Loki steals Thor’s thunder

For a few memorable moments,a multimillion-dollar,wham-bam comics-based action movie is a study of fraternal love and hate,of familial rage and thwarted hope,of the strange combination of nature and nurture that governs an individual’s actions. It’s not the only moment in Thor,and its sequel,Thor: The Dark World,when Hiddleston achieves this kind of Shakespearean resonance.

There’s a reason for that. Hiddleston,32,is a classically trained British actor and the latest in a long line of British performers to move with remarkable dexterity between serious theatre and mass-market cinematic fame.

His résumé is impeccable: He attended Eton,Cambridge University,then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He portrayed both Prince Hal and Henry V in the BBC-PBS Shakespearean series The Hollow Crown. He has played F Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and featured in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

But it wasn’t until he won the role of the nefarious god of mischief,Loki,in the Disney-Marvel Studios franchise that includes Thor and The Avengers that Hiddleston hit the A-list. Now he has fan clubs,a serious Twitter following and gossip column inches.

“The fame thing is so odd,” Hiddleston said in a recent interview. “I’ve had that wide impact in a role that is so unlike me.”

It’s true that the real-life Hiddleston doesn’t much resemble Loki. He is unobtrusively handsome,with light brown curly hair,an open,friendly manner and the physical elegance of a tall dancer. He is also articulate,thoughtful and given to poetic turns of phrase.

Hiddleston grew up in Oxford,the middle child of a Scottish father who ran a pharmaceutical company and an English mother who had worked as a stage manager. He was 13,he said,when he first thought seriously about acting.

In his final year at Eton,the school took a production of Journey’s End,the R C Sherriff drama,to the Edinburgh International Festival,where it won rave reviews. He then went to Cambridge to pursue a degree in Latin and Greek and was spotted soon by an agent.

Two HBO productions,Conspiracy and The Gathering Storm,soon came his way. Hiddleston found himself “reading Cicero on set in full costume” but managed to graduate with top marks.

He could have gone straight into acting but decided to attend drama school for three more years.

“I thought,‘I’m not trained,and I’ve been lucky’,” Hiddleston said. He eventually won the main role in his first film,Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated,from 2007,and theatre productions followed that brought him to the attention of Kenneth Branagh,with whom he subsequently worked in a stage production of Ivanov and on Wallander.

Then came his big break. Branagh,who was directing Thor,called him to audition for the title role. He made the shortlist and was told to put on more muscle for a screen test six weeks later.

“I put on 25 per cent more muscle,got down to 7 per cent body fat,knew my lines inside out. I was a man possessed,” he said.

Hiddleston did not,of course,get the part,but the studio was so impressed by his commitment that he was offered Loki. While Thor was dismissed by many critics,Hiddleston generally garnered applause. Hemsworth said he thought Hiddleston’s performance made Loki a more important character than envisioned.

“Amongst the chaos and madness of that character,there is an incredible vulnerability and charisma,” Hemsworth added. Fans agree: More than 30,000 of them have signed a petition urging Marvel to produce a Loki film.

Soon,he will be seen as a disaffected vampire,Adam,alongside Tilda Swinton’s Eve in the Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive.