Tom Hiddleston on Playing a Villain and Being an Avengers Heartthrob (by PopSugarTV)
Kay, so we’re gonna take a break from my usual headmate/space-related posting to talk more about the Avengers; more specifically, about Loki.
Now, all the rest of the internet is pretty much already doing that, to the point some people are starting to get sick of it (or at least those of us trying to find things non-Loki related under the Avengers tags :P ), but most of it is mindless squeeing over either the character or the actor (not that I’m condemning that. Dear god, most of my life is spent mindlessly squeeing over something or other. Please, squee to your hearts content). I want to talk about Loki. Tom Hiddleston up there says a couple of things that I really agree with, and I feel like I have to elaborate on that a little.
The first thing is Loki’s sanity. “Bag of cats” is… not the first words I would use, but after thinking about it some, I think it’s a pretty apt phrase. Loki’s descent is a descent that appears to be towards madness, or at least a complete disregard for everyone and everything around him. His mind is so full of so many things that, on bad day I don’t think even he can keep track of it all. Heck, probably even on a normal day. More then that, his emotions are like a spiral- it’s like they grab a hold of him and he can’t get away, even if he thought to try. He becomes thoroughly consumed by the lies and betrayal he’s suffered, and based pretty much everything after them on it… debatably even up to the Avengers film itself, albiet with some added insanity twisting his thoughts and emotions in and around themselves.
I rewatched Thor today, just to see those early signs, trying to pinpoint where he went from quickly escalating attempts at gaining approval from his family to the same thing, but on a scale that would do exactly the opposite (where he’s obviously stopped thinking completely clearly) and finally to a complete resignation.
Well, I shouldn’t say resignation. Not yet- the beginning and middle of the Avengers definately has the edges of madness crawling in him (if not more). But by the end of the movie, there’s a regret there, one I don’t think was faked. Why did he stab Thor then? Why did he keep refusing Thor’s attempts at reconciliation? And here is where I think that resignation comes in. He beleives he’s gone too far to turn back, regardless of what his brother (or some deep, buried part of himself) wants to hope. There’s a part of me that agrees with him. One does not kill that many people, and rip out a persons eye with a manic look of glee on their face and call themselves anywhere near mentally stable. There’s something to be said for the fall he took off of the Bifrost, which I’ve heard probably did less then good things to his already unstable mental state. Does that make his actions forgivable, or perhaps even just redeemable, long term? I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe. Maybe not.
Tom Hiddleston says in this interview that there is a chance Loki can be redeemed. I do agree with that (and hey, who knows the character better then the guy who’s playing him? Well, at least when it’s a guy like this one, who I think did his level best to know who and why Loki was from the outset. That’s what makes the best actors, you know). I watch Thor the movie, and I see someone who, a little mentally unstable, who has been looked down on, lied to.. Who knows how badly. To the point he can’t see just how much Thor cares for him as his brother- which is so much. Painfully so. I have family feels; hell, my tumblr name is based off it. Kind of. The one I actually wanted was taken, but it was also family-oriented, so it still counts.
Off-topic. Sorry.
Anyways, point is, it breaks my heart to see their family broken apart, and how it could someday be mended, if things would just go a little bit right for them. And it could, if Loki could see those chances that keep slipping past him- or when he can see them, trust enough in both himself and others to take them. He’s jumped off the slippery slope, and he knows it. The chances he can take will become fewer and farther between the longer it takes him to realise that he has them. Whether or not he will is a matter of time will tell- and whether or not the film-makers decide to go with “tried and true villain of the week” formula that everyone has seen before, or maybe try to change the good old status quo a little.
Personally, I do hope Loki get’s on that path to redemption. Hell, you could probably do a whole film series based solely on that if it were done right. One more movie, maybe two, of Loki being the villain/conflicted, a movie on the decision to change, and… a lot, on the path itself. Acceptance and forgiveness are not things easily attained, after the things he’s done, but I do think he could do it eventually. And hey, Thor would be there every step of the way, I’m sure. Cause he’s cool like that.
