Here are some beautiful photos of Tom Hiddleston in NYC yesterday, outside of Rockefeller Center where he appeared live on the Today Show. I just have to say… this is his color. I know he likes wearing weirdly bright blue suits, but he needs to invest in more grey clothes and more pale blue ties. The grey – more than the bright blue – makes his eyes pop. He looks really beautiful in these photos! His hairline is retreating though, so good luck to him on that.
Tom’s Today interview was kind of meh, but apparently the film is handing out giant Stetson cowboy hats as promotion for the film. It’s weird because those hats looks REALLY expensive and well-made. And yes, Tom looks really pretty here as well. The Today ladies were getting all tizzy over him.
Tom also gave a lot of time to Access Hollywood on the red carpet for I Saw the Light earlier this week. I’m just seeing these videos now, sorry I didn’t get to them sooner. Here’s Tom talking about playing historical figures, how he lost weight to play Hank, and British music.
And here’s another Access Hollywood video. In this one, he’s talking about accent work and the different kind of Southern accents. Look, Y’ALL, I have a Southern accent because I grew up in Virginia. And I think that entitles me to say: I almost always loathe the sound of a non-Southerner (especially a Brit) trying to do any kind of Southern accent. It’s rarely done correctly. But I will never get tired of hearing Tom, with his posh accent, saying “Louisianer” and “Alabamer” for Louisiana and Alabama. Just like I will never get tired of him saying, “Caint, paint, TAINT.” God bless him, you guys. I do not have high hopes for his Alabamer accent, but bless him for saying “taint” to Access Hollywood.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I think the Southern accents we get from actors are the , ‘Hollywood’ version of southern… Julia Roberts is from Smyrna, Georgia and her accent in Steel Magnolias is the worst. I always wonder they don’t seem to invest research into varying Southern dialects … I did think that Kyra Sedgwick did a great job on The Closer with her Atlanta accent but she’s a rare exception, imo.
I agree that Kyra did a believable accent, but as a Southerner who frequents Atlanta often, that wasn’t an Atlanta accent. That was some kind of deep woods, super South Georgia or Alabama or Mississippi accent. Younger Atlantans have a very mild accent. (Older Atlantans have the “I’m too relaxed to pronounce my r’s” accent. Like “sistuh” or “tomorruh”)
Odd, I tried to watch the first episode of The Closer and hated her accent so much that I left it and never went back. The accents in My Cousin Vinny send me into a homicidal rage. I thought Duvall in Tomorrow did one of the best Southern accents. I sound like Sissy Spacek, myself-lots of moving around to Southern Army bases, but mostly Texas.
Oh man, I just youtubed it, and no, that is not an Atlanta accent at all – not even close. That is a deep south accent.
Whether or not Kyra’s accent was authentic, the character used it to be disarming. She knew it would come across as naive, silly, uber-feminine, so she closed every case by working her “I’m just a silly southern girl” routine until her perp confessed. I want to say it was totally unrealistic, but outside the south we are captivated by southern accents. There’s like a hypnotic effect. We start saying things like “yes, ma’am” for no reason.
I live north of Atlanta and I have to agree. Southern accents are a weird thing. If you go into the mountains in North Carolina they are so thick you can hardly understand them, but go 100 miles into the middle of the state, where you’ve got large companies and universities, and the kids accents are in almost nonexistent. That’s true even if their parents have accents. In Atlanta, you still here accents but they are very mild. At least from people under 50.
We live about 45 minutes out of Atlanta and my kids teachers tend to be very southern so my kids actually have stronger accents than we do.
I think sometimes, though, you don’t realize how strong your accent is until you move away from the area completely. And even then, sometimes it’s more about emphasis on the wrong syllable. When I moved to the west coast someone made fun of me for saying INsurance instead of inSURance. I didn’t even realize that there was a different way of saying it.
Co-sign
I live in downtown Atlanta, and the only people who have accents are people who moved here from other places. People in Atlanta do use some southern words (y’all. etc), but there really isn’t much accent to speak of. If there is, it is very mild. I have lived in the midwest, west coast and an hour south of Atlanta in my life, and there just really isn’t much accent here at all.
Now, travel anywhere outside the perimeter (I-285 that surrounds the city), BOOM, you’ve found the accents. But like you guys said, they vary regionally.
Milton here. You are correct, Maude.
Nashville is similar to Atlanta in that way. The folks I know who grew up there only have the slightest trace of an accent. Their parents’ accents vary considerably as many of them moved there from other places in the South.
I thought Kyra did a good job, and I thought Dan Akyroyd did a good job in Driving Miss Daisy, but it usually bugs me and distracts me when someone in a movie fakes a Southern accent. There are dozens of Southern accents, and people who are faking it take a little from this one and a little from that one. A person who said “summa” for summer would never say caint. That sort of thing.
Oh gawd, Akroyd’s fake Chicago accent in Blues Brothers is cringe worthy. He played that character for years, all the while listening to Belushi’s authentic Chicago accent, and never got it. It sounds so forced, but to his credit at least he tried. I can’t list all the times I’ve watched movies set in Chicago and the actors talk like they’re Brooklyn tough guys.
Looks lahk a stuck pee-ig bled all over mah hah-yunds.
I love that movie, but that scene and the one where Sally Field can’t get an ice cube out of her shirt, when the shirt comes to her hips and is hanging loose, make me crazy.
ETA…. posted in the wrong place! I’m referring to Julia Robert’s accent in Steel Magnolias.
The Southern accent that distracted me the most was Clooney’s in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”. Drove me bonkers to hear him slaughter it the way he did.
See I didn’t have a problem with Clooney’s accent in O Brother. It may not have been accurate, but it worked for the film especially because it was supposed to be the 1920s and was highly comedic.
Kyra’s accent was one of the worst ever.
