal of Charles Krantz in The Life of Chuck. HIDDLESTON: There were so many things that engaged me about this, and I do admit I found it a very enriching experience. Perhaps the most intriguing thing for me was the fact it's a feelgood Stephen King project, and you really don't get that many of those. But in the times we are living through, I thought it was really important to portray a scenario where there is joy emerging from the chaos. I really liked that, and I felt it deserved further exploration. STRIPLV: You're not a stranger to dance, but the moves in this were quite special, and quite intense too. HIDDLESTON: Preparing for the dance was challenging. It took over six weeks, and I immersed myself in various dance styles, including jazz, swing, salsa, cha-cha, Charleston, bossa nova, polka, quickstep, and samba. Our goal wasn't to achieve technical perfection but to convey an earnest explosion of joy, reminiscent of Chuck's younger days. STRIPLV: Is it true you went through a pair of shoes, so intense was the scene? HIDDLESTON: Absolutely. We were filming on the asphalt in Alabama, and so repetitive was what we did that I ended up wearing a hole through the shoes. STRIPLV: The apocalyptic narrative that you've formed so much of your career was back and present. What is it about that feeling that you like so much? HIDDLESTON: For me, I think it's about underscoring the courage required to hold onto what is good when everything appears to be falling apart. This theme has always resonated deeply with me, especially given the times we live in. I wanted the take-out to be a reminder of the beauty and complexity of human life, even when the world seems off-kilter.
STRIPLV: Your own career has survived the apocalyptic nature of the industry and the troubles it has gone through. How do you view film in 2025? HIDDLESTON: Of course, the industry has its difficulties. There's often a pressure to fit into a certain mould, to be what others expect you to be. Earlier in my career, I struggled with this and spent probably too long wondering if my own perspective and instincts were enough. STRIPLV: Where did that come from? HIDDLESTON: I think, in the UK at least, when you have a private school education and attend Oxford, you are sheltered from a lot of the realities of life. When you then take that step out into the world, there is a lack of preparedness, and it's real. It takes you a while to work out this new version of the world; it's not a new version at all —it's just not the one you were led to believe existed —and I think that shock to my system took a while to work itself through. Over time, I've realized that the most important thing is authenticity—knowing what you stand for, the kind of stories you want to tell, and having the courage to express yourself openly. There's also a lot of uncertainty in this business. You can never predict what's next, and that can be both thrilling and unsettling. One day, everything is moving forward; the next, it feels like you're at a standstill. The only way to navigate it is to keep pushing forward, step by step, until you look back and realize how far you've come. STRIPLV: How have you handled rejection, criticism, and conjecture? HIDDLESTON: It's all just part of the job. It's impossible to avoid, but I've learned not to let it define me. Negativity can be draining, and if you let it consume you, it takes away from your ability to focus on what really matters. The key is to stay true to yourself and not get caught up in other people's opinions. One of the biggest challenges in that is how people sometimes judge you based on who you were in the past, rather than who you've become. People have long memories; that's a good thing, but it can also lead some to see you in only one light, and sometimes an inaccurate one. STRIPLV: You've chosen to return to the stage in 2025 in Jamie Lloyd's Much Ado About Nothing. What was the inspiration behind that? HIDDLESTON: Well, is there any greater inspiration than Shakespeare?! I mean, it's an exhilarating experience from minute one, and collaborating with Hayley Atwell, a friend of two decades, has brought a unique energy to this production. Someone in the press described us as having "sparring chemistry' and I thought that was wonderful. What was so inspiring for me as well was the reality that although this is a production rooted in history and the traditions of the Bard, we also had licence to try to bridge the gap between traditional theatre and modern audiences, infusing the classic text with fresh energy and relevance. It's been brilliant. STRIPLV: How do you deal with the increasing scrutiny that your life and work are receiving now, as compared to a decade or more ago, when you were still a relatively unknown actor? HIDDLESTON: I don't think you ever get totally comfortable with being in the spotlight, nor do I think you should. Ultimately, I try to be myself at all times and not create a false public image. When I give interviews, I want to be as honest and direct as possible. I don't see the point in trying to pretend to be someone else, but I speak my mind openly, and I hope that people come away with a real sense of who I am as opposed to the characters I play, even though, of course, you still need to keep some things about your life private. STRIPLV: You've spoken in the past about the role of technology and how it's both a blessing and a curse for the generations. Does returning to the stage provide you with an antidote to the confusion, because it's such a pure medium? HIDDLESTON: I think it was when I was doing the film High-Rise that it really started to dawn on me how far technology could remove us from ourselves. It's interesting, in a lot of products you do on film or TV or the stage, the research is imperative, and as much as you power on through it in the name of undertaking a performance that is as committed and polished as it can be, the reality is in many cases you are forcing the process because the subject matter might just happen to be something you're not wholly engaged with or in. Yet doing High-Rise was like a voyage into a world that, by the end of it, I didn't want to remove myself from. I already had respect for J.G. Ballard's writing and his outlook on the world, but after researching for the project, I realized I was absolutely enchanted by it, and have been since, and subsequently, have thought a lot more about technology, our readiness to outsource our needs to machines and devices, and everything that entails. It's incredible