Tom Hiddleston Quotes & Sayings

I'm an eternal realist and the success rate for being an actor is pretty low. — Tom Hiddleston

I suppose my understanding of villains is that they're just people who are infected by all of the darker instincts - that they haven't got the discipline to make the right choices. — Tom Hiddleston

The most interesting thing about being alive is that there is no black and white; there are many shades of gray. — Tom Hiddleston

I believe in the strength and intelligence and sensitivity of women. My mother, my sisters [they] are strong. My mum is a strong woman and I love her for it. — Tom Hiddleston

As an actor, it's much, much easier to be really nasty to someone that you really like. — Tom Hiddleston

Sometimes love really is just that simple. — Tom Hiddleston

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious. — Tom Hiddleston

Make sure you tell the people you love that you love them. Loudly and often. You never know when it might be too late. — Tom Hiddleston

Well, I think there are no villains in this world. There are just misunderstood heroes. — Tom Hiddleston

An ant has no quarrel with a boot. — Tom Hiddleston

Chris Hemsworth is like Christopher Reeve in that he can do two things: he can wear a big red cape without a shred of self-consciousness. But he's also funny as hell, and he's so sweet. So with all the fish-out-of-water stuff, he's so funny. So he does almost two jobs in a way. — Tom Hiddleston

TRUE LOVE IS AN ACCEPTANCE OF SOMEONE ELSE FOR WHO THEY ARE. — Tom Hiddleston

The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience — Tom Hiddleston

My father and I used to tussle about me becoming an actor. He's from strong, Presbyterian Scottish working-class stock, and he used to sit me down and say, 'You know, 99 percent of actors are out of work. You've been educated, so why do you want to spend your life pretending to be someone else when you could be your own man?' — Tom Hiddleston

Honestly, I'm happiest when I'm with my best friend and we're just laughing about life and times, there is nothing greater than friendship in this world. And that kind of sort of mutual acceptance ; to feel known and understood by people and to feel like you know and understand them back is all you can ask for. — Tom Hiddleston

I would always play the baddie, incidentally. — Tom Hiddleston

It's in our nature to want to watch our human frailties played out on a huge, epic canvas. Ancient societies had anthropomorphic gods: a huge pantheon expanding into centuries of dynastic drama: fathers and sons, star-crossed lovers, warring brothers, martyred heroes. Tales that taught us the danger of hubris and the primacy of humility. It's the everyday stuff of everyman's life, but it's writ large, and we love it. — Tom Hiddleston

I love the acting community at Cambridge. It's really quite committed and serious, since the days of Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen right through to Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie. — Tom Hiddleston

Joanna points her camera at a section of society unused to having cameras pointed at it. But I don't know about categorizing them in terms of class; I'm a bit wary of that. My dad is the son of a shipbuilder. — Tom Hiddleston

It was quite a European war until 1917, when the Americans joined up. They don't have the same sense of the loss of innocence and the cataclysmic loss of life. A whole generation was wiped out. — Tom Hiddleston

I never like to make plans. It's nice to just hang. — Tom Hiddleston

Every villian is a hero in his own mind. — Tom Hiddleston

Love your life. Because your life is what you have to give. — Tom Hiddleston

I always thought of running as just dancing forward. — Tom Hiddleston

Every villain is a hero in his own mind. — Tom Hiddleston

Quite often, most of us are defined first by our vital statistics - our sex, our height, our weight, the colour of our eyes and then we're defined by our job. — Tom Hiddleston

I couldn't possibly tell you. But I would say be very careful with your suppositions. People are so quick to jump. That's what I love about playing the character. People are so quick to draw conclusions about who he is. The whole thing about Loki is that he's dancing on this liminal line between redemption and destruction. Just be very careful about drawing conclusions based on what you see. — Tom Hiddleston

We're all flawed heroes. Responsibility is power. Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions, and the world is yours. Everything is a choice. — Tom Hiddleston

The bit I love is I really love acting, really, and the circus of being a celebrity is something I'm sort of not interested in. I find it strange — Tom Hiddleston

We pull on to the road, where our only company are the wandering cattle, who have become commonplace as traffic lights. Lethargic and listless, they look like they've been roaming the roads of Guinea since the dawn of time. And no doubt they will continue to long after we're gone. — Tom Hiddleston

