...I need more icons of this man.
I blame newredshoes - it's totally her fault for providing all this Hiddleston!catnip, which I'm then compelled to pass along.
This interview is almost three years old: it came out in September 2008, during the Donmar production of Chekhov's Ivanov (adapted by Stoppard and directed by Michael Grandage). Hiddleston got the part after his previous role with Donmar in Othello, about which he says stuff like this:
"But mostly just from watching them you learn there's a lack of cynicism to the way they work, they just go for it. Because I think sometimes people can be so afraid of committing, because to commit means to acknowledge that you could fail as well. They are just fearless. That's the one thing I have learnt from watching them, just go for it."
:)
About the same production, from this editorial-type piece:
"[...] in act two of Othello, when Cassio is manipulated to fight Roderigo and loses his rank, some nights I would burst into tears; other nights I wouldn't but I would still feel the same emotion, night after night."
*brb screaming into a pillow*
ETA because damn, this fandom has some serious ninjas: you can download the radio play of this production of Othello here.
Okay, one more link: I like this short piece mostly because he refuses to get boxed into a character type or a genre, even though he was just at the start of his (already brilliant) career. ♥_♥
And I am TOTALLY NOT SORRY for quoting this entire thing (from the first linked article) because... um. His life is basically FIC. No, no, seriously:
RADA was his second degree. After growing up in Oxfordshire he was educated at Eton and then went to Cambridge University to study Classics, but acting had been a passion throughout school. A teacher once took him to see a production of John Gabriel Borkman at the National Theatre, with Paul Schofield and Vanessa Redgrave, which "really resonated. I was so moved by it and it knocked my head off so cleanly that I thought I just wanted to be part of that."
But to pursue acting risked mockery from his sport-loving pals, so Hiddleston, who was also in the rugby team, kept his theatrical activities under wraps. However, this fragile co-existence couldn't last. Things came to a head at Cambridge, when a dress rehearsal for A Streetcar Named Desire clashed with an inter-college rugby match. "I remember trying to negotiate with the captain, who was this really very practical kind of Scots guy Chris, and Katie, who was the director of the show, and I was like Katie, I have to go, I know my lines, I'll make it up to you but I have to go and play this match," he relates. "So anyway I ran off and played this rugby game and at half time Chris came up to me and went [he adopts a perfect Scots accent] 'maybe next time Tom you might want to think about taking off your make up before you arrive on the pitch'. I'd turned up caked in ridiculous student drama make up!" he laughs. "That's when I knew one of them had to go."
...well. As I pointed out to newredshoes, it's okay! Really! He is NOT PERFECT. For example, he loves Judd Apatow. I can totally cope with the fact that, you know, I can't sleep with him.
/o\
This interview is almost three years old: it came out in September 2008, during the Donmar production of Chekhov's Ivanov (adapted by Stoppard and directed by Michael Grandage). Hiddleston got the part after his previous role with Donmar in Othello, about which he says stuff like this:
"But mostly just from watching them you learn there's a lack of cynicism to the way they work, they just go for it. Because I think sometimes people can be so afraid of committing, because to commit means to acknowledge that you could fail as well. They are just fearless. That's the one thing I have learnt from watching them, just go for it."
:)
About the same production, from this editorial-type piece:
"[...] in act two of Othello, when Cassio is manipulated to fight Roderigo and loses his rank, some nights I would burst into tears; other nights I wouldn't but I would still feel the same emotion, night after night."
*brb screaming into a pillow*
ETA because damn, this fandom has some serious ninjas: you can download the radio play of this production of Othello here.
Okay, one more link: I like this short piece mostly because he refuses to get boxed into a character type or a genre, even though he was just at the start of his (already brilliant) career. ♥_♥
And I am TOTALLY NOT SORRY for quoting this entire thing (from the first linked article) because... um. His life is basically FIC. No, no, seriously:
RADA was his second degree. After growing up in Oxfordshire he was educated at Eton and then went to Cambridge University to study Classics, but acting had been a passion throughout school. A teacher once took him to see a production of John Gabriel Borkman at the National Theatre, with Paul Schofield and Vanessa Redgrave, which "really resonated. I was so moved by it and it knocked my head off so cleanly that I thought I just wanted to be part of that."
But to pursue acting risked mockery from his sport-loving pals, so Hiddleston, who was also in the rugby team, kept his theatrical activities under wraps. However, this fragile co-existence couldn't last. Things came to a head at Cambridge, when a dress rehearsal for A Streetcar Named Desire clashed with an inter-college rugby match. "I remember trying to negotiate with the captain, who was this really very practical kind of Scots guy Chris, and Katie, who was the director of the show, and I was like Katie, I have to go, I know my lines, I'll make it up to you but I have to go and play this match," he relates. "So anyway I ran off and played this rugby game and at half time Chris came up to me and went [he adopts a perfect Scots accent] 'maybe next time Tom you might want to think about taking off your make up before you arrive on the pitch'. I'd turned up caked in ridiculous student drama make up!" he laughs. "That's when I knew one of them had to go."
...well. As I pointed out to newredshoes, it's okay! Really! He is NOT PERFECT. For example, he loves Judd Apatow. I can totally cope with the fact that, you know, I can't sleep with him.
/o\