We have set up the mobile veranda in New York for the Easter weekend. He did a nice interview with Charlie Rose last night (same light gray suit) and the New York ISTL premiere (darker 3 piece suit) and is doing a IMDB Q&A today and a Q&A after showings of ISTL tonight and tomorrow. Colbert and BAFTA Monday.
So, Easter treats on the veranda.
I’ve eaten the bum off a Lindt bunny and put the bumless bunny on the mantelpiece to un-moon everyone for the entire day. Mr Sixer and both Sixlets think this is childish. I have many other Lindt bunnies so, to protest this maligning of my maturity, I may bite the bum off all of them and have an army of un-mooning bunnies on my mantelpiece. Whaddyathink? Good plan?
Brilliant plan! I too have an assortment of Lindt bunnies and will join you in building an army of un-mooning bunnies!
Not childish at all, right? More celebratory. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
My brothers used to bite the ears off and fill the hollow rabbits with Strawberry Quick (flavored-milk), which was rather ghoulish so un-cheeky bunnies is definitely more celebratory.
Childish? Please!! It’s a mature, grounded way to acknowledge the deep importance of religion over paganism. Very symbolic. I shall follow your lead and go bite the bottom off of my Lindt bunny as well. Thank you. Happy Easter. 🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇
Happy Easter to you too, GNAT!
And Lilac – I wish I had strawberry milk now. I would SO do that.
Happy Easter!
Sixer, every Easter I send out my favorite joke. It’s a picture of two chocolate bunnies. The one on the left has a big bite on the bottom and he’s saying “My butt hurts!” Someone has bitten off the ears of the other bunny, so he’s saying “What?” So hokey, but I never tire of it!
An army of bun-less bunnies. ah ha
I’ll have one.
Kaiser: do you mean it’s funny cos “taint” can be rude stateside? We don’t really use that term here in the rude sense so I imagine unintended as a double entendre by LEGS. Does that make it more or less funny?!
Whenever I say Americans rhyme Craig with beg and not vague like wot we Britishers do, everyone says no, we do rhyme it with vague and I say well, you say vague wrong as well then.
I love accents. Accents are funny.
Set me thinking when I saw caint. As all Brits know some of us say bath and some of us say barth, but as far as I know we all say carnt not cant.
Barth?
I thought it was Bahth?
Some of us say cannae for can’t. How was Blanche’s (Rue McClanahan’s) southern accent in The Golden Girls? Tom looks lovely. And taint is not in common use in the UK in the sense it’s used in the U.S., which I only know about because I visited a site which used it.
Yes Sloaney most people north of Watford (sorry an English joke) say bath, grass, with a short a as in the American ass, but posh people and southerners say pronounce it barth, grarss like the English arse.
Tom would definitely say barth 🙂
I guess I don’t think of it like an -r- sound. To me it just sounds like the difference between long and short A. I’m from the south so when you write Barth I hear a hard r. Barth sounds like a vomiting sound. Lol
Original Londoner here so I say barth or baath, however you want to put it. But the Sixlets have definite west country accents since we moved to the south west when they were tiny. They say baaaaaaaaaaaaarth!
Bostonian here. And it is “barth” or “baath”
I love among west country rural old people who still say “thee” and “thy” and use “maid” or “maidy” instead of “girl”!
I have noticed “Drawring room” quite a bit.
Oh lord. I suppose it DOES sound like “draw-ring room”, doesn’t it? That’s funny!
@ Sixer – I’m doing a course on futurelearn (check out the site) on England in the time of Richard III and this week we were learning about writing and the introduction of the printing press. Apparently the “th” sound was often written as a sort Y so that perhaps why (no pun intended) yee and you got mixed up with thee and thou? It was only with the printing of multiple copies of writing that spelling started to be standardised. It seems we English used to say ey for egg!
End of nerdism.
I love it that you’re always out there learning about new stuff, Spidey! I admire curious people.
Thee and thou and thy are the old second person singular (like tu in French) before English standardised to just using the plural you (like vous in French). But some of the northern and south western dialects retained them. You still hear thysen (yourself) in Yorkshire today, for example. The old second person plural was ye, rather than you.
On a related note, you will love the Great Vowel Shift: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift.
@ Sixer – thanks for that, strange how things have developed. I started learning Italian after I took early retirement, and managed to get an A level at 58 years of age. I’m doing several of the future learn courses at the moment! They are all free and there is a great variety to choose from.
Futurelearn is a great initiative and seriously: good for you for getting into it. If you ever get bored there, there’s also coursera.org and edx.org (both American).
Thanks Sixer, I have bookmarked those two sites.
I’m from California so I don’t have any accent. ;-P
Sixer, I gasped when I read “thysen” because some southern rural African-Americans use “yoursen” for yours, “hisen” for his, “mines” for mine and “theirsen” for theirs. I thought it was just an aberration of rural southern woodsy folks language perhaps left over from slavery days. Do you suppose there could be any connection?
By the way, I am from the south but people meeting me for the first time never guess it. I’m told I have a more “Chicago” accent like Oprah, Michelle Obama, msnbc anchor Tamron Hall or Robin Roberts on Good morning America. The “Thysen” thing was so interesting! Where can I read more on it?
Breakfast Margaritas – one day, I am going to investigate the development of English as it occurred both stateside and in Britain . I started once and came to the conclusion that Noah Webster (yours) was a far superior lexicographer than Samuel Johnson (ours) then ran out of steam and never got any further! Sen for self is definitely something the early colonists brought with them, though, I am sure. If I ever get around to looking further, I’ll find you and tell you!
Having lived all over the Southern US, I can attest to different areas having different Southern accents. I grew up hearing the word “taint” but it wasn’t associated with a body area. When folks would mean “it is no problem”, they would respond “taint nothin'” and lend a hand. There was a special on the History Channel called “You Don’t Know Dixie” that has a section on the various dialects. It is even subtitled when they are interviewing one of the Appalachian fellows but I have relatives in “them thar hills” so I didn’t need them. LOL
‘Taint’ in parts of the Appalachians can mean “it is not”, as in the example you mention. It serves as a shortened ‘it ain’t’.
That is the only way I know taint, and my family that used it were from Kentucky and Tennessee.
Body part? I am completely oblivious.
Erm, just don’t google it at work, @TotallyBiased. You also might want to steer clear of Google Images.
Here in the west country of the UK, the older people say “baint” with the same meaning. They tend to conjugate the verb to be differently, so it’s a contraction of “it be not” instead of “it is not”. I think you’ll find it in the novels of Thomas Hardy, just to show how far back the usage goes!
In Whitley Bay in the area where I lived for a few years all the children were always called bairns which goes way back to Saxon times.Mind you understanding jordy can be quite challenging and it took me ages to get use to it.But even Jordy had it’s own inflections depending on where you lived and in some areas it was pretty ordinary.
Viking times, you mean, icerose! Geordie is strongly Norse-influenced. Ye nah what ah mean leik?
Bairns is till commonly used in Scotland for kids, as is weans ( pronounced Waynes, ie “wee ones”). Watching all the Scandinavian drama on BBC I was struck by the fact that the word braw (sp?) was used to mean good, as it still is in Scotland. The Shetlands are certainly nearer to Norway than they are to Edinburgh.
Sixer,
I tried saying this out loud and Craig/beg sounds very John Wayne-ish to me. In California, we (like totally) say Craig/vague. And maybe we are saying vague wrong, but we’re not saying it in the dry/abrupt manner implied by “beg.” There are a million accents in CA given that we’re a culture of immigrants and non-native English speakers, but whatever regional accent we do have involves going high-pitch on certain syllables, like we’re always out-of-breath excited about things. Definitely no bland, cowboy masculine clipped syllables.
It’s mad, isn’t it? I had this conversation with a big group of Americans with varied accents ages ago and everyone kept saying, “No. We ARE rhyming it with vague. You’re not listening, woman! Hear us. Craig, vague, beg. ” But to my Britisher ear, what I was hearing rhymed with beg. Exactly the same sound but heard differently each side of the Pond. And it’s not as though there isn’t a huge variety of accent here anyway.
I do love accents.
Just getting to the heart of the matter… are we only discussing this one term or do all American accents sound dry & clipped to you? I’ve heard English actors (not the good ones) do an American accent this way. And it surprises me because we couldn’t possibly all sound like John Wayne to you. Tell it to me straight!!
Haha! I think most Brits can distinguish between obvious US accents – generic Southern, New York, standard American, blah blah. Simply by dint of the sheer output of US TV and film, you know? So anything with a popular related TV or film output will be recognisable. We all know Tony Soprano doesn’t talk like Coach Taylor, if you know what I mean.
I’m reading all this talk of variations of Southern accent with great interest because my ear certainly couldn’t distinguish between them. But I might be able to going forward, now I have some clues to listen for. There was a lot of talk on here about Fargo and accents during the first series. I read all that with interest too and can hear the accent if it ever shows up elsewhere, when I probably wouldn’t have noticed before.
I always think British actors doing standard American on TV shows sound awful. But that might be because I know their real accent. I quite often see praise for some of them from Americans and think, “Oh, well I got THAT wrong then”!
Sixer:
As you’re probably learning from this thread, most non-Southerners in the U.S. have difficulty distinguishing between Southern accents, as well. We are a huge country, both in geography and population, and the South is also a vast region with many nuances. Ironically, I’m more familiar with the distinction in British accents because I’ve spent considerably more time in England than in the American south. (And one thing I absolutely love about London is the huge diversity of languages and accents one encounters just running daily errands).
Specifically, on the Judi Dench sitcom As Time Goes By (thank you PBS), Lionel’s American publisher (PR rep? I can’t remember) has the WORST most offensive fake American accent I’ve ever heard. On an otherwise brilliant show, I find that character rage inducing.
See, I think, however bad poor Lionel was – and I believe you! – that badness would probably go over my head. I kinda notice more when it’s a Brit actor in a US show and I’m always thinking that I’m sure they don’t sound right. Couldn’t put a specific finger on it though.
There’s a show the Sixlets watch, something to do with a US navy ship in a dystopian future where everyone is dying of a virus and they have to go full all-American and save the world. In that, there’s an actor who does an even worse Cockney accent than Dick van Dyke to the point, like you, I had to go and read my book elsewhere while they were watching it because it was rage-inducing.
I just went to look him up to give you his name, assuming US show so US actor. And ha! He’s Brian F O’Byrne and he’s Irish! So um.. teehee. Wrong again, Sixer!
I was talking on here not so long ago about MLE, the accent all the under 40s use in London now – a mix of Cockney, Jamaican and Indian/Pakistani accents. London is fabulous for accents and languages indeed.
Life-long Southerner here: who says “caint”??
I’m in north Florida. I hear caint a lot. More so from Alabama.
I grew up in a small town in NC, and I had to learn not to say caint. It’s very rural and my parents would always correct me, but it’s very common there.
Ah. Just goes to show how many variations of the accent there are. I’m from Georgia, old Irish Savannah family, so it’s different. I love them all though! There’s a fascinating documentary about the Southern dialect and how its’s influenced by the immigrants that came over early in America’s history in each area. Can’t remember the name, but a Google search would probably clear it up.
Yes, there is a misconception that there is one Southern accent, when actually there are many. When I was a child, I thought there was one “Northern” accent, and it was the way Walter Cronkite spoke. Ha.
Walter Cronkite was my fantasy grandpa growing up. I had the sads all day when he passed. I vividly remember him watching his broadcasts during the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
ETA: my dad had a crush on Jessica Savitch. Her death was a terrible shock as she was our favorite anchor/reporter after Cronkite.
Displaced Kentuckian here. The KY version of the Southern accent is that twangy-crap, rather than the elegant, old-money deep South accent.
I was a Performing Arts major in college and they verbally BEAT the accent out of me. However, a couple of cocktails and it comes right back!