I love playing all kinds of roles. I hope it doesn't sound too pretentious, but I always feel human nature is like a piano, and there are 88 keys, and there are some white keys and some black keys, and each character is a different chord on the piano. Basically, I hope that in the course of my life, I will have played all 88 keys. So, I'll have played heroes and villains and princes and kings and warriors and beggars and thieves and lovers and fathers and wizards and all of those things. That is why I'm an actor ... I love studying people. — Tom Hiddleston

If you get up in the morning and wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and some flip-flops, it's a signal that you might be going to the beach. If you get up in the morning and you wear a breast plate and a back plate and a cape and a pair of golden Satanic horns on your head, it's quite clear that you're doing something else. — Tom Hiddleston

I learn the lines as soon as I can and then the challenge really, for filming, is to show up and be there and respond to what's around you. That's where the gold dust is. It's really strange, no amount of preparation will help you with the magic of spontaneity on the day [of filming]. — Tom Hiddleston

Very honest, I hope. God, I don't know. I hope I'm fun, I hope I am a good time. Spontaneous, surprising, affectionate? I hope, kind. Dancing a lot of dancing. I insist upon dancing. Anywhere. Anytime. The more dancing, the better — Tom Hiddleston

To have compassion for a character is no different from having compassion for another human being. — Tom Hiddleston

When people don't like themselves very much, they have to make up for it. The classic bully was actually a victim first. — Tom Hiddleston

I don't want to be quoted as 'Tom Hiddleston, psychologist says ... ' But there is a psychological aspect to being an actor. We are particular students of human nature - not every actor is, of course, but that's what fascinates me about being an actor. — Tom Hiddleston

Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble because just when you think you got all the answers, is the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that you very much don't. — Tom Hiddleston

Showing young children in these communities, that there are outlets for their feelings, that there is room in a space for their stories to be told, and that they will be applauded - and it's not about ego, it's about connection: that their pain is everybody else's pain. — Tom Hiddleston

I have been allowed to inhabit different shades of human nature and different colours of truth indifferent circumstances. — Tom Hiddleston

You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain. — Tom Hiddleston

You can't really legislate for the decisions that your heart makes. — Tom Hiddleston

Everythings a choice. Nobody's born good. Nobody's born evil. It's always a choice. — Tom Hiddleston

Our job is to represent the truth of human nature, whether you're playing a tender love story that's set in a coffee shop or whether you're in 'The Avengers,' which is set in a Manhattan which is exploding. — Tom Hiddleston

Never Stop Dreaming — Tom Hiddleston

I'm sure favorite moments in movies are things that just happen accidentally when the camera is there. You have to do all the homework to get yourself into the period, the costumes, the style, the voice, the hairdo or whatever it is, but once you've done all that work, you have to kind of let it go and just be there. If you're always thinking about it, it just looks a bit over-thought. — Tom Hiddleston

I fundamentally believe that in the moral balance of the human race, we right ourselves. If we feel like the ship's keel is off, we find a way to steer ourselves through the storm repeatedly. — Tom Hiddleston

I'm an actor, and part of my joy and my curiosity about the job that I do, is that actors have the privilege of exploring human nature in different ways. — Tom Hiddleston

In our increasingly secular society, with so many disparate gods and different faiths, superhero films present a unique canvas upon which our shared hopes, dreams and apocalyptic nightmares can be projected and played out. — Tom Hiddleston

The weird thing about serious acting is I've always done impressions of people, all my life, and I did the thing called a balloon debate. The idea is there's a hot air balloon traveling across the Atlantic and it's going down and you have to give a speech as to why you should stay in the balloon. Six people are going to be chucked out and you want to stay. — Tom Hiddleston

I had huge fun with Chris Evans, as Captain America, because super-soldier though he may be, he's still a man, up against a God who in his own mind is infinitely superior. Then, in the ring with The Hulk, we've got this silver tongued, lightening quick mind up against the embodiment of rage..Loki has this mercurial, transformative ability, not just physically but intellectually, so not all the fights are purely physical. Mind games? Maybe.. — Tom Hiddleston

I try not to make plans. God always laughs at your plans. I'm going to keep the door open, and keep the page blank, and see what gets painted upon it. — Tom Hiddleston

Without revealing too much, there's a specific skill set you need to be in Loki's army - let me know if you have the qualifications. — Tom Hiddleston