that, in 1978, Ballard also predicted the industrialization of the moving image and the emergence of social media and YouTube. It's like all this had been inevitable for a long time, which you might have supposed would speed up the decline for theatre, plays, and natural performance; but I think the opposite has become true, in much the same way that people are still reading magazines despite the presence of the internet. And they prefer magazines, I mean, everyone does! At our core, as humans, we crave communication and conversation, person-to-person. It's pivotal and vital for the human psyche, and that feels like a major relief, just like I love interactions on the street or in the corner shop. Ballard saw us entering this void, where technology is now our primary means of interaction with the world rather than other human beings, and that's why rebelling against it feels so good. It's why theatre always feels so good, for me. STRIPLV: Where does technology go from here, then? HIDDLESTON: Oh, you're definitely asking the wrong person. (Laughs) What I will say, though, is that the glory days of technology are over. Take social media, for example, in the early passing over this, everyone thought it was incredible. In seconds, you can talk, interact, and participate with anyone, of any age, in any part of the world. Ultimately, though, most people would view social media as harboring some sort of poison these days. It's tainted, and it's only going to get worse. The same goes for our attachment to and reliance on technology; everything needs to be reassessed, and I think it is being. STRIPLV: Are there any projects where you fundamentally don't like that research element? HIDDLESTON: No, never. Doing the research is one of the things I love and one of the most joyful parts of being an actor, to give myself an intellectual and imaginative context in which I can place myself. It's a treat that I feel privileged to be able to do, and be paid to do it. STRIPLV: With that in mind, then, do you enjoy going from playing extreme characters like Loki in The Avengers' films, or Chuck Krantz, or Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing, or even Hank Williams in I Saw the Light? HIDDLESTON: Yes, and that's the beauty of being an actor. I believe that we start out in life being born clean slates and then, in the course of things, we all have the innate capacity to turn into many different types of individuals. We can be good or bad, nasty or noble. Acting involves throwing yourself into many different kinds of people, and there's a cathartic effect in that. What is remarkable about this kind of profession is that an actor can, over the course of a career, play both Romeo and Iago. You can go from playing Shakespeare's greatest lover to playing his greatest sociopath. Villains are often the most interesting to explore because often you find they have the most complex and twisted personalities. Being an actor involves approaching your character from the perspective of both an anthropologist and a psychologist. You're constantly digging around to discover what motivates them. STRIPLV: Most actors confess to being obsessive observers of the human condition. Would you fall into that camp? HIDDLESTON: I have a great fascination for human psychology and the contradiction between the self we project to the work and our underlying inner identity. I like exploring human vulnerability and what makes people tick behind the facade! STRIPLV: What are you scared of specifically? HIDDLESTON: I'm scared of my own imagination, mostly! Oh, and gothic fiction – that scares me, particularly, and has done since I was a young child. There is always a curious, open-hearted, innocent heroine who is propelled into her future by her curiosity and her spirit, and a tall, dark stranger who represents mystery and potentially menace. As I got older, I realized that gothic romance contains these primary instincts in all of our lives of sex and death that we are driven forward, these two are such polar opposite forces, and they are everywhere and they are inevitable! I think the tension between our sexuality and the inevitability of death, and where they meet, is something gothic romance has been fascinated by through the novels of Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, and Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and all that fantastic gothic fiction. STRIPLV: As a Brit, is it easier to portray gothic characters? HIDDLESTON: I'm not sure. As a young man training to be an actor, all you dream about is playing sophisticated, complex characters in sophisticated stories, yet, of course, there is an enormous back catalog of literary heritage in English writing, specifically Gothic writing. STRIPLV: You have described yourself in the past as being a feminist. Can you elaborate on that? HIDDLESTON: Well, I mean, I'm a feminist in that I believe in absolute gender equality. It strikes me as baffling that anyone wouldn't be in our age. So I think that feminism has become a very coded term, and different people have different interpretations of what it means. To my mind, it means absolute equality across the world. I would stand for that, to my dying days.
THE MANY TALENTS OF TOM
Tom Hiddleston is the kind of actor who can do it all: Shakespeare, superheroes, and spot-on celebrity impressions. His love for the arts started early, leading him to study at Cambridge University, where he graduated with a double first in Classics.
That academic background gives him a unique depth, whether he's performing Hamlet on stage or bringing Loki to life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But even the most talented actors have humble beginnings. Before making it big, Hiddleston worked as a waiter, a job that ended abruptly when he spilled an entire tray of drinks on a customer. Thankfully, his career took a different turn, and he soon found himself stealing scenes as the charismatic God of Mischief.
Beyond acting, Hiddleston has another hidden talent: uncanny impressions. He's known for effortlessly mimicking everyone from Chris Hemsworth to Owen Wilson, often breaking them out in interviews to the delight of fans. And while he's played everything from villains to romantic leads, he's always had a soft spot for the classics.
When asked about his favorite Shakespeare play, his answer was immediate: "Hamlet. Always." With his intelligence, charm, and endless talent, Tom Hiddleston continues to prove why he's one of the most captivating actors of his generation.