I married a Connecticut Yankee and when our fathers met, they could barely understand each other!
My theater training knocked most of mine out. Then I moved back to the south and it’s starting to creep back in in certain phrasing. Not that mine was ever that strong because my parents were Yankees. I’m a mess.
I spent majority of my childhood near Charleston,SC and my Father-in-Law said I “Talked like a hick,he could barely understand me” when we first met- he was from the midwest-my husband doesn’t notice it-I had a patient tell me I had a Charleston “brogue.” I’ve met lots of people and I never usually have issues understanding them-I had one recent patient from Vermont and the other nurses said she had “garbled speech” when in reality she had a northeastern US accent. What bugged me about being teased for my accent is EVERY region in the world has regional dialects and accents unique to their geography. My father in law had a thick accent himself especially when he would say “wash” and it would sound like “wursh”
Also a Kentuckian and I’ve noticed that people in Eastern Ky have the twangy-crap that you speak of while in Western and Central Ky there is more of a drawl – they can take a one syllable word and turn it into three syllables without blinking an eye.
Southerners speak more slowly and this is where we have difficulties communicating with some folks with a more Northern accent. I blame this on our Southern ears. We speak slowly because we listen slowly. It used to drive my New Jersey raised friend nuts when he first moved South until he realized that while a Southerner was drawling, he/she was also thinking. As my friend said, it took him about a year to figure out that if a Southerner started speaking more slowly during a meeting, they were really working on an idea in their head.
We pronounce it wosh in the uk
@SloaneY my accent tends to slide in and out depending on where I am -back in Canada the tone goes very flat but in England it comes out more like my parents and it has a touch of Irish because i spent my formative years there as well.
I went to drama college but was lousy at accent work and they did not push it and when I worked with community theatre they were not that bothered about the accuracy.
i think unless you live in a place the majority of viewers have no idea how accurate the accent is a do not care -it is only those who live there and critics who comment,
I have been reading a lot of the reviews and the only paper that criticised Tom’s performance was te New York Times -most of the reviews say that the film let him down
I do/did. I’m from south Georgia, and we say cain’t. We also say “might could” as in, “Do you think your mechanic can fix my car?” “He might could – he’ll have to take a look at it to know for sure.” But every area is different. I think of Virginia, etc. as the north, and Atlanta has more Yankees than anywhere. You have to get out of the cities and to the more rural areas to hear a real southern accent.
I lived in Nashville just after college and more than a decade after leaving I still catch myself saying “might could”, “might should” and “might oughta” from time to time.
Have you ever seen the YouTube skits called “Sh*t Southern Women Say”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFL2GT1-2g
Lilac, tell me you’ve seen this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEm0t5Wc11U
@Nutballs, I can’t click on it because I’m in a court waiting room waiting for my case to be called. Is it Seth Myer’s “Boston Accent”? That clip was hilarious. Globe movie critic Ty Burr did an equally hilarious critique of it and Ty, like Seth, was not kind about “whatever Benedict Cumberbatch was doing”
@Nutballs, I LOVE those videos!! I may not say “cain’t,” but I sure say “she-it” for s*^%!!!!
No, it’s a “Sh!t Boston Girls Say” skit. The last one is my favorite.
Oh yes, I have seen that. Definitely not safe for the court waiting room
@Nutballs. I just watched the first video and OMG, at least 2/3 of those sayings are in my vocabulary. It’s like a documentary.
Pansy, my sh!t still comes out “she-yit”!
SusanneToo, isn’t it great? I love revisiting my time in the South with those videos.
Lilac, the other ones I enjoyed were all the “Dish TV – Talk Boston” videos, esp “Terlet”.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Dish+TV+-+Talk+Boston
I like this history of the Boston accent too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB-_vDqX4wE&ebc=ANyPxKpp7l7h6tCD9MuOzH40BHAHAbqoQyTZwoMI6t22_7JjmcX03EbfLc_bgJ7QBaqcvRELAmpper_WDMOfHrkW_T4G6GqUZA
But “terlet” is New York.
Yeah, that was the one I didn’t have any knowledge of.
They forgot “draw” for “drawer”. I actually asked an Italian colleague who grew up in the North End how he spelled the word. She spelled it D-R-A-W, but looked a bit unsure. True story.
Alabama, here-I’m halfway between cahn’t and cain’t. More like cant.
PS-This thread is a lot more interesting IMO than endless topics about KK, Goop, etc.
Yes, cant. That’s how I say it, it rhymes with “ant.” And yes also to enjoying this! This is why Celebitchy is the best gossip site–it’s the most intelligent, least vapid!
I learned “caint” from the musical Oklahoma:
Ado Annie: “I’m just a girl who caint say no…”
I learned “cahnt/caant” from Singing in the Rain:
Diction Coach: “I cahnt stand him.” (in grandiose, theatrical manner)
Lena: “I caant stand him.” (in flat, nasally manner)
@ “She’s so refined. I think I’ll kill myself.”
I could quote Singing in the Rain all day.
Lina: “What’s wrong with the way I talk? What’s the big idea? Am I dumb or something?”
“Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously.” <– What's even the point if we don't bring in this quote? 🙂
The problem is trying to pick which one! I love Lens’s comment about the wig she had to wear “well then everybody was a dope!” But out of context, it doesn’t sound as funny as it does in the film. Oh, how I love watching Donald and Gene dance and Jean do her first-rate comedy. Always puts a smile on my face!
Not I. I grew up in Savannah, now live in Athens, and have always rhymed “can’t” with “pant” and “rant”.
People in south Georgia who also pronounce CAIRO as Kay-row, instead of Kye-ro.
I’m not to worried about Tom losing his hair, can’t (caint) do anything about that but I delighted he seems to have ditched the orange lady and all we see now is a bit of a suntan line.
Thanks for all the videos Kaiser! Please next post the British version of every full episode of The Night Manager so I don’t have to wait for the cleaned up version on my American TV in April.
