I doubt this will shock and appall anyone, but as it turns out, Tom Hiddleston does not identify with conservative politics. Well… let me say that a different way. In America, you can say you’re a “small-c conservative” and still not be a Republican. Tommy is coming out and saying that he’s not a Tory, he does not belong to the Conservative Party. This, despite the fact that he was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth (he grew up very posh).
For all the efforts of Mike Read and Jim “Nick, Nick” Davidson, the Conservative Party could do with some cool celebrity supporters to trounce Labour’s Richard Wilson and Prunella Scales. It may not, however, be a good idea to suggest to Tom Hiddleston that now is the moment for him to come to the aid of David Cameron’s party.
“I’m not in the Conservative Party,” harrumphs the 32-year-old actor, who is currently appearing in Coriolanus at the Donmar.
But, Tom, you went to Eton and you are posh. “It’s just an accident of birth,” he ripostes in Time Out London. “And I’m sorry if you are offended by that. I’m not a big fan of the class system, to be honest. It feels ugly to me. If the work is good, it doesn’t matter where you come from.””
I’ve heard some people compare the relative poshness of some of our favorite actors, and from what I can tell of the British class system, Tommy really is one of the most posh (is “poshest” a word?), right up there with Tommy’s fellow Etonian, Eddie Redmayne. Benedict Cumberbatch WISHES he was that posh (except not). Do you really think Tommy rejects the class system out of hand? Eh.
There are some new quotes from Tommy about fame too:
Tom Hiddleston finds fame ”weird”. The 33-year-old actor wasn’t prepared to be catapulted to the spotlight following his role as Loki in the ‘Thor’ and ‘Avengers’ movies and insists the new found attention caught him by surprise.
He added: ”I never expected it. Fame is weird and amorphous and unpredictable. All acting is for an audience. It’s just that my audience now is … quite large. At the end of the shooting ‘Thor’ Kenneth Branagh took Chris Hemsworth and myself aside and said, ‘In 12 months, boys, prepare yourselves!’ We were both just, ‘Nah!’ We couldn’t imagine it.”
Tom finds fans often attribute things that have happened in their lives to him and although he is sometimes flattered by it he knows there are many other stars who dealt with ”obsession”.
The actor added: ”Some people have been a bit obsessive about attributing responsibility for things that have happened in their lives to me. You can to say, ‘Bless you for saying those nice things, but I’ve done nothing.’ You sort of have to talk them off the ledge a bit. But that’s the nature of obsession. I know a lot of other actors who’ve dealt with it.”
I’m not sure Tommy should be openly acknowledging his obsessed fans. It’s like uttering “Voldemort” in some circles. Do you find this patronizing? “You sort of have to talk them off the ledge a bit.” I would think he was patronizing his fans, except… some of his fans really do need to be talked off the ledge, and to give Tommy some credit, he handles it with a certain (posh) grace.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Elle UK.
So orange….
Kitten, I don’t think orange even adequately describes the colour of his face….
Think that is from Cannes last year. May be wrong but I think the orange is gradually disappearing.
So soo orange…..
I love him so much. He is so ridiculous.
I actually love his poshness. He’d make such a perfect Duke who falls in love with one of Jane Austen’s spunky heroines.
See, and I see him the hero of a Brontë novel. Would you like me to detail the plot for you?
Miss Eyre, Your bias is showing. Please cover it immediately or have your reputation tarnished forever.
EDIT: Nevermind. I have it on good authority your reputation is already in tatters. Carry on.
PuddleTom is Francis Crawford of Lymond. I don’t care if he says he’s gone off period roles. That’s the one for him. Fanty, if you are around, please say you agree!
Lady of the Delicate Footwear – I have worked very hard to solidify my reputation. If you have heard anything that does not mar my name with scandal, I want to know about it. You would not believe the lengths I will go to to ensure when people thrust the title “trollop” upon me, it is with a capital “T”
I was actually thinking that he’d make a GREAT Mr. Collins. And I’m deadly serious. I think he’d be brilliant.
Other than that, yes to everyone. He does brooding well, we know that. He’d make a great Francis Crawford of Lymond, and I would really love to see him push the boat out and play someone like Prior Walter in Angels in America.
Ooh. I like that idea (Prior Walter). Although Belize is my favourite character.
I now see him as a Lou, not a Prior. But any role in that play would be great and would really expand him out of his poshness. Could you see him in the Kaddish scene? It’s beautiful, and he would have to dig deep.
Louis: I’m not saying Kaddish for him. The drugs, okay, fine, sure. But no fucking way am I praying for him. My New Deal pinko parents in Schenectady would never forgive me. They’re already so disappointed. “He’s a fag, he’s an office temp. Now look, he’s praying for Roy Cohn.”
He is as posh as posh comes, and I think it is very difficult for him to not come across that way. I think he is in denial. Of course it matters.
Hmm, and does this Mr. Collins, Crawley, Walter or Lou routinely visit a homely, dull and tragically beset upon governess in her bedchambers? No? Well, then I am disinclined to agree with any of you.
Bronte is too grim for me and The Dragonfly Duke. Not sure out delicate, fluttery hearts could handle all the dramatic hardships and trials.
But he does not want to be “”the go to guy for period drama”” as much as his admirers would wish it so.
Who cares what HE wants? No fun, Icerose.
I think he should play um…
Tristram Shandy (mind that window sash!)
Robinson Crusoe (mind that cannibal!)
d’Artagnan (mind that loose woman!)
Ooh! Jude Fawley.
Tristram Shandy! Yes!
I shall spend the better part of my day imagining Tommyanna as d’Artagnan…
Oh Tristram Shandy! My favourite literary character, that would indeed be great (if he could pull it off – not too sure about that)
Hiddles father was a self-made man if I remember correctly (although I think his mother came from some sort of fancy-pants family), so I can see him not “identifying” with the aristocrats from ancient families who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Hiddles isn’t wrong though, with the advent of things like Tumblr and twitter people have gotten downright creepy towards certain celebrities and he’s one of them that has to deal with that….
I wish he was with UTA or a smaller agency that would pay more attention to him….He seems to be behind the big boys at WME and there is no reason he shouldn’t be booking bigger roles. He’s charming, has a squeaky clean reputation, and is hell of an actor.
I also read that his father is self-made. He’s also Scottish. Not too surprising that someone with Scottish heritage wouldn’t buy into the English class system.
It’s not quite as simple as that Simmie.
There are plenty of posh Scots.
(I felt like such a big girl when I heard a Scottish actress speak and I knew she was posh!!!!)
I lived in Scotland for years, I realize there’s no simple dichotomy. But I’m still not surprised that the son of a Scottish man who had to work his way up doesn’t identify as a Tory.
A lot of ‘posh’ people are of Scottish descent. David Cameron and Hugh Grant are two examples, but there are many more. The royal family also have connections to Scotland. And while many Scots are quite anti-English, quite a few others are very pro-union and big supporters of the Royal family. Remember that a very disproportionate number of ‘businessmen’ during the British empire were Scottish.
@ladyslippers, perhaps the actress was well to do rather than posh? In my experience, being Scottish, I’m hard pressed to tell the difference between a post Scottish accent and posh English one. RP being brought in for the sole purpose of eradicating local accents and creating a linguistic class calling card.
The Miss Jean Brodie “posh” Scottish Accent is a Morningside accent from Edinburgh. The story goes Morningside ladies brought in an RP speaker to gentrify their accent and The Morningside accent was created. That could be an old wives tale though. Most stories about class in Scotland usually are.
@IceMaiden, I’m not sure if you read my follow up comment, but I already agreed with the points Joe and LadySlippers made that political affiliations don’t follow easily divided lines. And I’m well aware that posh Scots exist. I went to school with plenty of them.
Saying that I’m not surprised by his comments due to his family’s heritage and background isn’t the same thing as saying all people of similar background will feel the same way.
@Simmie: I understood your point. It has to be hard for Tom as I get the idea he was a bit torn by the divorce as well as the diverse upbringing both his parents had. Puts him in a tough spot all around.
I was just surprised that people seemed to think I was generalizing ALL Scots.
Yeah, I imagine it’s quite hard for any celebrity to accurately represent themselves in the media.
@Lark
i don’t know how agents work, but i would like to think any casting agency worth their salt would look outside an agent’s books if they need to fill a top role for a film or TV series. Agents then will most likely be called in to sort out the paperwork.
However, when it comes to supporting roles and filling in – them i can see them using agents.
that’s my guess.
I think those bigger roles will come… ‘i hope’ but i think he will be a character and theatre actor. And i am happy with that.
He was long overdue to finally call out some of those fans.
There were some people getting pussy about him not thanking his fans for making his birthday a thing in Twitter…..like he’s going to be on Twitter on his birthday/not even day off.
After hearing some of the horror stories of how his crazier fans behaved at his Coriolanus performances, I’m not surprised he said something. Trying to follow him home, harassing the door people and other backstage workers, standing up and talking during the play itself, hugging him even when he declined to hug the person…yikes.
I think he must have finally realised that courting this fanbase has not resulted in film-makers believing he can carry a box office and the new PR narrative will include distancing himself from it. I mean, the Twitter went forever ago, didn’t it? Thank the lord. The healthy NTLive Coriolanus take might just have tipped the balance on that front. We might be introduced to PuddleTom 2.0. The straight talking one. No bunnies!
Hopefully the new script will stop making use of the cod psychology, self help, Alain de Talks Out Of His Bottom and Hallmark archives and I might be able to enjoy what he says from now on, even if I do disagree with some of it, instead of reaching for my sick bucket.
Hooray!
A new, straight shooting PuddleTom? What fun is that? My favorite thing about him is his eager puppy, do anything to entertain, adorakable personality. No more riding and singing in German cars? No more quoting sonnets to ducks? The world has just turned grey for me. Sigh.
I’m with Shannon. World might become so grey I’ll resort to writing poetry.
Okay, maybe not.
I think the eager puppy is part of his personality though… So it might not be as bleak as Sixer suggests.
Why is that bleak? I think that would be GREAT! I’m sitting here hoping I’m not being ridiculously optimistic on the Oh My Lordy Puddletom Is A Real Person And Not Barbie’s Ken Plus Shakespeare front!
Bleak because he won’t be any shades of fun.
At least that’s what I took away from Shannon’s comment.
See, I find more fun in plain speaking. He can still do Top Gear in glasses or whatever, if he likes.
I like his real speak and his overeager puppy personas. One is great for a rainy day and the other is perfect for a sunny one.
I agree w/Ladyslippers, the eager puppy won’t be far away, bouncing around with bunnies while straight talking Tom is front and center.
@pixie-stix: I forgot about Bunny. My bad. 🙁
(Sorry Bunny!!!)
I quite like Alain’s books its only when he quotes them out of context on twitter I get this urge to contradict him. Allowing for the rudimentary psychology Status Anxiety was both relevant and a good read,
Some strange wording i.e.>You can to say” in that article made me wonder how much was in context. I wish these interviewers could come up with a different focus because instead of flogging the background issue. Likewise obsessive fans. Actors are a magnet to obsessive fans especially those with mental health issues and it is not that new for actors etc to comment on it.. Go to cons and you can hear some interesting stories. At least he does not highlight them through twitter as one actress I now has done.
Guillermo del Toro obviously thinks he can carry a box office “”‘Tom has a timeless leading-man quality””. Personally I would be quite happy if he stayed away from the big Hollywood block buster and stayed with indie films and the stage.
I think he needs to develop an obsessive hobby like stamp collecting, playing bridge ,sky diving, training lions or at least get married to horse so interviewers can focus on that for a bit.
If I had my way, Icerose, all the actors I’m interested in would stick to indie films. I rarely like anything with a hefty budget. But that’s besides the point. The actors themselves mostly want big budgets, big audiences and big names. I doubt Puddletom is any different.
Icerose, it’s a typo of that website, in the original Time Out interview it writes “You want to say”
Do you get the impression that he is not prepared to live LA to help bust his career, that he would rather be based on London and risk it?
Sixer, I think most actors want a mix of the big budget/big audience/big name movies with the smaller, indie films. Unfortunately, not all of them are offered roles in both types of films.
+1000 Sixer! Time for him to be real. Yay!
I didn’t know Hiddleston has cray-cray fans. From what you described, that bunch is on Twi-hard and Bielieber level. Yikes. Acting out during a theater performance? What producer wants to deal with that? Loyal and sane theater-goers will stay away from a production Hiddleston’s in; and that hurts the money. And if he’s perceived that his presence negatively impacts the box office, he’s a no-hire. At the end, money talks….LOUDLY.
Money does talk. And his starring role is a sold out run both in theatre and on NTL screens.
Aquarius money was not an issue -it sold out in 15 minutes when the tickets came on line, had great reviews and theatre going people did attend if they could get tickets as well as actors, directors and an assortment of industry people. The staff at he Donmar were quite surprise when someone showed up apologising for fan behaviour. Alot of Chinese whispers were going on through out the production.
The nighT Benny was there someone tweeted that Benny and Tom had come out with the security personal and walked down the street.
Later in the evening it had changed to people had followed them
The next morning it was people had chased them to a restaurant
Today there were posts were saying they had followed them to Tom’s house
Not saying one or two fans did not behave badly -mostly being rude to Tom’s security, leaving before the intermission to get in the queue and one slightly hysterical incident by one girl but there was also a lot of exaggeration going on. Everything was pretty calm when I was at the show on several occasions and on other occasions when I was n London happened by the Donmar.
I agree, icerose. I suspect that there has been a lot of embellishment and exaggeration going on with both Twitter and Tumblr. I don’t think it’s necessarily deliberate or intentional but it does happen, which is why anything said in either of those two places should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.
I don’t think anything said in this interview should be taken as evidence that Hiddleston hates his fans or that he will not continue to be as gracious and kind and obliging as he has always been at red carpet events, movie premiers, etc. He simply wants to have his personal space respected.
Ice rose, that’s not t he way it went down at all. On days that it happened, the reports of fans chasing after him and BC came out pretty much at once. In other cases, idiot fans actually took pictures of him when they shouldn’t have, capturing their own idiocy perfectly. Security didn’t come out all at once with the fans-followed-him home story, but there were hints that something truly awful happened that led security to end the stage door thing for good.
What’s been a constant has been the way people have been minimizing it and denying it happened.
I understood that Tom was fairly well-off being educated at Dragon School, Eton, then Cambridge. But he always seemed to emphasise that his father was a working-class man who worked hard to provide his children with the best? Wouldn’t that classify as middle class (I have little idea about the specifics of the class system in England)?
Always thought Benedict was “posher” with his Barbados riches and high-ranking military ancestry…
His parents had different backgrounds, with his mother being far more posh, although his father made a lot of money.
Sh-t, I totally forgot about Dragon School. SO POSH.
@Chrissy: It’s hard to compare people and fortunes when you don’t know how much money either family had from previous generations. Just because someone had money up their family tree doesn’t mean they still have it now or even have access to it.
LadySlippers: money isn’t an indicator of class in Britain. Our class system is similar though not as rigid or static as the caste system in India.
Meaning a person can have money, loads of it, and still be working class – see the billionaire Ecclestones.
If money, rather than bloodlines, is to be used as an indicator of class, then it has to be old money.
In this case, BC though not from a rich family, is frightfully posh due to the age of his family money (less said about the acquisition of it the better). Tom has bloodlines (from his mother) and money.
The new money is always looked down upon, even as all that lovely dosh is welcomed.
Sending your kids to the right posh schools always helps the next generation especially when they wish to cover up new money. Harrow and Eton are on a par with regards posh schools though Eton is better known (better PR agent?). In that respect, BC and Tom are even.
BC foregoing Oxbridge, if he had the grades, is the mark of a truly posh person trying to hide his lineage. Given his age, i’d wager he reached university age at a time in Britain when being posh was considered terrible (Britpop era and most of the 90s). All the posh people were downplaying their roots. Best example is Guy Ritchie who took it as far as having a mockney accent and fake history to downplay his posh roots.
It’s safe to wave the posh flag once more. The older actors like BC still have that old school chip on their shoulders of being seen as posh.
Goodness this is a ramble.
All I wanted to say was that money isn’t an indicator of poshness unless it’s old money.
Thanks LAK. I always love love your comments. I did understand that poshness and money do not always go hand in hand.
However, I was actually trying to highlight that even if the family had money — it doesn’t mean they still do now. It’s just a bad assumption to make.
As for BC ‘choosing’ Manchester. I honestly wondered about whether or not a posh person might try to downplay it…. And you helped answer that.
Thanks again!
🙂
Tom’s moneyed side of the family is quite interesting because they are not from old aristocracy but from a self made family going back about 5 generations who were given their peerage for their contribution to the war effort or they bought it depending on your outlook. But we talking big money made through the food industry and at one point owned multiple shipping companies.
All I know about Ben’s family is there connection to the slave trade.I have no idea of they are old money or just made through the sugar planation’s.
They are both posh. BC went to Harrow and Tom went to Eton. But i think Toms parents had more money. Its relative, compared to a normal english person they are both very privileged.
The interesting and unusual thing was BC choose (in a round about way) to go to a different uni than what his roots (assuming his family was still as posh as people think) would suggest; whereas TH did go the ‘posh’ route to uni.
I know most Brits cringe at this class thing but I find it fascinating (I’m a total geek though).
Did he really choose not to go or he just didn’t get into Oxbridge?
I find the class system quite fascinating, mainly because we have the exact opposite – private schools and universities are looked down upon, even laughed at, it’s harder to get a job if you went to a private school, politicians with working class roots are more likely to get elected, etc. I actually think it’s a good thing if it prevents parents from sending their kids to private schools.
A friend of mine moved to England a while ago and she’s constantly fighting with her husband who wants to enroll their daughter into a private school ( he’s English) and she just can’t bare the thought.
Zadie (I love your name! My nickname is Sadie):
BC states that he lost focus and didn’t have the grades to get into Oxbridge but if he was indeed as posh as some people think — wouldn’t his ‘connections’ help him in? And if it really mattered, he would have stayed focused to get in because it would have mattered to be ‘seen’ as accepted into those unis. Appearances are everything in a class system.
If TH is in Burke’s — to me not only did he follow a posh path, his degree is equally posh. So that’s just as telling as the fact that BC went (for whatever reason) to Manchester. Those reflect the choices both of them made.
Aaaw, thank you. I love that name, but it’s not my real name, unfortunately. My real name is rather ugly.
TH got a degree in classics, right? where can you work with that?
My husband hates that word “posh” he’s English did private for a bit and his parents are ok I would say middle class. I find it weird as I am American and we say if you work hard you can do/be whatever. From some of my convestaions with people at work they don’t see it that way, you are privately educated and Oxbridge you will do better than anyone else PERIOD. I think those types of schools do instill you are better than everyone sort of attitude which reflects how some react and come across. I think you pay for the education but also they want the connections. If you read papers here it always amazes me how they have to refer to the person’s education AND what kind/how much the house cost. “privately educated blah blah blah, who lives in a £3m detached house.” I never understand how that has anything to do with the article. They even did an ad on tv about animal abuse, they show the poor animal chained outside and he of course was in a council house but next scene he is happy and of cousre in a nice detached house in the suburbs??
I agree that both are privileged! What sometimes gets lost in the discussion is how Benedict’s education at Harrow was funded.
Tom is posher than Ben because his mother is from an aristocratic family. Tom is listed in Burke’s Peerage.
Note, however, that they are both properly posh! We’re just talking gradations of posh.
What family is Tom’s mother a part of?
Vesteys. Hang on, I’ll search you a link:
http://www.thepeerage.com/p60027.htm
Thanks Sixer. I had heard that Tom was indeed posher than Benedict but no one could answer the why part. Thank you so kindly.
I was going to say, it really goes beyond money. Tom is aristocracy. Being in Burke’s puts you in a totally different category. He has that AND inherited wealth. He’ll never escape that.
Ben didn’t get into Oxbridge, Tom did. Usually the posh people who can’t get into Oxbridge go to Bristol or something like that. I think Ben went to Manchester. I am not sure its as much that he chose as he wasn’t that strong academically to get into the best schools. I understand what you are saying about the poshness, am sure there is a degree of that, but william did not get into oxbridge at undergraduate level and he is as posh as they come. He is known to not be that academically strong ( none of the royal family are) so i am guessing Bens family couldn’t get him into the best schools despite their poshness Ben is a brilliant actor but i think he has a complicated relationship with his poshness so he tends to play up his “ordinariness”.
Ben says he mucked up his chances of getting into Oxbridge when he discovered girls. Harrow (Ben’s) is pretty posh you know. Probaby only Eton is posher.
Bristol isn’t a posh uni.
“@Miss Jupitero says:
February 12, 2014 at 10:18 am
I was going to say, it really goes beyond money. Tom is aristocracy”
Errrr………..no he isn’t.
Leah Not everyone from public schools gets into Oxbridge but public schools do prepare you better for the interview and they are more likely to look favourably on public school candidates.
My daughter who had for A’s at A level and had a near perfect score on he psychology exam was turned down by Cambridge but went onto receive awards at another of the top 5 unis for being tip of her year. She said the interview was very different and a but off putting. On the other hand she was planning to turn it down if she got a place on the course she wanted which she did.
But yes Manchester was not an obvious choice if he was turned down by Oxbridge did have the grades.
I had to google Burke’s Peerage, I’ve never heard of it, lol. OMG, just reading the wiki article made me laugh and cringe, this kind of shit still exists for real?!
Alright, so Tom is proper fancy pants, BUT, lets go all patriarchy-aristo here, his father is a a nobody from Scotland who started as a butcher, right? I can’t remember where I have this information from, I hope I didn’t mistake him for someone else. Anyway, his parents’ story is basically aristocrat rich girl runs off with Scottish peasant. I mean, doesn’t the posh element come first and foremost from the father’s side of the family? Like, carrying the family name, being the firstborn son, blah blah blah.
I’m basically getting all this from films and BBC period dramas, so please people, do educate me properly
“Anyway, his parents’ story is basically aristocrat rich girl runs off with Scottish peasant.”
@Kelly, sounds ready-made for a film adaptation! :p
No I think Tom ancestry on his mother’s side is was far more wealthier than Ben’s which is why they focus on his background so much.
Tom ,his siblings and ancestors are on the peerage register all be it very new additions in the grand scale of English aristocracy. I only stumbled on Tom’s when I was checking out something else and have never looked to see if Benny is on there. Although I do think the recent focus on Ben’s ancestry is far more interesting. Tom’s family was once one of the richest families in the world until they made restitution for tax avoidance but still come in the top 100 in the UK think .But that does not mean he necessarily has money himself because over four generations the wealth tends to dissipate. I think one side of the family is still pretty rich and has connection to the queen i.e. The Queen’s master of the hounds or something like that.
But yes his dad was a working class lad who made it good and was well respected in some circles for the work he did. So new ambitious blood in the family. Trouble is because of Eton the press just focus on the posh side.
There is also understandably a lot of resentment about the loss of grants in education which make it harder for people from poorer families to go to university or train as an actor let alone let alone survive through periods of unemployment. Actors like Ben and Tom probably had some financial support in the early days of their careers but even if they did not it helps to know that there financial help if you need it. But it does not mean that they are not great actors.
My bet is that Tom votes liberal but it’s just a guess.
But icerose I think Tom’s branch is a way off that branch you are referring to.
“Actors like Ben and Tom probably had some financial support in the early days of their careers but even if they did not it helps to know that there financial help if you need it. But it does not mean that they are not great actors.
My bet is that Tom votes liberal but it’s just a guess.”
I agree. I truly don’t think it’s their fault and neither are they the actual problem with the education system in the UK. It sucks that the press constantly targets them, who I think are the wrong people to criticise.
In a recent interview, he said he did pay for RADA on his own with the money he earned from doing stage/television. He definitely had financial support for his education otherwise though.
He has consistently said he has problems with the class system and that he realizes that he was born very lucky. He wants to be judged on his own merits, as everyone, regardless of origin, should be, not on where his parents sent him to school.
A lot of posh actors seem to say the exact thing. Interesting… to me at least.
Why would it be interesting. The class system is WRONG, nothing wrong with saying that.
I find it fascinating because even though Americans rarely speak about it — it affects us a lot here too. I’m from a VERY blue collar family that thought it horrible that I not only wanted a bachelor’s, I was going for a master’s too. I received a lot of backlash for that (and when I didn’t get my master’s many were smug and happy).
In their eyes, adding insult to injury, one of the colleges I choose was (gasp) a former finishing school for women (it’s a well respected university). So while we wouldn’t use the term posh — it’s what it was and is. THAT is a cardinal sin for a blue collar kid going to a rich person’s college.
Really? Here, education is EVERYTHING: The common idea is that you will die hungry and miserable without a university degree. I don’t think I ever met a family where education was a bad thing.
My grandparents were very working class, but they made sure my mum and uncle get a good education – my uncle even became the youngest CEO of the factory my grandfather worked in.
However, we had communism so we don’t really have posh people, no aristocrats or anything like that. And private universities are laughed at so there is no such thing as a rich person’s college.
Hungary and miserable is better than ‘selling yourself out’ and ‘getting too big for your britches’. I’ve heard those words from more than one of my family members (and right now I AM struggling with money so they think I’m getting my just rewards).
I totally and 100% want my children to recieve a good education but that’s not the view most of my family has. A technical degree, BTW, is fine. Just nothing too fancy or highfalutin.
Ladyslippers? I went to Smith, a college known more for producing First Ladies, but which is also of course well respected. When I was there, it still had that finishing school veneer with cloth napkins, teas, and candlelit dinners. My classmates were heiresses.
I often feel it was a mistake for me to go there. My background is pretty working class, and I was suddenly in the odd position of being presumed to be pampered, well connected, and wealthy– and I wasn’t. Whatever I accomplished, there was always someone ready to say “Well, she is a Smith girl….” If I could do it all over I would have skipped the BS and gone to U of Penn or U of Michigan.
wow so many different perspectives! Really interesting reading your views ladies!
I grew up pretty poor. Came from working class family. But! I have always been in conservative private schools. Even my university is private. My family and I worked many jobs to pay for school. I paid for uni myself. I was never dogged with going to posh schools though. In fact I got praised for making it in and making use of my education.
I come from working class family too… Both my parents never studied at university, though I did… Actually, my mum was very poor and only did 4th grade and worked all her life as a dressmaker, my dad has 12th grade and worked as a bank clerk, he’s the one who taught me 4 of the 5 foreign languages I speak (English included)… Here, it’s important to have a degree (though with all the crisis, having a degree is becoming something looked down by some people) … Never understood class system or even studies as reasons to suceed in life.. My mum, with her 4th grade speaks also spanish perfectly… So, having family money or studies may not be everything and may not mean good general culture… but ok… 🙂
Working class family here but pulled myself up to middle class through education, over my mother’s objections but with my father’s encouragement. As Ladyslippers points out, there is definitely a strong anti-education trend among some, but not all, working class or trade class people in the United States, which tends to be encouraged by some in the upper class, for God only knows what reason. There is also an awful lot of class fighting between that particular band of working class and the very poor, encouraged by one political party. As for those who are educated, there ARE stereotypes, much like the one Tom is coming out against. In the US, for some reason, a Harvard degree is viewed as the mark of a liberal and a military background is viewed as the mark of a conservative, despite the fact that many, many extreme conservatives, including Supreme Court justices, have Harvard on their curriculum vitae and many liberals, such as Senator Jack Reed and Secretary of State John Kerry have military experience. It’s just wrong.
Yay!! A Hiddles post!! My. Day. Is. Made!! I’m not obsessive…I just think he is responsible for any happiness I have in my life and he gives it a meaning I never knew existed.
Yes, I am kidding! His fans can be scary, and while I think they are funny as h*ll, I’m sure being on the receiving end of that kind of adulation can be quite terrifying. However, I can help him through it. 😉
Final thought…who wants to bet on how long it takes before that “other actor who shall not be named here’s” background and schooling comes up in the comments?
EDIT^^ and there it is.
*runs for cover*
I actually think it’s come to a truce in a way with their names getting mentioned in each other’s threads haha. I noticed there’s less animosity now.
@jammypants: You’ll honestly see it both ways — nice and snarky comparisons in with the nastier ones. Once you’ve been around you’ll see it all.
🙂
honestly I adore them both. So now that the flames have died a little, I can appreciate the distribution of love more. I think their careers are a bit more level at the moment. Both doing quiet indies and stage.
Is he one of the poshest? And how is it judged, can someone clear it up for me?
To be really posh you would have to have a title. There isn’t one in his branch of the family.
it boils down to your peerage connections and how old they are and/or the amount of money your ancestors and for how long. I never new what the phrase “new money ” meant until i came to the UK and heard someone using it rather snidely about someone’s whose parents owned a factory.
nouveau riche as the French say.
What icerose said.
As an example, the royals aren’t the most posh people in Britain despite their status.
The Spencer are posher than the Windsors. Many, many other families are posher than the Windsors.
He is somewhere in the middle. Not too posh because he’s not an aristocrat but not really new money. He is the great-great grandson of a baronet through his mother. His dad is from Greenock, Scotland. He must have connections through his mom who was a stage manager and arts administrator but his dad, who worked as a managing director of a pharmaceutical company surely increased the family’s wealth. The guy studied at the Dragon School, Eton, Cambridge, and RADA so he was really of privileged background.
God knows I love Tommy to bits, but that is a *lot* of self tanner in that bottom pic.
Still adore him, but it’ll just mean I’ll have to buy more dark sheets for when he comes a’knockin.
Amelia, darling, I keep the Handi-Wipes (top of the line) in the foyer? You are welcome to keep the black silk sheets on the bed – I know they work into the Batman quotes I hear coming from that room – but the personal wipe down is one of my favorite parts of the evening.
Miss Eyre. I’m shocked although not surprised at your miss information!
Amelia, Miss Eyre rarely used Handi-Wipes so disregard her nonsense. She whisks any and all offensive men (so all men) that step into the foyer of Thornfield into a shower. Her loving and attentive ways assures the men don’t get bruised egos and return again for her fabulous ‘spa’ treatment and entertainment.
But that is ONLY the beginning of her wickedness. And wicked she is. Speaking ofWicked, your musical is coming to my hometown Miss Eyre, I do so want to see it.
I wonder if any of the tabloids will somehow see this as a challenge and try to dig up dirt on how the Hiddleston family made its fortune.
At any rate, love him regardless.
That’ll follow soon enough I’m sure.
It’s going to be a mess.
I’m sure it’ll end up his great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was BFF with Benny’s and they both had 18th century Wolf of Wolf Street style parties with their female slaves all the time.
So the internet’ll go kaboom because obvs Benny + Tommy are destined to end up together, yea.
Hahahaha you made my day with your post Kelly!
Not gonna lie, I’d watch that movie.
Well, the Telegraph has seen fit to change the tone of it by adding words like “riposted” and “harrumphed” to their re-telling of the original article from the other magazine.
I read that whole article earlier and I think it’s fine. I think Tom has a way of saying things with grace and tact, even when the same words out of someone else’s mouth would seem awkward or worse.
I think he is sending a very polite message out but I am not one of the brigade who thought he brought it on himself. At worst he might have misjudged the twitter thing but he responded with sincerity and was true to his own understanding.
But I do nothing things are as bad as people make out and his fan base is no worse than lots of others, There are far worse fan bases out there. The only real difference is a lot of them do not do stage work which makes him appear more accessible and gives fans an easy location to focus there energy on
Beth and icerose, I agree with both of you.
I don’t think his early days on Twitter were anything but Hiddleston being himself. I truly don’t think he knew how out of control it would get.
And yes, his fanbase is no more or less crazy than any of the other ones out there. They all have their problems!
I agree Beth. I admire how TH manages to not trip over his tongue. Amazing when so many reporters seem to try for the ‘gotchya’ remarks – the out of context phrases that burn the star’s PR.
The article also said that TH is single but not interested in talking about it. Well, there’s one person!
He was a sitting duck at Donmar where his fans could know exactly what dates and times he would be coming and going. Right on the heels of his Thor TDW promo where he really stirred up the fans. I still can’t believe in Australia how he picked them up, put them on his back. Who does that?
Toronto out to be a nice break where he will be less available to the public.
Yeah, there is a tendency with some fans to want to know where he is and what he is doing at all times (although I don’t think that is unique to just Hiddleston fans) so knowing exactly where he is going to be in regards to the Coriolanus performances did make him a bit of a sitting duck.
I hope he is able to keep a lower profile while filming in Toronto although I think there will still be a few fans who try to get as near to the sets and filming locations as possible and may haunt any popular eateries, clubs, etc in the hopes of an “encounter.”
Wait. Wait. Wait.
Are you saying that keeping minute details on his EXACT whereabouts is creepy????
*frowns*
*frantically hides all schedules and print-outs of TH’s whereabouts, including the split schedule between Squirrel and I*
*looks up hastily*
I totally understand — it IS creepy. Totally creepy. And scary. Only unhinged people with no lives would do something that desperate.
*relief that even with Janeite hiding in the garden she suspects nothing*
(No one can know that the reason Squirrel and I are friends IS because of the time difference and how well that works for stalking)
😉
LOL, LadySlippers! I see that I am going to have to venture out of my garden hiding place to keep tabs on you and Secret Squirrel from now on to keep you from running amok with all the stalking! I leave you two unsupervised for just a few days and look what you get up to!
@Browniecakes- I was at the bookstore event in Sydney and was gob smacked to see the requests Tom was getting when fans came up on stage. I don’t know how he could have said no with so many onlookers without looking like a bad sport, but then he looked happy to play along. It was a love-in but it opened my eyes to the crap some fans get up to.
I’m still shaking my head at how he was in Australia. Picking them up, full body hug, etc. If he were in a boy band I can understand but for a grown man, I found it odd.
As for this article, I actually liked it. It might have been one of the most honest pieces yet but I think that has more to due with the fact that it was done by a male interviewer and not a female.
It’s a meet and greet though. They had a stage with a backdrop solely for photos. Mind you he was pretty extra, but I think for publicity things like that, where meetings with fans are arranged for promotional purposes, that’s expected.
@LadyS, Janeite. Well I am a secret spy extraordinaire! Its what I do best!!
I’ve been busy wandering the streets asking people (female journalists etc) to sign a petition for Tom to acknowledge his Scottish heritage by wearing a kilt to his next public appearance. Seems I stumbled into “Tommytown” as after only visiting 5 houses, I have secured 47,000 signatures.
*signs own petition to make it 47,001*
And of course squirrel fur makes a fine and dandy sporran. He doesn’t even have to skin me, I’ll happily curl up all warm and snuggly on his lap and just HANG with him.
HA!
@Janeite, so that’s a hard no on stalking Hiddles when he’s in Toronto? But what will I do with all my maps and charts now??
Hello Kitty, I will have to defer to LadySlippers and Secret Squirrel on that one! Perhaps you can share your reconnaissance info with them! 😉
Oh Hello Kitty, Please Please share your intelligence!!!
BUT there is no chasing my dear friend Squirrel here. Or chewing on my leaves. Or petals. We must have proper decorum followed for all our garden friends.
Getting back to TH in Toronto, please be discreet. We do have various disguises at our disposal like a Canadian Mounty outfit. It is what we suggest. Both Squirrel and I firmly believe that going ‘loud’ is better than blending in. Go big or go home is our motto. I mean — we’re NOT stalking just enthusiastic fans, right? Right???? (Try and get his bone measurements too. I’d like his CBC but that might be going a tad too far).
Squirrel — hand over the petition so I can make it 47,002.
@LadySlippers: To be honest, my plans are nothing more than doodling “Mrs. Hiddles” in a notebook. But if you want concrete plans, us stalkers can hang out in the area where the TIFF activities (condo/hotels, lounges, bars, etc…) usually take place and wait for him to show up over a bottle of D’Asti.
LadySlippers, I just about died of laughter when I read what you wrote about the Canadian Mounty disguise! I got the most hilarious visual ever! And do be a dear and try to come away with a Hiddles DNA sample in the form of a hair strand or a fingernail clipping or whatnot. We need it for cloning purposes, you know. While you all thought I was in the garden hiding under a rock, I was secretly setting up my underground cloning lab.
Janeite, while you’re doing your analyzing, could I add an additional request? LadySlippers has requested bone measurements. I’d like to do the same, with an additional consonant added to one of the relevant words.
@Secret Squirrel
I guess Tom already wore a kilt? I found a pic.
http://gb.pinterest.com/pin/107593878569372250/
Hiddleston is not included in the tartan list though, probably because there is no clan Hiddleston…. As a surname, it seems like it comes from Cumberland and that area stopped to be part of Scotland from the 15th century onwards…..
HIDDLES IN A KILT OMG, thanks for that!
You’re welcome Kelly! 😛
That’s actually Tom Hiddleston’s face photoshopped onto Gerard Butler’s body in that kilt picture.
My opinion based on reading other sites and seeing his interactions with fans during the Avengers press tour (and just that, I’m not stating it as fact, so please don’t hate me!) is that he actively encouraged it for a while then it bit him on the ass. It was borderline trolling at one stage, the posting songs of the day, links to affirmations, he followed his own fanpages, Luke (his publicist) replied and interacted with them, he even mentioned twitter followers at the MTV awards in his speech, and it caused some pretty nasty reactions in some and created a ridiculous sense of entitlement. I’m still appalled at the whole Sian Clifford situation and to be honest I judge him a little for not stepping up and saying something (politely) even now, he doesn’t really address the issue when asked about his fans. His twitter has all but become a PR thing, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
I agree with you. Stars should not be this accessible, and Twitter makes people think they are actually “friends” with them. It’s not a healthy situation for either side, and can easily morph into obsession. Twitter is a dangerous minefield for stars. Not “celebrities” (or famewhores…insert favorite term here) who need it to stay relevant, but I think true “stars” need to take a huge step back and let their PR people handle it. personally, it would freak me out if I just started tweeting with say, Brad Pitt. I don’t want to know him like that…it’s weird.
I think he went all out to create/encourage the fanbase, too. Not for ego though – more likely to add to an impression that he had enough of a following to lead films. It didn’t work, so now he’s not doing it any more. I can’t believe he’s afraid of his fans – it seems far more likely they were a tool and a tool that didn’t have the required effect so he’s put it back in the toolbox and moved on to new strategies. I think this is good. For a start, I might actually start believing he means some of the things he says!
Totally agree (I do think a tiny part of it was ego and I don’t blame him at all for that, who wouldn’t have been swept up in the love he was getting).
I think it was a case of “oh lets use this to get the name out there” which is why I think Luke was so involved. He also around that time jumped to a different agency in the US which I think was a bad move as he became a small fish in a very big pond.
I don’t know, Sixer. I think it’s been very successful on certain levels. He has shown that he can create a devoted fan base that will pretty much watch whatever he is in. How many Shakespearean productions wind up with movie simulcasts? On a similar vein, I think going back to the stage and playing a challenging role without any camp was a great strategic career move. People forgot he is more than Loki and dancing bear antics, and is actually an extremely talented actor. Pulling back from twitter was also a smart move. Remove all mystique and people get bored.
@Lindy79…yes, a small fish, but in a pond that gets auditions/meetings for the high profile projects and is trusted by casting directors. It was smart. He might get more attention from a smaller agency, but their calls would not be the first answered by studios. There is a pecking order to casting movies.
Yes to all that, Lindy.
To say the Twitter persona wasn’t the actual Puddletom always provokes endless defences of what a nice guy he really really REALLY is. But I’ve never said he isn’t a nice guy. I’m sure he is. Just not the ridiculous Fauntleroy type he presented to his fans.
I also don’t have the impression it’s for ego either.
If he had said anything about Sian Clifford, it might well have made things worse actually.
That’s kind of my point though, it was a situation partly created by him and his team. I’m not sure exactly what he could have said or done, to be fair to him. I don’t mean a press release or anything like that but even now when asked, nearly a year later, he could make some sort of (carefully PR worded) point about people in his life being abused simply because they were photographed with him.
All I’m saying is, if I had been her, I don’t think I would have been too impressed..
But Lindy we don’t actually know what was said between them, or if they agreed on a strategy do we?
No, but I can only go with what went down publicly, and what went down was as a result of him making himself so accessible to his fans, one of his good friends was abused by a large number of his “fans” to the point where she left Twitter and he has said nothing about it despite having now, the advantage of time and perspective he could say something about celebrity and fan admiration crossing a line at times, not a direct comment or even harsh but something, instead of the comment above which still whacks of his PR trying to create this perfect understanding guy image trying to help his obsessive fans.
No one rational would blame him for saying something, he has every right to. I just think creating an image of a perfect man is more important to his team.
I suppose I just see nothing wrong in fans being called out for their crazy behaviour.
Lindy, as I recall she had some abuse from 1 account on Twitter (although there may have been others). She disappeared off the site around the same time they stopped being seen/photographed together, and there have been no sightings of them together since (personally I think he dropped her).
@joe spider. Agreed. If somebody says he isn’t going to talk about personal relationships, he blows it by issuing any statement about a personal relationship and it signals to the troublemakers that they got through.
He clearly wasn’t asking for anyone to follow him out of the Donmar, but Tom is a smart man and I think had a hand in crafting his own image. Did it bite him on the arse? Yes.
It definitely did lol! Although maybe he was so open early on because perhaps he did not anticipate becoming so well known? In the space of a year his little humble following of 50k followers jumped to 1 million +. I’d imagine that would be a bit disarming.
Remember this from the Avengers’ days? – Tom buying fan art: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/69198317.html?page=3
I’m glad he is distancing himself from his obsessive fans. I made the mistake of checking out tumblr once… Scary to say the least.
Fangirls will post pictures of him while they’re stalking him and then bitch about he didn’t sign stuff, why did he stop doing SD. When they’re waiting at the fire escape, for fuck’s sake.
I read this article in the Telegraph today and I’ll clarify matters for those across the Atlantic.
Most people who actually vote for particular party are not actually a member of that party.
Remember when Tom gives an interview he is answering questions put to him, not making them up. (Although perhap he should start vetting the questions first) As a Brit, I get sick and fed up of people saying anyone who is one welfare benefits is a scrounger. I also just as sick and fed up of people saying anyone who went to Eton/Harrow/Winchester is thick or a twat or any other insulting word they feel like using. It has got markedly worse since the current government were elected – but that isn’t Tom’s fault.
I don’t know if you have inverted snobbery in the States, but you sure as hell do here. It is a form of corrosive jealousy.
America coined the term “the 1%”…we have it by the bucket here too. Anyone who is wealthy is automatically evil, no matter how much good they may do. Bill Gates (as an example) gives away truckloads of money to charity and has said he’s leaving his fortune to the Gates Foundation so that it continues its good works after he is gone, but he’s 1% and therefore evil. It’s a faceless mob of self entitlement and selfishness (like your posh class?), and just as unfair a depiction as saying all people on welfare are lazy and sponging off the system. There is no “and/or” to these biases. The rest of us, in the middle, somehow get lumped in with the 99%, whether or not we identify with it. It’s a ridiculous generalization either way, since society is not that neatly divided.
Thanks for your reply Shannon, seems we are in agreement. Nothing is as black and white as some people make out.
Actually here the entitlement works both ways. There are some who think they are above others. But there are also some people who have done nothing to help themselves and think they should be handed things on a plate too.
Also in this country you can be posh but not rich and rich but not posh. Guess it is the same in the States?
@joe spider: Perhaps in New England you can be posh without money but I do think most places in the US the relationship is more closely knit. Almost everything here is based on money. Money is what and how we determine success.
Yes LadySlippers, that is most definitely the case here isn’t it? There is somewhat of a divide between “old money” and the “nouveau riche” that some people would like to preserve but in the end, money speaks louder than anything else. How it was acquired is of a lot less importance.
Joe spider and Shannon, I agree with both of you. I would like to live in a world where people are judged on their own merits but I don’t see that happening any time soon unfortunately!
You are right Janeite.
agreed
I don’t hate rich people. I just don’t care about them. They’re rich, they’ll be fine. Everything in this country (the US), at least, is geared toward protecting them anyway, so I don’t waste my time worrying about them or giving two sh-ts, really, about anything to do with them. I’m more worried about me and mine. Stuff like, “will my parents be able to afford retirement?” or “am I going to leave student loan debt behind when I die?” or “if something catastrophic happened tomorrow, would I be able to handle it?”
I’m sure there are a lot of perfectly nice rich people who are concerned about things like the rapidly growing economic divide and who do lots of truly good philanthropic work. But on the whole, they’re not thinking of me so I’m not thinking of them.
I think most people on the planet think mainly about themselves and the people they care about. That’s not really something that divides the rich from anyone else.
There are also plenty of people who are not rich who do philanthropic work too.
Oh it’s not, I know. I think the super-wealthy have been demonized in recent years because of all the economic f-ckery that has gone on, but outside of that, it seems like really most people just don’t care what they’re up to, and there is a difference between disinterest and actually hating a group of people.
Poor people have always hated the super-wealthy, I mean that’s normal. Money gives you opportunities, power, education, respect, stability, certainty, freedom.
It’s sad, but without money you’re not worth much in the world.
So of course the underprivileged, hungry and poor resent the rich careless people in charge.
I’m always surprised that world history doesn’t have more instances of July 14 1789.
Sobering thought indeed, Kelly! And now La Marseillaise is stuck in my head! 🙂
@Kelly: I think the poor hate the rich more for just having money; it’s also trying to keep the money out of the hands of poor too that causes the most discontent. The rich, often don’t play fair, even though they often harbour the illusion they do. That’s the reason for the hatred the poor have for the rich.
@kelly it always surprises me too that people don’t protest more…I always think of it when I listen to Tracy Chapman’s “Talking ‘Bout A Revolution.”
Perhaps people don’t see the point, especially after the failed Occupy movement.
People don’t protest more because you have to have a critical number of discontent people ready to start a revolution, you have to have fractions formed of people willing to do a violent revolution (like the one from 1789., and any real revolution for that matter) who have a clear goal of the revolution and a plan and bunch of promisses of what will they do after for everyones benefit.
You have to reach such an economical state of the country that the middle class is becoming poor because the background of every revolution is money, and since the richest are 1% and the middle class is way bigger and they feel their decline of standard more than said 1%, they are more likely to be the motors of revolutions.
You have to reach also such an economical state of the country that you can revive your economy in a few years after the revolution instead of being completely impoverished. People have to be prepared for 10 or something like that of bad years after the revolution.
Also people have to come to such a low point where they know that the revolutionary leaders are maybe not much different than the actual government, but even that is better than the alternative of remaining passive and just existing.
English is not my mother tongue so I hope I was somewhat clear in this simplified explanation of revolutions not happening. 🙂
That being said, Occupy wall street was not a revolution, just a protest. And revolutions are happening all over the world, there is one going on in Bosnia right now.
There is hardly a revolution in Bosnia. It is a protest that got a bit out of hand. As long as Europe keeps treating Bosnia as a ball to be kicked whenever they please, things won’t get better.
I didn’t want to discuss Bosnia here because it’s too complicated for people living in that part of Europe to understand fully, let alone non Europeans, I just wanted to name it as an example. I was under impression that people burning government buildings and demanting resignation of said governments qualifies more like a revolution than a a protest that got a bit out of hand.
But maybe I got it wrong, are you from Bosnia, is that how it is viewed there?
joe spider I totally agree.
i think there are way to many assumptions made about people based on wealth and background especially when it comes to people on benefits.
I do remember my dear mother in law saying “why do they not buy fish instead of fish sticks it is so much better for you” which told you a lot about her understanding of what being on benefits is like,
Joespider
Oh God yes…. the ‘scrounger’ thing is always going on, I can’t even turn the TV on anymore…
And why are some people called ‘peasants’?
It reminds me of farmers but alas I live in a rural area and the richest families around here are farmers lol In a while the CEOs will be the poorest……
@joe spider, the Telegraph only ran its version of the interview he gave to another magazine. (London Today? I forget!) Vetting the questions first would have made no difference since the Telegraph took quotes from the other magazine out of context and added words like “riposted” and “harrumphed”, which were not in the original article and changed the tone quite a bit. An actor has no control over how things get re-used.
I saw that too. The Telegraph’s always had an agenda when it comes to education and the class system. He’s their perfect target.
@joe spider, yes, we do have inverted snobbery here in the states. Sadly.
My ignorant-American impression has been that Eddie Redmayne is the poshest of them all, but that Tom was right there with him as a close second, thanks to his mother’s family. Although for some reason I also had the impression his dad was fairly well set up in Scotland? Maybe it’s just an assumption based on the fact that his dad bagged his mom. He’d have to have some connections to meet her in the first place, right?
No, his dad was distinctly working class and got himself to university through night school studying. He is a few years older than Tom’s mum so probably didn’t meet her until he had become successful.
Oh wow, so his dad really *is* self-made. That’s cool. Explains a lot about Tom’s work ethic.
haha! I thought it was just me, but Redmayne does come off as the most posh!
Banking family.
I love this interview, it actually makes me like him more now, he’s not as naive, innocent and silly as he pretends to be, wonderful. I agree with all that he said.
Oh and this “Benedict Cumberbatch WISHES he was that posh (except not)” – LOL, yes 😀
This interview seemed more candid that his usual upbeat chatter. For all the jokes about his omnipresent publicist, I totally believe Tommy is in control of crafting his own image.
me too he is way to intelligent to just hand it over to other people
I think the same as well
“I totally believe Tommy is in control of crafting his own image” — oh totally, I mean every time he does an interview he presents his persona. He chose to be the approachable, nice, I-say-yes-to-everything dude. I guess he thought he could control the reaction and keep it in line, but he obviously has no idea what girls in lust on the internet are capable of and willing to do. So yes, he bit off way more than he had thought he could chew.
He’s as posh as they come sans title, living in a big house in Belsize Park next to Helena Bonham Carter. Who incidentally, is a total tory and friends with the Prime Minister.
But so what, from all accounts he’s very nice and actually seemed to work for his acting success. I saw Coriolanus with my partner and it was EXCELLENT. Hope he’ll do more theatre despite the crazies he seems to attract…
Actually it isn’t that big a house, particularly by that area’s standards. And certainly nothing like as big as the one his mate Hemsworth has bought in LA.
I’d think Hemsworth would need more space considering the wife, kids and more on the way. But anyway, comparing property in Zone 2 in London to Los Angeles is a little ridiculous for many reasons .
I don’t begrudge Hiddleston his success or money. He’s around as privileged as they come, but I don’t find him obnoxious about it.
Bland boring actor. I burst out laughing at his comment on Top gear about his early days struggling. Yeah right Tom. More like struggling to count all those millions.
Struggling to get work…….?
yea I don’t think he was talking about money
joe spider says:
“”But icerose I think Tom’s branch is a way off that branch you are referring to. “”
Yes and no. There is a very wealthy side which holds the titles but his great great grandfather was one of the two Vestey brother’s who made the family very very wealthy so some of the money would have trickled down through property maybe even shares etc even if they are still not involved in the business. At one point it was said that every child born into the family automatically received £250.000 pounds when they were born.
Mind you his career has provably brought him in more wealth now.
Buy that is certainly not Tom’s fault and i do think that the continual focus by the press on his background is annoying.
“At one point it was said that every child born into the family automatically received £250.000 pounds when they were born.”
It was said………………………….?
i think it’s Tom’s mother’s mother’s which married into the Vestey line, [i think.] They are a bit removed from the original wealth line, who now party with the Royals and run the remaining estates/businesses. Any money that came down that family, wouldn’t filter through in an obvious way. tied up trust funds on the women’s family side, probably. i guess??
I remember reading online about Diana Hiddleston’s family background in regard to running an arts festival, which i thought sounded interested. [only reason i stalked that info] And her father was ex- admiral in the navy or something and he ended having getting a day-job with several kids to support as an arts administrator. So he didn’t seem to have loads of cash either. [this is all conjecture]
i think Tom is privileged, but he has a strong work ethic embedded by his family, whether it’s his father’s line as a scientist or his long distance Vestey relations. it’s been about building businesses from nothing and making something.
