Tom Hiddleston scored the #2 position on Empire Magazine’s poll of “Sexiest Actors in the World”. Hiddleston was only out-maneuvered by his big brother Benedict Cumberbatch. Does that make you happy or sad? I think if the question is “who is sexier?” the answer is Cumberbatch. Tom is classically handsome, for sure, but he sometimes has the sexiness of a wet noodle. Sorry, dragonflies.

Anyway, continuing with our on-going theme of “Chris Hemsworth doesn’t want to promote Thor anymore,” we have yet another interview with Tom talking about Loki. Because Thor: The Dark World might as well be called Loki: The Dark Loki, It’s All About Loki, Loki, Loki. The Importance of Being Loki. Loki of Arabia. To Loki A Lokibird. The Loki’s Speech. Etc. My point? When Thor won’t play along, Marvel has made it clear that they’re fine with Loki taking the reins. Tommy is fine with it too. So, here are some highlights from some new interviews:

Tom on the “darkness” of this sequel: “I think so. I think that’s our privilege with being allowed to make it, is that we’ve established certainly with Thor and Loki — we’ve established the characters across two films. So it means you can color in more shades with each character. It means that Thor can get darker as a character. And more complicated. It means that Loki can get an even more kind of complexity and dimension. What’s really is the most interesting thing about being alive is that there is no black and white. There are many shades of gray, and different people’s perspectives on events… But there’s something about growing up and accepting responsibility no matter who you are: whether you are a crowned king, a king in waiting or a shamed prisoner. Accepting responsibility and growing up is dark. It’s a dark experience. It’s not easy. And I think that that’s what’s exciting about the material is that it — it’s sort of emotionally and psychologically and spiritually I hope – we sit in the middle of it – but you hope it embraces a more complex and dark experience. Alongside loads of action.”

Loki is a psychopath: “He has an interesting relationship going back within the environs of his family. Those relationships are really interesting. So you’ve got Odin, Frigga, Thor, and, also the Warriors Three and Sif. And he’s a psychopath [laughs]. The fascinating thing about playing a psychopath – like when it’s a real Category A inmate in the darkest prison that we have on Earth or someone who is a mythological creature who’s been around in human imagination for 2,000/3,000 years – is that what quality of compassion or goodness is still there? That’s the question. The exciting question is why? Why does any psychopath perform those acts? Why does he wish everyone such ill? And what does he want? And does he even care what he wants? As an actor that’s a really exciting thing to delve into, when you’re that dark and you’re so full of destruction and hate and sabotage. And part of that is self-hate and self-sabotage like motivation. It’s an interesting question to ask why.”

Tom likes Loki though: “I do, yeah. And the thing about playing him is that you have to. You can’t sit in judgment. In my own mind, I’ve unpacked his suitcase of pain. I would stand up – I can easily stand up and defend him even though many of his actions are indefensible. I know why, I think. But what’s interesting is those answers are locked in some kind cabinet right at the bottom of him. And he’s in there and nobody has the key. Do you know what I’m saying? I do like him… He’s sort of someone who’s really nasty, but really elegant with it. He’s someone who looks good doing really bad things. It sounds cool or something, do you know what I mean?”

Whether the franchise has changed him: “Has it? It hasn’t. I mean it was strange for a second when the film came out because it was so much bigger than I had anticipated, but no. The bit I love is I really love acting, really, and the circus of it, the circus of being- for want of a better word, a celebrity is something I’m sort of not interested in. I find it strange.”

Do people treat him differently now that he’s famous? “It’s so hard to answer that question because the business is so complicated and has so many layers, and I try not to think about it because then I think you start barking up the wrong tree. 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. It’s a really good question because it is something that does crop up and suddenly some people treat you differently and other people don’t, but it’s all so inconsistent that shouldn’t be- it can’t be a factor. What I’ve learned from, I’ve been really lucky at thirty-one years young to have worked with people who are much more established like Kenneth Branagh, Tony Hopkins, Judi Dench, and Rachel Weisz and what distinguishes them from me is that they simply don’t listen to any of that. It’s white noise. Whether you’re hot, whether you’re not, whether people love it or they hated it, they still approach the work with such integrity and passion for the specific project in mind. But it was a bit weird for a second there. I’m just used to being completely invisible in London like any other Londoner and suddenly I wasn’t for about three weeks. It was very strange.

[From Cinema Blend and Collider]

“The bit I love is I really love acting, really, and the circus of it, the circus of being- for want of a better word, a celebrity is something I’m sort of not interested in. I find it strange.” I believe that he loves acting. I believe that he finds his celebrity “strange”. But I don’t believe that he’s “not interested” in having fun with his celebrity. I’m sorry, dragonflies, but I just don’t believe him. He really likes being a celebrity. You can make the argument that he loves his fans and he’s a company man who loves to shill his movies, but there’s a vein of “LOOK AT ME, I’M FAMOUS! DADDY, ARE YOU WATCHING?” to him too.

Photos courtesy of PR Photos, Marvel.