We have the Night Manager on in Australia….it is fabulous!
I thought the Today ladies were very cute. I’m always pleased when I see people get a little giddy around attractive guests vs. full on thirsty.
I agree with you.
My cousins in South Carolina have an accent, it’s pretty strong. My good friend from North Carolina did not have an accent when I first met her–at least I didn’t notice it at first becaude I think her accent faded while we were in college in PA and she wasn’t around other Southerners as much. As soon as she moved back south after graduation (to Atlanta) her accent came back noticeably. It’s not super strong but she definitely has an obvious twang which I think is cute.
I don’t really have a regional American accent, it’s a pretty standard American accent I’ve been told though I somehow always get Newark, NJ on those regional accent quizzes (never lived there in my life but from the NYC metro area).
I have a very thick northern accent. I moved to Nc for several years and it toned down, but now that I live in Canada it somehow is back with a vengeance. I pronounce words like cawfeee, cawght, etc. I grew up 60 miles north of NYC and none of my family is from NYC.
He has a face that looks odd from some angles and good from others. I noticed that in the Night manager too. In the top photo he reminds me off an old lady for some reason. In the other ones he looks good, his eyes have a nice colour.
Tom has a very long forehead and it was an old wifes tale it was as a sign of intelligence (according to my grandma) When his hair was curley you do not notice it as much,My husbands family has the same forehead and I always liked it when he kept it long and curly.Trouble is as you get older you have left to cover it with .
Tom and Marc will be at an ISTL Q&A in Chicago on March 30. I believe it’s at the Capone Theatre?
Can we talk about his supercharged promotion schedule for a second? He wrapped in Vietnam just about a week ago and has already done who-knows-how-much for ISTL, and it looks like that will continue into next week too. There won’t be much of a break (if any) and then he’ll be hitting the road again for The Night Manager.
It’s insane. He was in Vietnam at the end of last week, did photo shoots on the weekend, press stuff in LA Monday; a Twitter Q&A, Kimmel and the premiere Tuesday; must have flown on Wednesday; Today show, Charlie Rose, and NYC premiere yesterday; Sirius radio interview, IMDB Q&A, and post-movie Q&A today; post-movie Q&A tomorrow; presumably he has Easter off; Colbert and BAFTA event Monday; and Chicago on Wednesday. Then there is about a week and a half before it all starts up for TNM promotion and High-Rise at Tribecca. And through it all, he has to look good, act charming, and not lose it. My body would have collapsed by now and I would be in a corner snapping at people. He’ll probably use that week break, if there is one to make a short film or appear in another Joanna Hogg thing.
@dara @lilacflowers I think the last time he was home for any length of time was last August; maybe 2 weeks over Christmas but that’s it. Hes got a weekend at Wizard Con in June and who knows about SDCC, then Thor starts filming. Basically he will have lived on the road ( in style of course) for almost a year. Nice gig but I would think a little lonely at times even though he’s always surrounded by people
@lilac – It’s even more than that – there were two full days of press in LA (Mon and Tue), there is not just one post-movie Q&A today and tomorrow but two on each day, plus an Apple Store event today. The premiere in NY last night also had an after-party he was photographed at (as did the one in LA). At most he’ll have a week off, because there’s an event in LA for The Night Manager on the 7th that I think he is confirmed for, and then he’ll be back in NYC.
He’s wearing lots of snazzy new clothes, so I’m assuming in addition to the photoshoot in LA he also spent some quality time with his new stylist trying on lots of looks – I’m assuming he did that when most of us would have comatose in our hotel room sleeping off the jetlag.
edit – @Beach girl, I was just going to say I think the last time he slept in his own bed was sometime in January, before that October. I honestly don’t know how he does it all without losing his mind.
” I honestly don’t know how he does it all without losing his mind. ”
This is what I admire in amazement about Tom. He does all these promotion tours with horrendous schedules between filming and meetings, etc. and yet he manages to always be so composed as if he’d just come from a leisure holiday. He’s like a machine. I think this is where his Eton discipline comes in handy.
Cranberry – I feel the same. It was his facility for Shakespeare and his eloquence and humor in interviews that hooked me, but the more I see of him navigating through life, the more I admire him. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say a cross word, whine about how tired he is doing all this promotion, or indulge in any diva-like behavior.
That is so rare – I’ve followed a fair number of actors and entertainers through the years and usually the more I get to know about them, the less I like them as people. I may still enjoy their work and admire their talent, but there are very few I’d like to share a meal with let alone have as friends. Tom is the exception.
He did (another?) Charlie Rose interview?! Yay!
Yay! Indeed. I was hoping he and Hugh would sit at Charlie’s table for The Night Manager – that would have been epic. But a repeat appearance so soon is too much to hope for I think.
I like Charlie’s low-key manner. Someone needs to post when it is added to the PBS website.
Did y’all see Tom the Boundary Setter video as he was entering the NBC Studios on Thurs? He threatened to walk away from the overexcited fans if they didn’t calm down!
Good for him.
@Nutballs, it isn’t posted yet. It is a nice, even interview in measured tones, although Tom looked like he zoned out several times while Marc was talking. Jet lag is a vicious thing. And Charlie got a hat too!
Yes, saw the video from outside the studios. And the funny thing is that he had to get through two groups, with the first group being the worst and that group was mostly men who wanted things signed. The second group was mostly girls who wanted pictures. They all needed to calm down.
The picture he tweeted for the IMDB thing showed a very haggard-looking, tired man. It also showed a FEMALE dressmaker’s dummy (although that may have been the hotel room’s decor) and a bed and a reflection of the bed. Thanks for the picture of the bed, Tom.
@lilacflowers:
Yes, the dressmaker’s dummy is decor from the Crosby Street Hotel in NYC.
Go to teatime-with-sabrina-and-violet on tumblr.
Thanks, Allegra, but I avoid Tumblr.