It’s nice for him to admit he’s human and not a smiley rainbow selfie-taking robot all the time. No doubt it’ll cause a ruckus but something had to be said imo. He’s a lot more blunt in this interview than usual, maybe because he knows the guy.
I don’t know why but this made me laugh. When he was spitting sunshine and puppies everywhere, people found it refreshing. Now they’re sick of it and are glad he brought them back to earth. LOL. Every human being on this earth is contradictory and that makes the world go round.
Actually I found it cringeworthy when he was spitting sunshine and puppies, it totally turned me off. I got attracted to Loki and then found out he was My Little Pony in real life (please, no smut metaphor innuendos of the eight-legged horse).
I mean I can appreciate him being optimistic and all, but he really REALLY does overdo it. Thank God for Cumberbatch and his reclusive snark wit (although he’s got his obvious faults as well, the latest one being sat next to Anna Wintour at a NY fashion show, I mean WTF Cumby, the Prada devil?? Really?!)
I don’t see what’s so bad about being posh. It’s also all about rank in America, specifically in NY. We don’t use the term posh but there are people that I know that put Tom and his fellow ‘poshers’ in their back pocket. Not sure why anyone gets flak for coming from an affluent family, it’s not like you pick and chose your upbringing. With that said, at least he knows some of his fans are crazy, If you take just 5 minutes to search the Tom Hiddleston tag on Tumblr you’re understand the extent of it.
The class system here in the UK has very little to do with money, most of the Aristocrats who have a few million are higher ranked then say someone who has 100 million but are self made. David Beckham is really rich but he is classed as working class and new money. Aristocrats now days lose money fast because most of it is inherited and well the tax man takes a good chunk hence why a lot of them marry upper middle class who have a lot of money, sometimes they stretch to middle class who have money.
The reason why in the late 19th and early 20th century upper class men married rich American women was so the families could get the money and the new wife would get a title.
Honestly the class system here can get a bit annoying from all sides.
See, this is why I love this website. When I saw the article, I wondered what more people could possibly have to say besides going around in circles flogging dead horses but instead I’m happy to find intelligent discussion about class and education.
Personally, I feel that as much as North Americans would like everyone to believe that anyone can be anything with enough hard work, it’s not the case. The idea is then used to keep people in their place, because *clearly* if you’re poor it’s because you deserve it.
Sunflower, that concept about people who are poor having done something to deserve it is sadly one that way too many people believe. The contentiousness between the two main political parties here in the US only adds to that as well. It can be so frustrating at times.
This is what I got from the discussions going on above:
US:
If you’re poor, you deserve it.
If you’re rich, you deserve it.
UK:
If you’re poor, you don’t deserve it.
If you’re rich, you don’t deserve it.
“that concept about people who are poor having done something to deserve it” – I have a feeling that’s mostly an American thing, correct me if I’m wrong?
The whole ideology of the American dream, equal opportunities thing, etc?
It doesn’t exist in the rest of the world. I think everyone else is aware that if you’re born shit poor with no money to pay for a good education/decent clothes/food/etc you’re basically screwed, and it isn’t your fault, it’s just the way things are. And especially if you have the added misfortune to be born in politically oppressive country where it’s all about connections and who you support on the political front.
Wheel of fortune as they say, some are born to sweet delight…
Actually, in reply to Jammypants: it goes rather like this in the UK
If you’re poor, you deserve it.
If you’re rich, you don’t deserve it.
The conservative party is working very hard at demonising the poor, disabled etc. to an increasingly worrying degree. Amidst all the cuts to the benefit system they are also very strongly encouraging people with money to feel no sympathy for those with a less fortunate start in life.
LOL jammypants, very true! I don’t think that those are necessarily the views of the individual posters talking about them but those do seem to be the prevailing viewpoints in each nation, don’t they?
Kelly,
“Wheel of fortune as they say, some are born to sweet delight…”
And some are born to endless night.
I see you know your William Blake. 🙂
@Sunflower: Welcome to the garden!
@Kelly: I think the ideology of the ‘American Dream’ is based on such a false premise that the poor have long called BS on it while the rich still think it. Because it IS true for some.
I also think the American Dream BS is why so many people in the US falsely assume class isn’t an issue — so we focus on race or gender instead. Why talk about class when, supposedly, it’s so easy to change your class status? Unlike race and gender, class is supposedly mutable.
@Foile: The American Republican Party also demonises those deemed ‘not worthy’, so it’s the: poor, mentally ill, physically ill, homeless, disabled, unemployed, working poor, and even veterans (although they’d deny veterans but a lot of veterans are on welfare). I’m sure I’m missing whole swathes of people here. And here they wrap the ‘not caring about others’ in other messages like state’s rights and protecting themselves. But the message comes out as ‘screw those not like us’. Which is even MORE ironic considering they calls themselves as the Christian party.
@above commenters: Sad. It’s all very sad when most religions speak about helping out your neighbour and VERY FEW actually do.
LadySlippers – a factoid for you, about the American Dream. Some good research came out on the back of the most recent PISA educational results (at which both the UK and the US did appallingly).
An American born into the bottom wealth 20% has just a 7% chance of making it into the top 20%. That’s dire, isn’t it? Even the UK scrapes in as better than that at 8%. In Finland, it’s 15% – and all the countries who scored highly in the PISA survey had similarly higher social mobility. I can’t recall any more figures than those precisely, but those stood out. If I get time later, I’ll try and dig out the actual study for you.
Yep, sadly In the US right now, it seems there is a push to sell the idea that if you aren’t wealthy and successful, you just haven’t worked hard enough. ‘The poor are just lazy’ I feel like I’m hearing more and more. Even sadder, I think that’s it’s racially motivated, creating a bigger class and racial divide.
@Sixer: I did know that. 🙁
@pru: A lot of studies postulate that race is just a red herring for class divides. We TALK about race because it inherently makes us feel superior to keep money and class out of the discussion. Personally I think both are intermingled to such a point that it’s hard to tease one out without pulling on the other.
Basically, in addition to The White Knapsack of Privilege (Google and read if you’re not familiar) I think we should have The Gucci Purse of Privilege (complete with the coordinating Jimmy Choo shoes).
@Foile, the same is happening here in the United States, and the conservative party, the Republicans, are convincing the working class, in its hatred for the poor who are supposedly “stealing” their tax dollars, to turn against the very programs that exist for the working class such as unemployment insurance, which we cannot qualify for unless we worked and lost a job, without “just cause”, because of the employer’s actions, and Social Security Disability, which we cannot qualify for unless we have worked for 10 years (not necessarily sequentially) and are battling a severely disabling impairment. If one more person tells me SSDI is a handout, I may go ballistic.
In the US, most of us are all just one cancerous cell away from financial ruin.
@LadySlippers – thanks for the good read!
I agree that class, money and race are all fused. Can we even discuss the class system subtracting race and money? What would that leave us – lineage? That’s not something Americans have ever really valued or measured.
*covets LadySlipper’s Gucci Purse of Privilege looks down bitterly at own (knock-off) Coach Bag of Gaucheness*
@Pru, and a greater gender divide as well.
I think having a strong opinion about either poor or rich shows that you just have not escaped you poshness. There is nothing wrong with being one way or the other. Your posh is showing, Tom 😉
Well I’m poor and I have a strong opinion on economics, class, and politics, trust me it does not make me posh though…
I’ve never been to UK and have very vague idea about this issue of being posh. If that was what gave him such amazing education he just oozes everytime he opens his mouth and taught him to wear tailored suits, I’m all pro-posh.
You can’t help being posh and you mostly can’t help being poor. It’s is how you behave and treat other people that is far more important, surely?
And as far as Tom is concerned everyone who has actually met/worked with him never has a bad word to say about him – at 1.20:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzQ-q435kg
“If that was what gave him such amazing education he just oozes everytime he opens his mouth and taught him to wear tailored suits, I’m all pro-posh.”
LOL, can’t argue with that 😉 Though I’d say that’s more education and manners. I think you can be educated and well-mannered without being posh?
I think posh is more how you address people and carry yourself, and of course how expensive your personal belongings are, together with your background and family.
joe spider — aawwww, Morrissey sure made Tom blush with that, what a wonderful compliment 🙂
That’s right, joespider. Unfortunately, there are snobs and cruel people in all walks of life. How people treat others is what matters.
@joe spider
Wow, I wish someone someday would speak like that about me. Good for Tom. I’m sure he has faults ( I hope he does, anyway) but to have your co-workers and friends talk like that about you is what it’s all about.
And he got it right that Tom’s “intelligence shines through.” Tom said he’s aware of pretentiousness of his conversation, but I personally enjoy listening to him. He’s very articulate and well-read.
ItSetsYou, that’s a very weird outlook on life you have there. Sorry.
@Lilacflowers – what outlook? Not sure what you mean. I like talking about art, history and literature and love people who do too.
Where you said that if somebody has an opinion on being rich or poor, it means he or she hasn’t escaped being posh. Most people have opinions on poverty and improving their own economic status. But keep talking about art, history, and literature, please. That’s all good!
@Lilacflowers
What someone mentioned that Tom constantly talks about being ashamed of his origin and opportunities given to him that others don’t have. I think If you were born rich you shouldn’t feel guilty. If you were born poor you shouldn’t feel ashamed. Especially in today’s world, where it doesn’t matter where you came from – you can always make yourself to be what you want. At least in the Western part of the world at the moment you have that freedom. There’s no need to waste time on hate or feelings of guilt about either – posh or poor, – best to just focus on improving whatever and wherever you can. You went to posh school? Nothing is wrong with that, share the knowledge with those who didn’t have that chance. There are several authors I’ve learnt about from Tom that I never heard about before and maybe never would unless I went to the equivalent of Eton for girls.
@ItSetsMe: Be careful with your suggestions that the rich should ‘share’ their knowledge with the poor. It comes off as very patrician and a great many poor (or underprivileged) intensely dislike that type of thinking. Being poor or underprivileged does not invalidate your view on the world — it’s simply different.
Mind you, I am not sure if that’s what you meant but a lot of rich white people do think as you’ve suggested. It ends up making matters worse because it looks as if the rich are correct and the poor (again) are not.
I am slightly worried that he says ‘I am not in the Conservative Party’ instead of ‘I don’t vote …’ – I am not in a political party – that does not mean I don’t vote for a party. I guess the following quote is meant to enforce it by saying he finds the class system ugly? I don’t know
Most people in Britain are not actually members of a political party in that they haven’t joined and don’t pay subscriptions. That is totally different from whether you vote for them or not.
And it could just be his way of saying, quite rightly, it is none of anyone else’s business who I vote for.
And there is very little difference between the parties at the moment anyway.
I realize that you can vote for a party without being a member, hence my point. Of course you are right that it is nobody’s business who he votes for, still he brought it up and kept going on about it, e.g. his comments on the class system. Anyway, I was wondering if he was choosing his words very carefully and thus allowing for the possibility that he might still vote Conservative.
I guess a lot of his comments on Britain (various interviews, mostly regarding Shakespeare etc – but I cannot remember specifics) he seems to subscribe quite strongly to a conservative view of Britain as a nation, culture and society. I guess it relates to the question of how a person’s personal political views affect their work.
This was way too long a reply – apologies
I doubt he keeps bringing it up to be honest. I think the interviewers keep doing it for him – particularly in this instance. However, I think it would be a good idea if he only agreed to do interviews in future that didn’t mention his background, education, class. He has enough work history now for them to have enough to talk about without simply rehashing old “news” And you don’t have to be posh to like shakespeare you know!
To be honest if he feels like I do about our politicians he will probably write something very rude across his next ballot paper!!
And no apology needed, Foile.
I think he was reacting to the stereotyping that if one attended Eton, one must be a member of the Conservative party. Here, if one attended Harvard, you are viewed as “liberal”, despite the fact that many extreme conservatives went to Harvard at some point.
Wait, Liberals come out of Harvard? I would argue the opposite. But then again, I went to a small state school in Northern California so….
M.A.F, it seems to produce an equal number of both.
“Zadie says:
February 12, 2014 at 10:17 am
Aaaw, thank you. I love that name, but it’s not my real name, unfortunately. My real name is rather ugly.
TH got a degree in classics, right? where can you work with that?”
The Law, finance, stockbroker, academia, teaching, public administration,…………………………acting!
Isn’t Classics Latin and Greek? How on Earth can you be a stockbroker with that?
@Zadie, you can get an advanced degree or enter a certificate program or a connection simply gives you a job as a stockbroker.
Same with Law, you don’t have to have your first degree in law, I know some who did chemistry, but you then take a year’s course at a Law college to be able to practice as a solicitor.
Classics also has a high degree of philosophy and is sometimes tied in with languages and history.
It’s an almost guarantee to an intern programme in the ‘city’ especially the media [The Guardian/Telegraph- ahem] because it requires a high level of writing discipline and study. At the end of the day i think it’s a vanity degree, and one which gets me into trouble at work so i keep mum.
Like studying latin…. :-/
Hush penny, some people like to study for their own personal fulfillment, not for any other reason, or for vanity sake. I do archaeology and I’ve got loads of friends who combine it with Latin&Greek – believe me, they’re aware that it’s essentially useless in the financial sense, but they do it because they love it and have always wanted to learn it.
Not everyone goes to university just to get a great job and make loads of money.
And clearly, Hiddles already had tonnes of money, so he went on to study what he was interested in, not what was profitable, I get that completely (being a lover of classics myself)
He’s applied his education in a way. Hiddles has written several published articles already, ready to read. Most of them focus on the arts, which makes sense.
If acting doesn’t work out for him, he can definitely do journalism for the arts.
@Kelly
I am in Archaeology and History and I hope to do it as a job (all those hours trowelling for nothing? Heck no lol!).
Not everyone who studies in the Humanities field does it for love. I couldn’t study Engineering or Economics anyway, I’ve always been lousy at maths.
However, I guess Tom was free to choose whatever he liked regardless of future profitability of the degree.
And yes I also studied Greek and Latin.
Someone who studied Classics.. Well they can teach at school/uni or in a museum job or a job in the arts in general. I don’t see many other choices.
Hey watch it p’enny I studied Latin (only to O level many moons ago) and it was my best subject!!! And I enjoyed it.
Fellow archaeologist, hell yea! 🙂
I wish you luck, it takes awhile to land a permanent steady job in this business, but I guess that’s the way of the world today in any field.
Also, so many people loving classics here, very nice! We should all phone Tom to do some study sessions and gain a bit of his privileged Oxbridge insight 😛
Well, I studied Literature and I have a job LOL
Tell some fans off good
Mentioning a political party bad.
He doesn’t like mentioning is schooling as much as he likes to talk about his romantic status. But as always his mouth runs away with him digging him in a deeper ditch.
He should also ask for a copy of the interview before it goes into print. If they refuse to make changes he has asked for he should tell them he won’t do an interview for them next time
I just don’t think he can win, whether he talks about it or not. It’s much like what Russell Brand said: “When I was poor and I complained about inequality people said I was bitter, now I’m rich and I complain about inequality they say I’m a hypocrite. I’m beginning to think they just don’t want inequality on the agenda because it is a real problem that needs to be addressed.”
Great quote!
I don’t think he particularly likes talking about either his schooling or his romantic status. He answers the questions that are posed to him but I highly doubt he would bring up either issue on his own.
And as far as him being able to “screen” an interview before it goes into print, I don’t know if it always works that way or if it ever works that way.
I think a lot of privileged actors are the same way.
But interviewers ask those same questions because it sells magazines.
Yes, it does! Not to mention that it makes for some pretty lively discussion on here as well!
Of course he can ask for a proof copy of the interview before it goes into print. He has complete control on what can be said about him in interviews and in gossip pages. If he doesn’t like it he can complain like many other actors have done.
I remember reading one interview where the interviewer asked him questions about his education. The interviewer said he was going to move on because Tom didn’t want to answer it but then he gave him the whole story.
As for relationship status he should never of mentioned it in the first place as its none of our business. He or Luke could of had a stern word with the Elle woman during Wimbledon not to say anything.
It’s very unlikely that anyone interviewing him wouldn’t have a list of things they can’t mention or ask him.
The buck ends and beings with puddletom in interviews especially now he feels some fans have gotten out of control.
I’m not having a go at him it anyone but this is a classic Think before you Speak situation with him.
I’m going back in the garden
Okay then, dear. Whatever you say! And yes, do run right back to the garden. And by all means, spend as much time there as you possibly can.
@Janeite He isn’t perfect who is? His word is not law. But whatever I say you’ll disagree with me. I actually have no idea how I have offended you to warrant your childish comments towards me, but hey whatever.
His education and his romantic life is no interest to me which is why I go into the garden.
His PR thing is another issue. I’m glad he told a fans to stop. The thing is nobody is listening to him. Like here.
I’m just concerned about how quickly his popularity has risen and why they are feeding the fire instead of helping Tom stop it.
Zsa Zsa, you have not offended me at all. On the contrary, I find your contributions to these discussions to be utterly scintillating.
The right to screen an interview is extremely rare and extremely doubtful that anyone, other than a close friend who owns the publication would give that right to an actor.
@ZsaZsa
I’ve studied journalism and worked for USWeekly and I can tell you that there’s no way any interviewee can check the questions in advance or force the editor to make changes before the piece goes into print. No journalist/reporter would ever let you do that. No “proof reading” whatsoever. The journalist’s job is not to help you look better in anyway. You can say you will not answer certain questions or say ‘no comment’ during the interviewer, but you will never control what is going to be asked of you.
@Itsetsyou I didn’t know that. Thanks for letting me know 🙂 I thought they could.
Although I did read somewhere that some stars give a list of questions they don’t want to talk about as part as their ‘demands’
But each case must be different I suppose.
@ZsaZsa
Yeah, wishful thinking 🙂 A list like that would actually hurt the star, because any reporter upon getting a list like that will go out of his/her way to make the star look like a ridiculous and demanding diva. I’ve interviewed a couple of celebrities (Z.Saldana and Anna Friel to give an example) and they are extremely nice and eager. They know they don’t want to get on the bad side of the reporter, because they have so little control over their image in the press.
Carey Mulligan insisted on no questions about her marriage to Mumford and sons guy and her religious upbringing/view. It just resulted in her last interview, with over 500 comments in the Guardian because the reporter – rather sarcy made points about her refusal to speak over these issues. This was then fuel to the ‘comments’ section.
Tom has no choice but to grin and bear it – hence the funny interviews because they don’t go into his educational/family past.
ZsaZsa, veto power over the interview makes no difference if other publications pull quotes from it and add their own spin, as the Telegraph did with this interview from another publication.
Well after he arrives in Canada next week, no doubt it will all go quiet for a while.
I’m sure there will still be a few sightings/encounters; some of them real and some of them made-up, but it most likely won’t be anywhere near the current and recent past level of madness!
And of course, he has nothing new coming out in the meantime, so perhaps things will calm down.
@Joe spider
OLLA Feb 21st!
Can’t wait for this two hours of Tom and bare chests and Tilda too!
I’ve heard he’s leaving Friday/Saturday. He’s not scheduled to be at Bafta this year and I suspect with all the other cast in Canada he’d want to be there ASAP
Once he’s in Canada, his co-star Jim Beaver will start providing daily briefs on Hiddles. It’s a little funny to see that half of the comments on Beaver’s facebook posts about CP have to do something with Hiddles – e.g., how great he is, when he will get on set, eagerness to see what Jim thinks of him, etcetera etcetera.
I’m personally looking forward to the reportedly kinky sex scenes between Hiddles’ character and his sister, played by Jessica Chastain. I ship this, a lot.
Tom will tell Jim to shut-up.
or GD-Toro will…. it ruins the mystique this day-2-day filming reporting. shhhhh Jim. I don’t want to know you had a stick on beard, nails manicure and a big trailer.
however, if you do report Tom and Jessica rocking the trailer or Benedict and Mark Strong coming for a ‘visit’…. i may make amends to the no-twitting/FB reports??? mmmmm
@’p’enny Agreed completely. I do think he’ll get the kibosh soon. I was surprised to see what he’s revealed so far. A report about a nail manicure is pretty harmless, but I thought he gave away a bit too much with the description of the stunt work he’s had to do. Anyone who watches the movie will be able to see what’s coming next when that particular location come up. This is a horror film that relies heavily on the element of surprise, so he really shouldn’t comment on anything beyond his hairdo. As much as I would enjoy it, I don’t want to hear stories about his grappling a half-naked Hiddles in the bed chamber or whatever.
Kinky sex scene? Don’t tell Ben that! Mind you he did stay round puddletom’s house according to unreliable reports. Also think that Ben might have competition in Jim.
Jim Beaver, besides being a nice human being, is a big boy. If there was something wrong with his posts he wouldn’t have written them in the first place.
You chose to ruin the mystique by going to his facebook page and reading his posts, nobody forced you. So don’t blame him, if you don’t want infos then don’t visit his facebook page.