Daniel Day-Lewis is particularly a sort of beacon I've been following for some time. For God's sake, I'm not even in his league but he inspires me because he's not interested in playing himself; he's only interested in playing other people and the whole thing is like an adventure for him, it seems to me. It's some kind of spiritual exploration, which is an amazing, noble thing. — Tom Hiddleston

I always wanted to see what America was like. I had that curiosity in my 20s when I was working in the theatre here [ in London] ... there was the mystery of LA and I wondered what happened over there. I wanted to go and check it out and I'm pleased that I have. — Tom Hiddleston

Nurture your own confidence and make it real; don't pretend to be someone you're not. — Tom Hiddleston

I did a production of 'Journey's End,' an RC Sherriff play about World War I, at the Edinburgh Festival. I was 18 and it was the first time that people I knew and loved and respected came up to me after the show and said, 'You know, you could really do this if you wanted to.' — Tom Hiddleston

All acting is an act of imagination. You are simply conjuring up imaginary circumstances in your mind and responding truthfully to them. — Tom Hiddleston

Make love, not war. Unless you're Loki, in which case: do what you want. — Tom Hiddleston

One of my New Year's resolutions was to interact more with people. That sounds quite technical, but literally face time. Not FaceTime, because that's a thing now, but to be in the room with someone. To turn your phone off. To sit and have dinner and just be there with somebody. — Tom Hiddleston

If the Loki in 'Thor' was about a spiritual confusion - 'Who am I? How do I belong in this world?' - the Loki in 'Avengers' is, 'I know exactly who I am, and I'm going to make this world belong to me.' — Tom Hiddleston

It is so rare as an actor to be allowed the chance to revisit a role and to go back to a character that you already built, and lived inside, and understood. To take it further to another stage is a huge privilege. — Tom Hiddleston

I do sort of believe that in life all manifestations of evil usually come from an emotional place. They come from some kind of emotional heartbreak or some psychological damage. I'm not a psychologist and that's probably for the best but I am interested in it. — Tom Hiddleston

Maybe it's just getting older. You become so palpably aware this is not a dress rehearsal. There's a big sign in blazing neon that says You Haven't Got Long. But I think it takes a beat to learn that. Life has to knock you down in order for you to realise it, because when you're a kid you think you're immortal. — Tom Hiddleston

If you can run around the corner and say hello to someone do that instead of emailing. It's always more rewarding; the connection is always more authentic. If you've got something to say and you can say it someone's face, it's so much better, healthier. — Tom Hiddleston

For the first 10 minutes after you meet them, they have the wattage and charisma of movie stars. Then you have a coffee with them and you realize we're all the same, we're all just people. All of the actors in The Avengers are so nice. Marvel has these code names for projects and the code name for The Avengers was Group Hug. It felt very much like a group hug on set. — Tom Hiddleston

I was informed yesterday that there's a Twitter account for my laugh. Very hard to get used to things like that. Pretty amazing. — Tom Hiddleston

Actors do tend to get pigeonholed. People want to know who you are so they can put you in a box. It's lovely to be known for such diametrically opposite roles. — Tom Hiddleston

The thing about playing gods, whether you're playing Thor and Loki or Greco Roman gods or Indian gods or characters in any mythology, the reason that gods were invented was because they were basically larger versions of ourselves. — Tom Hiddleston

You look at the greatest villains in human history, the fascists, the autocrats, they all wanted people to kneel before them because they don't love themselves enough. — Tom Hiddleston

As a child, I had a deck of Marvel top trumps. You can get top trumps with racing cars, or fighter planes, or football players ... I had all of the Marvel superheroes and super-villains you could get, and I used to play them with my friends. They were all listed according to their height and weight and agility and their super-powers. — Tom Hiddleston

Some of the greatest actors have turned superheroes into a serious business: Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in 'Batman'; Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, the first venerable knights of the X-Men, who have now passed the baton to Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. — Tom Hiddleston

Somehow the past is a safe place to explore our collective cultural neuroses. — Tom Hiddleston

When you're starting out as an actor people are very interested in who you are because they want to know where they can put you. And quite often, and we're all guilty of this is our lives, we judge very quickly and we pigeon-hole people very quickly based on how they look and how they talk and how they dress and we think: "Oh yeah, we know who you are." — Tom Hiddleston