My CA husband likes to tease me for my pronunciation of can’t as cain’t. I said it once in frustration when I couldn’t lift something heavy and I have never lived it down. I was born south of Nashville and have lived all over the country but there are certain words and certain situations when my accent creeps out.
… oops. nevermind
Bet Tom wished he’d never started this conversation, he can’t get a word in edgeways 🙂
A little/long treat
http://americanamusicshow.com/tom-hiddleston-channels-hank-williams-ep292/
I enjoyed that a lot!
Bless them for posting the acoustic versions of those songs. They’re rough, probably from Rodney & Tom working on the songs in Nashville, but I rather like the raw, unpolished sound of them.
There’s also a great article/interview with Rodney about “Camp Hank” at his house in Nashville. http://www.countryweekly.com/magazine/vault/rodney-crowell-helps-bring-hank-williams-life-i-saw-light
That was fantastic! And I love the acoustic version “So Lonesome I Could Cry.” But I think I have now listened to most of the film.
Ok, so I downloaded Tom’s songs from the soundtrack and when I did a search on Amazon Music for “Tom Hiddleston” there were three recordings of songs that had his name in the title. One was by a singer named ALLEGRA, called “Ode to Tom Hiddleston.”
Allegra, is that you?
@NUTBALLS:
What? No it´s no me.
Unfortunately i can´t sing even in the shower.
Yesterday Q&A ‘I Saw the Light:
youtube.com/watch?v=cgyKk6LQcO0&feature=youtu.be
Well Allegra, I guess you can see why I thought it might be you!
The March 26th Q&A is up on You Tube in 7 parts…
He did another Elle interview too: http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/news/a35063/tom-hiddleston-hank-williams-interview/
So, cracking finale of The Night Manager last night, I thought. Though it tied everything up far more neatly than the book did.
I wonder if Tom will find time in his schedule for a second series? He hasn’t anything announced for next year yet but I just don’t believe that he doesn’t have anything booked – there must be stuff that hasn’t been announced yet.
BOOM!
I have rewritten my (doesn’t actually exist) online dating profile to catch-a-Hugh-Laurie mode:
“Post-capitalist professional contrarian and literary geek. Forgets to brush her hair. Seeking international uber-villain with a private jet, assortment of luxury villas and an illegal arms dealing business. Hopes for relationship: to build a death star.”
That should do it, right?
Stonking last episode. Mr Sixer actually jumped out of his chair to cheer Colman. The Sixlets cheered explosions. I fear this says more about my feminist husband-locating skillz than my bringing up children who don’t relish violence skillz. I may have to reconsider the death star ambition.
I think you might be more likely to attract Darth Vader than Hugh Laurie with that description.
“Stonking” is now my word of the day and an opposing counsel is just the perfect person to experience it this afternoon.
And yes,the episode was definitely stonking. I too cheered Colman. I also cheered the explosions. And I laughed out loud at Laurie’s “why are they running?”
Maybe what the Sixlets enjoy are arch-villains getting their deserved comeuppance? I did love seeing that mask slip.
But yes, probably wise to reconsider the Death Star….
I think the death star thing is the perfect way to attract an international uber-villain. I’ll just abandon the Sixlets to a workhouse or somesuch. Less chocolate competition that way, so y’know. Silver linings. (They have annoyed me this morning by making sick bucket gestures at the sight of their father and me dancing to Say A Little Prayer in the living room. They are at the stage where acknowledging a possible sexual relationship between their ANCIENT parents is DISGUSTING. So I have told them that I am in anti-Sixlet mode for the entire day due to their ageism. The death star stays until at least tomorrow.)
But yes. Stonking episode! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lilac – the replacement show for next Sunday is the Adrian Lester/Sophie Okenedo thing, so don’t lose the VPN just yet!
ETA: OMG! You are at work! You Americans have a rubbish time of it with holidaying, don’t you? We’re still off work here.
Yes, today is a work day. The United States is extremely anti-holiday. The only holidays when pretty much everything shuts down are: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And some businesses, mostly retailers, are pushing against those. Additional federal holidays are: Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, and Columbus Day but many, many businesses stay open on those days. Some states have holidays of their own. Massachusetts has three that are all related to starting a revolution, sorry, Evacuation Day (the Brits gave up on the siege of Boston); Patriots Day (Lexington and Concord and snipers in the trees and one if by land, two if by sea, oh my!) and Bunker Hill Day (you won that one), schools and municipal offices and some state offices and courts close on those days but most businesses carry on as usual.
I’ll check out that Lester/Okenedo thing.
And I’m humming “Say a Little Prayer”
And again STONKING episode!
Service places and stores are open here, too. But everyone else is off, from office workers to construction workers and certainly all public sector workers with no public offices open. We have 8 days like this: Good Friday, Easter Monday, first and last Mondays in May, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. That’s why the legal minimum for paid holidays is 5.6 weeks: 8 public holidays plus 4 weeks to take when you like.
LOVE the Massachussetts days!
The average US worker gets two weeks vacation a year. And for many, those vacation days are accrued so you have to earn them first. It wasn’t until Clinton was in office that laws were passed protecting people from losing their jobs if they took time off to be seriously ill or have a baby. The US is not pro-worker.
As for the MA holidays, two of them are the biggest party days of the year. Evacuation Day is March 17 and Boston has long had a sizable Irish population. Patriots Day sees reenactments in the North End and northern suburbs, the Red Sox play baseball, and the Boston Marathon brings tens of thousands of runners through western suburbs and into the city, with every inch of the 26.2 miles lined with screaming people. It is a wild, crazy day.
The only place to be on Patriot’s Day is watching the Marathon. What else do people do??
After moving out West, it’s pretty much unheard of for businesses to give workers MLK Day or President’s Day off, even though school’s are closed. It’s a crying shame, hence give myself that day off now that I’m my own boss!