@Kaiser please don’t my post so seriously, it descended into humour. I never inferred Jim wasn’t a nice person or wasn’t a big-boy.
And FYI I’m not really following his FB page, ‘much’ I followed a tweet to see his facebook site. To be honest, it’s way to early to start hounding this film- for me anyway. Long way to go till release date.
I am interested, however, in seeing what dodgy Victorian wig they will force Tom to wear, ‘black’ anyone and if he ends up with side-burns? I will also be interested in seeing where in Cumbria they are ‘supposedly’ shooting location shots or if they are going to bypass Cumbria as a setting completely and pretend Canada is Cumbria.
Since I love Cumbria, I think this may be shame.
They will bypass Cumbria, for a very simple reason.
Outside the Lake District, you can shoot nearly everywhere for a cheap price but it is also an uglier landscape that the lake District of course.
Inside the Lake District, it is difficult to get the authorisation because it is a natural park and it is pricey these days, as in ‘a lot pricey’.
Well, on a side note, I live in Cumbria and nobody filmed a movie here for a long, long time. I guess the last one was Robin Hood Prince of thieves and in one of the first scenes you can see a tree on a wall and Kevin Costner walking on the wall… Which is Hadrian’s Wall in the Cumbrian side.
Sorry got it wrong, one scene of Snow White and the Huntsman was filmed in the Lake District, at Cathedral Cave.
I didn’t find him condescending at all. Finally the man draws a line! Good on you, Hiddleston. It had to bite him in the arse to do it, but sometimes that’s what is needed. I’m glad he is distancing himself from his more ‘enthusiastic’ fans. I can’t imagine how creepy it must be. Have fun in Canada, dude! Hope you can relax a little.
A note on the whole posh thing – Please excuse this ignorant Australian, but I think if you acknowledge that you are in a position to have (putting in plainly) access to those schools and are grateful for it, that’s all that matters. I think Hiddleston walks that line quite gracefully. He’s lucky to have had the education he did and he knows it; he’s obviously worked hard for it and he is grateful for it. In my experience of class like systems, Australia does have a similar thing going on but it is no where near as intense as say, the UK. It is most obvious when or if you choose to go to uni. I went to The University of Sydney for my postgraduate (I did my undergrad someplace else and I loved it) and I met some characters that clearly thought they were better than others. I was a social outcast for a little while by some peers because I went to a different university beforehand and because I didn’t go to a private high school. That’s the attitude I can’t stand. People who take what they have for granted and use it to make others feel like rubbish. Not everyone who goes to that uni is like that but those who are is why the university is known to full of ‘pretentious posh kids’.
@allons, I am sorry you had that experience at Sydney. I also went to university there, and I went to a fairly exclusive private school before that, so I definitely know people such as the ones you’re describing. By no way of excusing that kind of snobbery, I can in a way explain why there are private school alumni like that though – networking. Right from lower school up, it’s not just about getting the educational opportunities, but making the connections that will give you the best advantages in later life. We have the Old Boys and Old Girls alumni events, that are for this specific reason – socialising with the aim of getting a head start on everyone else. This is something everyone is so aware of, and are conditioned to place importance on. It’s the private school culture, and it’s not just from those with money. I had a friend (not from money) who’s parents told her that they only paying the ludicrous tuition for her to network, so she’d better make the right friends. It’s just the way our world worked.
I am proud of my education and grateful for the opportunities given to me because of it, but I am ashamed of my fellow former private schoolers behaved towards you. What elitist snobs. They’re the few that tar the rest of us!
Thank you MisJes.
You should be proud of your education just as I’m proud of mine. 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I loved USyd and I only ever bothered making friends with people worth it there! I didn’t really pay much mind to those people who thought I was rubbish – I kept my head down, studied hard and ended up doing really well. I was just really surprised that it was so out in the open like that. It really caught me off guard. I can understand the idea behind networking too – that’s really important but not an excuse, as you said. I do it too! I chose to go to Usyd because I knew I could network with staff and other people that could help me out down the line (and it’s good to spread your wings a bit). As an alumni I’m involved with one of the museums on campus. I volunteer and they’re happy to let me do things to get some more practical experience in my chosen field.
There’s a**holes like that in every country round the world. I know, I’ve met them. Some universities just have better reputations than others (in every country), and some students lack self-esteem and need to prove their “intelligence” (or lack thereof) by insulting students from the less-prestigious unis. Ignore those jerks and pity their basic and primitive level of understanding of the human intelligence.
Can I just say how much I love clicking on a Tommy post expecting a few pretty pictures and “I’m a living Disney prince” quotes, and finding such interesting conversations about class and it’s societal differences around the world? I love that this site always give me different perspectives and makes me think.
That being said, I”m really starting to dislike the word ”posh”. Not as a topic of conversation, but the actual word. Posh, posh, posh. posh. posh, the poshiest, poshy posh-posh.
The word “posh” just makes me snicker, because it sounds like someone throwing stones into a pond.
But I agree that the conversation above was extremely interesting.
Pru and lunchcoma, I love discussions like this one. Sometimes the celeb part of the thread is just the jumping off point for issues a lot more important to most of us.
And by the way pru, I am the poshiest posh of any posh that ever poshed.
Posh actually always reminds me of Victoria Beckham, I first heard the word as an 8 year old when introduced to the Spice Girls 😀
The irony being that by strict definition, she wasn’t posh. She should have been nouveau riche spice.
Lol same for me! I can’t stand her so maybe that is why I can’t stand the word “posh”!
The two subjects that stars tend to stay away from is Politics and religion. Two subjects that will always cause the most controversy.
The reporter didn’t ask Puddletom about politics, he brought that up himself maybe in a fit of frustration but still a bit careless.
Eton isn’t exclusively conservative. For years members of the other Two top parties have also schooled there.
I also doubt he’d directly tell the obsessives to stop or @&&@! Off even though they deserve it so much. They are the ones that see his films or plays 50 times. They are the crowd who wait in all kinds of weather conditions to meet him for the 100th time. They are the ones who vote for him and nominate him in viewers choice awards. They are the ones who buy the magazines he’s even mentioned in.
If he directly said anything to these loons, then it’s all gone. Sure he’s got the normal fans but they wouldn’t bring in the bacon.
This is why he tries to be careful what he says and does. it’s a catch-22 situation. the frustration now is getting to him big time.
I finally read what people were saying about Tumblr. The obsessive are angry they are called obsessed. The angriest ones are the ones who’ve seen the show multiple times already, having lined up multiple times. LOL. Short version: “How dare he calls us obsessed even though we tweet him everyday, met him several times, and gawk at him on stage while pretending to like Shakespeare! Oh and the nerve of him, having a life and celebrating his birthday in private with real people in his life! I can’t believe he is so ungrateful not to thank a complete stranger’s greetings/creepy giftbearing!” I laughed.
I cannot venture into tumblr much. It is creepy and scary.
And considering the awful weather and wind in UK at the moment, I’ve enough of that in real life to leave the loons alone lol
“‘p’enny says:
February 12, 2014 at 6:05 pm
@Joe spider
OLLA Feb 21st!
Can’t wait for this two hours of Tom and bare chests and Tilda too!”
Yes, but the work is finished on that as far as Tom is concerned.
And I have a ticket for the cinema to see it on that very day!
@ joespider I’m look forward to hearing what people think of OLLA . I need to see it before I get Thor2 DVD on the 25th. But I know my mind will struggle, dealing with two very different characters, played by Tom, in the same weekend.
And yes, I am glad Tom is going into a quiet phrase.
I’ll let you know!
I went to see Coriolanus at the same venue and was blown away. The acting was brilliant.
I’ve seen OLLA – it’s hard to define. It’s more of a musical philosophy on art than a film. Tom’s good, but Tilda’s the one who really stood out (to me at least) in it. Worth seeing definitely! The soundtrack is incredible.
Sorry if it has been put up before, but here is some of the interview.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/4ef9c38da9d2a55783ec4d31bba6eecb/tumblr_n0v7erlh9Q1qeuzrdo2_1280.jpg
don’t know if it will work.
It is clear he is disillusioned with his ‘fangirl darling’ status and wants to go back to living his quiet privileged life. He doesn’t even have that much work lined up. Time to recycle him and move on to the next thing. It is not fun when they don’t want to play anymore.
@ Ic
He has two films, one he starts this weekend and one starting in June, probably take him into filming till August. We don’t know when Thor3 kicks off… I guess beg 2015.
I don’t think he is too doing badly, but he has a lot to prove yet.
I have a feeling that it’s going to be a cast change for Thor 3. Chris doesn’t want to do it anymore and they will probably want the younger main characters.
Tom’s original contract still gives him two or three more movies with Marvel, and I would guess Chris Hemsworth’s contract is something similar. They kind of left the plot hanging a little bit at the end of Thor 2, so I think they’ll need Hemsworth and Hiddleston for at least one more. After that though, I do think you’re right that they’ll probably move on to younger actors. I think there’s a storyline in the comics that would easily allow for that change, too.
The risk marvel take is that they would end up with two mid 30’s actors. Iron man and Batman are different because they don’t get powers until they’re older but Thor and Loki need to be played by relatively young actor or young looking actor because both characters die young. Looking forward to the introduction of the youngest brother though. Wonder who will play him?
@zsazsa
Mid 30’s isnt old! cough.. And wow ending of Thor2? needs to be resolved. Can’t just change the cast now.
LOL! Chris is in 6 film and Tom on 5 contracts, if rumours are correct. There is no get out. They dragged Natalie’s arse back.. i don’t know why, no one would miss her.
Seriously, if there is going to a be a cast change ,i hope they kill off sappy scooby-gang Jane, Darcy, intern’s intern etc. What i would give to see Loki clear them out.
Younger brother, Balder? i can’t see them going down this route, bit late now? You’ll have to throw Sigyn/Theoric in too, and that is a lot of storyline to catch up in such a short film. Lorelei is in Agents of Shield so, that will be interesting.
But, for Tom’s career sake, Thor3 should be his swansong, he can’t be tide to anymore Loki stuff. As much as i love it…
I know mid 30’s isn’t old but the comic film business can be really fickle.
Balder has to be in it some point. He kills Loki and ends up king after Thor goes back in time and accidentally kills his grandfather or dad.
I know Odin doesn’t die at the hands of Loki. According to the comics he’s in a cave somewhere.
At the end of the day they have to stick to the basic storyline otherwise comic fans won’t like it. I remember once they messed around with a marvel film and fans hated it
Hahaha, I love you @Ic!