I definitely go through periods where I'm in a particular mood, or there's a consistent imaginative context that I feel I'm in, and I'm drawn to certain things. I can sometimes feel it when I'm moving away from something that I was once interested in - an idea or an exploration of particular relationships. I go, 'Well, I think I've done that and I don't want to do it again.' — Tom Hiddleston

I'd love to see T'he Avengers' with Robert Downey, Jr. playing Loki and Clark Gregg playing 'Thor' and I play Captain America. — Tom Hiddleston

The best comedy is always played straight down the middle. — Tom Hiddleston

With any role, you're extending yourself and acting out things that never happened to you. — Tom Hiddleston

Fame is weird and amorphous and unpredictable. — Tom Hiddleston

I always found the extraordinary loss of life in the First World War very moving. I remember learning about it as a very young child, as an eight- or nine-year-old, asking my teachers what poppies were for. Every year the teachers would suddenly wear these red paper flowers in their lapels, and I would say 'What does that mean?' — Tom Hiddleston

We are what the past has made us. We are what the future will make us. Live now. Right now. — Tom Hiddleston

I thought theater people wouldn't see me if I hadn't trained. I didn't want to just be the Brideshead guy, to spend the rest of my life wearing waistcoats. I got the chance to try everything. Not just Romeos, but pimps and grandfathers and even one role as a woman in a Naomi Wallace play called Slaughter City. — Tom Hiddleston

Acting is a bit like tennis in that you can't really do it on your own. — Tom Hiddleston

We're travelling through space and time, we're dealing with gods and monsters, but at the heart of the film, from my perspective, is a family - a father, two sons, two brothers, a mother and the fractious, intimate interaction that they have. — Tom Hiddleston

Do the work, enjoy the work, take it seriously, don't take yourself seriously and keep your head down! — Tom Hiddleston

What is the best use of my time on this planet? — Tom Hiddleston

The thing that keeps you grounded is doing the thing you love. — Tom Hiddleston

Acting takes a degree of mutual trust and respect. — Tom Hiddleston

I don't think I've ever been face to face with pure evil, so I don't think I've ever seen it with my own eyes. But I do understand human frailty and I do understand the capacity of people to be intermittently noble and virtuous and fallible. — Tom Hiddleston

Whenever I come back to London, which is home, I get that cosy, comfortable feeling of being home, as well as the sophistication of this city. — Tom Hiddleston

My favourite pudding is a toss-up between cheesecake - proper, New York cheesecake - and apple crumble and custard. Custard is very important, or dark chocolate mousse. Tea: probably Earl Grey, splash of milk. — Tom Hiddleston

Well, I don't know. When I signed my contract, I signed to play Loki in five more Marvel movies, but they were unspecified. So, if there will be more movies or not remains to be seen, but I like the idea of Loki turning up in the shadows when people least expect him, but you never know these things, the world changes and the things change, but I feel like I know who Loki is, so I wouldn't mind. — Tom Hiddleston

It's a rare thing when you can read a script in one sitting and you haven't looked at the watch or you've gone to make a cup of tea. — Tom Hiddleston

I think everyone should do what they love because it will never feel like work that way. — Tom Hiddleston

In the end, you will always kneel. — Tom Hiddleston

I gave myself permission to care, because there are a lot of people in this world who are afraid of caring, who are afraid of showing they care because it's uncool. It's uncool to have passion. It's so much easier to lose when you've shown everyone how much you don't care if you win or lose. It's much harder to lose when you show that you care, but you'll never win unless you also stand to lose. I've said it before. Don't be afraid of your passion, give it free reign, and be honest and work hard and it will all turn out just fine. — Tom Hiddleston

Just because you're good in something doesn't mean you'll necessarily be good in something else. You just try and chase opportunities that you fall in love with or that inspire you and keep doing the work. — Tom Hiddleston

In 'Thor,' that was my own hair. I grew it out. But I have naturally curly, blonde hair, so I'll never look like that. By the time I got to 'The Avengers,' I had come off two other films, which required me to have it very short. So I dyed it again and it was long enough to use a part of my hairline. — Tom Hiddleston

Heath Ledger's performance in 'The Dark Knight' quite simply changed the game. He raised the bar not just for actors in superhero films, but young actors everywhere; for me. His performance was dark, anarchic, dizzying, free, and totally, thrillingly, dangerous. — Tom Hiddleston

It sounds cliched, but superheroes can be lonely, vain, arrogant and proud. Often they overcome these human frailties for the greater good. — Tom Hiddleston