Holidays? What are these “holidays” you speak of? I can vouch for the standard (yet woefully inadequate) two weeks (10 days) of vacation a year – most of which I have to hoard if I want any kind of meaningful time off at either Thanksgiving or Christmas and still be paid. The company I work for very kindly (note sarcasm) gives its employees both the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas as paid holidays – but I suppose I should be grateful for those, my last employer didn’t pay either of those days.
I love the sound of Patriots Day!
Oh Dara. If you’re not in a customer-facing role, the entire UK shuts down for Christmas. Almost everyone is off from halfway through the day on Christmas Eve right through to the first working day in the New Year. (Lots of employers make their people take 3 of their paid holidays for it).
Sixer only Massachusetts and Maine actually acknowledge it, but I do appreciate New England’s businesses in their giving me MLK and President’s Day off for the only time in my life. But it’s true that 2 weeks is the standard vacation package along with 7 or so federal holidays. It took 8 years at one company before I had 5 weeks off and all the federal holidays.
I’m self-employed so sadly, I do not benefit from this! Mr Sixer gets the 8 public holidays, 3 days between Christmas and New Year, plus 4 weeks to take when he likes. His contract states 2 weeks sick pay but he had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands a year or so back, got complications on one of them and ended up with about 6 weeks off in all. And was paid.
No holiday is sacred in US anymore except Black Friday. The current trend since the economy crash ’08 is to get a Black Friday shopping “head start”. So many department stores like Kohls, Target, Walmart make employees come in on Thanks Giving night to work until 1am or 2am for all f**king shoppers (addicts) wanting first crack at the big sales.
My Uncle’s wife does this every year after TG dinner. She’s a shopping addict imo. It’s like crack to her, and since it’s legal she sees nothing wrong fueling this trend that’s making people come to work instead of being with their families because she and others like her are bored and empty inside.
I haven’t stepped foot in a mall on Black Friday in 15 years at least. I can’t think of anything better to put me in a foul mood and make me want to shoot myself. We buy our gifts online and head to the mountains for a hike on FreshAir Friday (or White Friday, as the case may be) and #OptOutside.
@Nutballs
I’d never really participated in Black Friday that I can remember until a couple years ago when my addict auntie rounded us up to go with her to see all the deals after she’d already been there the night before.
The real sad thing is that even though I’m criticizing her for be a bit fanatic she’s not the only one. There’s plenty of people at these stores at 10pm-1am Thanks Giving night. A lot of people may still find this OT, but my aunt and the Black Friday Brigade are indicative of the majority US mainstream culture. #OptOutside #BuyNothingDay
Oh, for anyone interested – the overnight rating was 6.6 million. Not a huge finale ratings bump, but it should timeshift to over 8 million this week like the rest of the series has.
The first episode had a 28-day consolidated rating of 10 million – a bona fide hit! I wonder how much of that was international audience using a VPN to watch iplayer? It’ll be interesting to see what ratings it gets in the US.
I was wondering about the VPN thing with the consolidated figures too!
Yep, I bet VPN plays a role in that number. I will pat myself on the back for the two people that may have been inspired by my excitable ranting here.
Burr’s use of “discombobulated” and explosions made for a STONKING ending to the series, despite Pine’s quick-dry trousers and Burr’s lack of waters breaking. They wrapped it up nicely with room to keep storytelling, but I’m on the fence about a second series. Coleman came off as the true hero and MVP of the series, so if they focus more on her, I’d be all for that.
Lack of water breaking?
I pointed out the quick-dry trousers and was shouted down as a mizzog, just like I get shouted down on here about all things LEGS. Gah. This is why I need a death star!
Only other drawback: yet another show that relied on titillating violence towards a woman for its denouement. They could have implied that rather than shown it. But that’s a general moan of mine about half the shows on TV (and another reason why I loved Happy Valley).
Nit picks aside, it was genuinely joyful viewing. I love it when all four of us here at Sixlet Towers are shouting and cheering and laughing and arguing about what’s on the tellybox. And that happened.
Stress induces labor… a very pregnant lady in the midst of a life-threatening situation had me looking for waters breaking!
But I was more focused on the quick-dry trousers after Pine offed Freddie in the pool. I guess they cut the scene where he dropped them in the rubbish bin before striding through the front door.
I do agree that Colman was the MVP (well, only after I’d googled to find out what the heck an MVP is what with being a know-nothing Britisher) of the entire thing. Woman is faultless and just Daniel Day Lewis levels of good. I kinda had thoughts about waters breaking but dismissed them cos you couldn’t have happy post-birth euphoria scenes in a spy show. Or could you?!
I think they should have just left the Jed bit at the point when the code didn’t work and Laurie walked up behind her, then implied the rest. We didn’t need it. Just the code change had we four rolling around groaning with dread.
Sixer, I couldn’t come up with an appropriate storyline for her waters breaking, so I’m no help there! Just something that passed through the transom of my mind during that scene!
Jed’s waterboarding made for more sensationalism and was downright unbelievable that she’d want to be shagging Pine hours later. Then again, Sophie got beat up and was shagging Pine afterwards, so apparently le Carre women are immune to normal psychological trauma that would cripple the rest of us!
But, it was entertaining nonetheless, even with the periodic cringing and eye-rolling and I’m glad to hear that you were able to bond as a family over it. My kids are such an age that only a Pixar movie can achieve that in my household.
ETA: You Brits don’t have MVPs in your sports??
Maybe Sally Wainwright could have written a scene in which Burr shouts “GET ME THE BLOODY FORMULA!” because she’s too busy getting the Egyptian police to let the baddies get Roper to start breastfeeding just yet? Best I can come up with!
Exactly. But it’s a criticism of half the crime shows on TV, not just le Carre, isn’t it? I loved S1 of True Detective but it was awful in that respect.
No, we do not. I honestly did have to look it up! We have “man of the match” in some sports. And golden boots in soccer. But that’s about it.