And I say that many movies because there would be all sorts of awesome stuff happening on the Avengers side of things too. Not as filler- it wouldn’t be an Avengers movie if they were just filler- but to go with just enough Loki development to keep it all interesting. And let’s face it, I am supremely bored of the standard villain, and would be terribly saddened by all that wasted potential if they went that route with Loki. Maybe I’m naive, but isn’t that kind of like saying “You do a bad thing there’s no point in regretting it because you’re fucked?”
Now, granted, that doesn’t usually apply to people who attempt genocide and curb-stomp entire cities. Then again, there is a reason this is fiction. I can still empathize with the pain and confusion he’s going through without being quite as stricken by the death toll.
I’m not quite as taken with Loki as the rest of the internet, I think (honestly, I can’t really pick a favorite from the Avengers movie. I really can’t. I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL OF THEM), but I still feel for him so much. He’s been lied to his whole life by the people he looked up to and trusted most- and that lie is that he is part of a race that is almost universally despised by everyone around him. That would hurt. That would hurt beyond words, as Loki demonstrates. And even by the end of Thor, he still cares- he takes his anger and somehow manages to twist his emotions and reasoning enough to blame it all on the race that birthed him. He doesn’t kill Odin while he’s sleeping, and he never says a single angry word to his mother (who, I beleive is almost the only person that Loki would still admit to (himself) caring about even at his absolute lowest). He doesn’t go after Odin with his new Chitauri army- he doesn’t even seem to be planning on it. He does stab Thor, but it’s not a terribly long blade- by the looks of it, it only barely went through his armour, and we’ve seen him do worse (and hey, pretty much the only point for a blade that short, especially for Norse Gods, would be for it to be poisoned. Since Thor did not drop dead at any point, I’d say that’s little telling, huh? Of course, there’s no telling if Norse Gods are susceptible to poison, but we’ll say that they are, for arguments sake).
(EDIT EDIT SHIT GUYS EDIT: Alright, I will admit, I totally forgot about one scene; and once I did remember, it kind of threw a wrench in my nice little theory up there… for a minute. Until I started looking at it through Loki’s eyes. It’s the scene where Loki tricked Thor into the special glass cage that was made for the Hulk. He didn’t seem very concerned, did he? Now, keeping in mind that this is mid-movie and everything he does seems tinted with at least a hint of madness, it still just didn’t seem to fit until I walked the whole scene through step by step through his eyes. And it went something like this:
He tricks Thor into the container. Nothing terribly special there, typical Loki’ness. He taunts Thor a little (about what, I can’t quite remember, but stuff). Again, fairly typical. He looks like he’s going to press the button to release the cage, but he hesitates- there is still something there, despite everything. He doesn’t want to kill his brother. Not without a second thought at least. What he would have done is unknown though, as only a moment later, Agent Coulson steps in, brandishing his bigass gun. To Loki, this man is only another roadblock, and not even a particularly significant one, on his road to being acknowledged as an equal Glory. And kills him without a second thought.
Here’s where things changed.
Thor is grief-stricken, and to Loki, that is what seals everything. Loki knows Thor would never forgive the murder of a friend. To Loki, this means that now not even Thor will accept him, in any way. So the next time he approaches the button, the hesitation is no more then the breifest flutter of the hand. He cannot stand the thought of his brother hating him like that, so he kills him. The logic is twisted, but I did mention how much insanity was rolling around during that portion of the movie, right?
I was actually going to base my argument on how Thor had cracked the glass with Mjolner already- one more good hit would have him free, and Loki would probably have recognised that at least subconsciously. The problem with that argument is that it was still far too risky, even for a chess-master like Loki. Not to mention I didn’t get that vibe from him at all- yes, he did subconsciously know Thor could probably break free, but that’s just it. Subconsciously. It was no where near the front of him mind. In the front of his mind, he was killing Thor. And that’s it. The reasons for why are just a little more complicated, is all)
So he cares, but he does terrible things. He could so easily have been a good guy, yet he walks the path of villainy. He could be redeemed, but he doesn’t think he can. He tries so damn hard, but it seems like, no matter his goal, it just never goes his way.
And the terrible irony of it all; he started it, everything, to prove that he was a good son. That he was not a monster. And in doing so became one.