But a woman in that type of job would have such stressful situations all the time. She would have to have steel nerves or she wouldn’t be at that level. And going into labor, that more fits the line of those who argue against putting women in high pressure/dangerous jobs. There was enough suspense going on. If anyone was in danger of water bursting, it was Tobias Menzies
Menzies’ comeuppance was SO le Carre! Having to sit there in his buttoned up Establishment way saying nothing, when it was actually a time he wanted to say something. I loved that bit!
Yes, but how much would you pay to see Burr shout HURRY UP PLACENTA, I’M BUSY HERE! or WHERE’S THE BLOODY FORMULA! or PASS THE TENS, I NEED TO CONCENTRATE! ?!
Menzies’s facial expression when he couldn’t take that phone call was everything. I found myself screaming: “that’s what you get for surviving the Red Wedding, Brutus!” Because every role is interchangeable.
I could see Burr nursing the kid while taking Roper down. Nothing can stop her
I do that! I was describing 100 Code to someone the other day, which stars Dominic Monaghan. But so much better to describe him as the Hobbit from Lost than use his name!
He will always be the hobbit from Lost.
Ray Stevenson will always be Pullo from Rome.
@Nutballs – we say MOM – man of the match.
@ Sixer “because she’s too busy getting the Egyptian police to let the baddies get Roper to start breastfeeding just yet?”
Are you sure it wasn’t the baddies who got the police onto Roper – because it was clear in the first episode when Pine was talking to the police at the Sophie murder scene, that they were in the Egyptian baddies’ pockets? They probably called to police in to grab Roper.
But it is nice to know the leaking of the dvd didn’t cause a disaster.
@Spidey,
SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’t SEEN
Burr, Steadman, and Steadman’s people took Roper, Sandy, Sandy’s ever present laptop, the injured Frisky, and Tabby into custody and turned them over to the Egyptian police. Then the other guys showed up and took Roper as the police stepped away.
I do wonder who now has the $300 m.
Since Pine was all by himself in the Hamid business/pleasure house, he could have used the laundry room to dry those pants, although there was a risk of them shrinking.
His shoes would still be soggy.
Spidey, I don’t think I’d want to be referred to as anyone’s MOM, if I were a badass athlete!
Well they don’t actually say MOM to them. 😆
So sorry Lilac I should have shouted SPOILERS, hope I haven’t.
He might have changed his kit on the way back of course. I have copied it all and will watch the last episode again, I got so nervous I probably missed bits!
from @HuffPostEnt:
LIVE: Tom Hiddleston & Wrenn Schmidt are with @CaroMT talking about their new movie!
twitter.com/HuffPostEnt/status/714524508498092037
Well, it was nice except for that stupid journo throwing Hank III’s comments in his face.
Tom had to comment on it at some point – Hank III has made such a stink (and gotten his fair share of press in the bargain) Tom couldn’t just ignore it, much as we all might want him to.
Rodney has also politely told Hank III to stuff it.
What did Tom say about him?
What did Tom say about him?
@Spidey, he basically said that everyone is entitled to his own opinion; that he had gotten positive feedback from other members of the family; that he understood that Hank3 had not seen the film at all; and that he suggested Hank3 should see the film and if he still had issues, send his notes along.
Thanks lilac.
The ISTL promo parade continues. He’s done an interview on NPR that aired Sunday morning, I actually caught it in the car on the way to Easter with the fam. He did another interview today on WNYC, a lovely Huffpost video interview with Wrenn, not to mention the BAFTA NY event and Colbert this evening. And those days we thought he’d have free are evaporating. Doing post-screening Q&A’s in DC on Tuesday and in Chicago on Wednesday. Wouldn’t be surprised if a few more cities were added along the way.
After watching eps 5 & 6 of The Night Manager, I’m not totally opposed to a second season. I think the more they freed themselves from le Carre’s story, the better the series got.
He must be so sick of saying the same thing over and over… I will say that his comments on the exotic-ness of Americana and talking in detail about how difficult it was to nail “Lonesome Blues” is a good way to sell the film to Americans. We respect hard work and those that stroke our narcissistic tenancies!
My favorite scene from ISTL was one that he shared with Wrenn. I like that they’re talking a bit about Hank and Bobbie Jett’s relationship in these promos they’re doing together. It’s a special scene and you’ll know it when you see it — it stands out in the film.
I caught the NPR interview on the radio too. It was a pleasant Easter surprise to hear Tom’s voice coming out of my old-school car radio instead of the computer and internet devices. I love the radio. It’s like receiving extemporaneous gifts from the universe.
The NPR and the WNYC interviews are both very good. No sign of a dancing bear.
Josh Horowitz has also posted a podcast.
And judging from the podcast, he is interested in doing theater again soon and has several “ideas.” He has nothing scheduled after Thor 3 so maybe he’s going back to the stage late this year or early next year?
David_Suchet @David_Suchet 22h22 hours ago
@twhiddleston Brilliant Tom. Your performance was outstanding. BRAVO. David
as in Poirot or the news reader? mmmmm goes check
Poirot
@Nutballs, if you are still checking in, the interview with Charlie Rose has been posted on the Charlie Rose website at charlierose.com
Saweet… I shall mix that in with a bit of Colbert, NPR and Horowitz this eve if I can.
The WNYC radio interview, which is a bit long, is quite good too.
Spoons?
Funny now, but I bet at the time his mum wasn’t so happy with her new kitchen damaged. Lol!
I suspect not. And he has probably had the damage repaired.
Colbert has such a great rapport with Tom. This is so much better than Kimmel.
The two of them singing “I Saw The Light” was absolutely delightful. Especially knowing that Colbert is a man of faith.
Well, he had been on Colbert before. Prior conversations do help. If host and guest got along before, they’ll be more relaxed with each other. That was his first appearance on Kimmel and I think it is always a matter of the host feeling out the guest, not knowing what to expect, how to ask, what to ask, when it is a first appearance. The Kimmel appearance was also very rushed due to Kimmel’s poor time management issues. All that considered, I think it went okay and they won’t have that awkwardness the next time.