‘He’s a walking, talking Wikipedia’: How Tom Hiddleston helped Richard E Grant play Loki

Published

4 years ago

July 13, 2021

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A few days after delighting fans with behind-the-scenes pictures of his costume for Loki, Richard E Grant is sitting in front of me on a video call to tell me all about his cameo role – although this time there are sadly no green tights or “baggy, yellow Y-fronts”, as he puts it, in sight.

But first, it’s the day after the Euro 2020 final when we speak, and there’s only one thing anyone is talking about. “Heartbreaking,” says the actor, of England losing to Italy on penalties.

Grant, a West Ham fan, reflects on the cruel nature of spot kicks deciding the outcome. He thinks there must be a better way. “I would rather they played three more hours than resort to penalties,” he says. “What do you feel?”

Unfailingly friendly and polite, Richard E Grant likes to ask his own questions back. Whether it’s football, favourite Marvel characters (Spider-Man) or the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic (not impressed), the answer is usually followed by a variation of: “And what about you?”

We’re here to talk about Loki, the six-part TV series spin-off featuring the mercurial God of Mischief Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, with the character stepping out of his brother Thor’s shadow following the events of Avengers: Endgame.

Grant’s debut as Classic Loki, an older Loki variant, came in the penultimate episode of the series, which aired earlier in July. With so many Marvel films and spin-offs, did the British actor have to do much homework before signing up?

“Well, the advantage is that Tom Hiddleston is literally a walking, talking Wikipedia, Loki-centric guru, fundi, whatever you call it, of all things Loki and Norse legends,” says Grant. “So when in doubt, if there was anything that I was curious about or didn’t know about, you just ask Tom and he could explain everything with enormous eloquence and passion and detail.

“And even though he’s played this role for over a decade, his commitment to it is absolutely off the chart. I’ve never, never come across anything like it. There’s certainly nothing exhausted about him or thinking, ‘oh I’m going to phone this in, I’m doing Loki again’. He is as enthusiastic and passionate about doing it as he was the first time he ever played the part.”

Grant says because of his “long face and V-shaped hairline” similar to Loki’s, he and Hiddleston had joked about him playing his father in the past.

“Not that you see it once I’m in the helmet and the headgear,” he says of his hair. “But every time I’d seen Tom socially down the last decade, we’d joked about playing father and son in something. So the fact that I ended up being an old, classic version of Loki to his Loki seemed serendipitous at some level. I was glad that’s how it worked out.”

One thing he was disappointed with was Classic Loki’s lack of muscles; Grant had been hoping to be transformed into a hulking superhero. “I was absolutely gutted that I didn’t have all the muscles that the [comic book artist] Jack Kirby drawings of Classi Loki had, and I absolutely assumed that… I would have a full Marvel muscle suit to step into, having been born without any.

“And the costume designer and the director, Kate Herron, said, no, no, no, you’re just going to be as you are. And I said, but look, how can I possibly fight when I’m like an old string bean? And they said, no, no, don’t worry about that. So I had to in my head say, well, old, withered Loki is going to be trying to fight off all forces of evil. But I would love to have had the muscles.”

In June, the series made headlines when it was revealed that Loki is bisexual and gender-fluid, something of a first for Marvel. “From the moment I joined @LokiOfficial it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual,” director Kate Herron tweeted at the time. “It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I’m happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in #mcu #Loki.”

Grant says it was an important step. “I think that because there are so many Loki variants and at this particular moment in the zeitgeist of where we’re living, people feeling disenfranchised or marginalised being included and seen and acknowledged is something that is so… profoundly in all humans that I’ve ever come across, that Loki being gender-fluid, it fits the moment in which we’re living, if that makes sense.

“I think that anything that promotes tolerance, inclusivity, is something that is hugely worth championing and celebrating.”

The actor says he was struck by Loki not just being God of Mischief, but of outcasts, too. “I think that that keyed me into the loneliness of somebody that’s… as much as you’d like to think you could live forever and the fantasy that we would live eternally, the reality is that you would be very lonely, and the need for human connection is so strong in us that that’s… [Loki] longs to see a family member and as a result is caught by the TVA (Time Variance Authority), in the story, so I completely identify with that.”

Grant’s appearance in the Marvel series comes off the back of something of a late blooming for his acting career, with a role in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker in 2019 and his first Oscar nomination coming earlier that year, for his supporting role in Can You Ever Forgive Me? alongside Melissa McCarthy, after more than 30 years in showbiz. (None of this topped meeting his hero Barbra Streisand, though). Later this year, the 64-year-old will be seen playing drag queen Loco Chanelle in the film version of the award-winning musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

Grant, whose character in Can You Ever Forgive Me? was also gay, is aware of the current debate about whether straight actors should play gay roles, and says it is an issue he has discussed. “I’d just come off an award season for… God, what’s it called, the film with Melissa McCarthy that I did, called…” Just that film he was Oscar nominated for. “Can You Forgive Me? Yeah. In which there had been this ongoing conversation at that point two years ago about whether heterosexual actors could play… whether you were denying gay actors the opportunity to do that.

“So it was a thing that I brought up with [Everybody’s Talking About Jamie director] Jonathan Butterell time and again, and he said, I have chosen you, as a gay director and co-writer of the story, to play this part and you have to trust me that all of us are behind you doing this. So I thought, well, if they if they’re determined to do that, I’m not going to miss this opportunity to do it. And it was a very, very challenging and entertaining thing to do and I had an amazing team of people that helped me do all of it.”

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Grant goes on to compare his Loco Chanelle costume with his Classic Loki ensemble. “What nobody tells you is that when you are in full drag, you can’t go to the loo at all for about 12 hours, so you drink a tiny amount through a straw. Whereas on Loki at least those sort of baggy, yellow Y fronts could be removed fairly fast, with a couple of snaps underneath.”

And if Grant were able to take on the powers of God of Mischief in real life, what would he get up to?

“I think the first thing I would have done is, as we are an island, and when COVID was announced in March last year, I think that I would have closed the airports and the ports – just for starters – like Australia and Japan and Taiwan and all the other islands, New Zealand,” he says. “I think that would have been my first thing.”

It’s fair to say he’s not a fan of the way the pandemic has been handled then? “I think that’s very fair to say. What do you think?” I think closing the borders and trying to handle the pandemic better sounds like a very sensible use of his powers, but not very mischievous.

“Yes,” Grant replies. “But if I had to say who the mischief was going to be landed upon, I would be in political deep water instantaneously!”

Loki is out now on Disney+

Entertainment

Sir David Beckham receives knighthood from the King at Windsor Castle ceremony

Published

23 hours ago

November 4, 2025

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Sir David Beckham receives knighthood from the King at Windsor Castle ceremony

Becks, Goldenballs and now officially Sir David – football star David Beckham has received his knighthood from the King.

After years in the running following his OBE in 2003, the former England captain and Manchester United star has now been honoured for his services to sport and charity at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and West End performer Dame Elaine Paige were also among the stars set to be recognised at the event.

Sir David, 50, who has described himself as a “huge royalist”, was last year named an ambassador for the King’s Foundation, an educational charity established by Charles in 1990.

The football star, who grew up in northeast London, made his Premier League debut for Manchester United in 1995 and was part of the team that earned a dramatic Champions League final victory in 1999 – when they beat Bayern Munich with two nail-biting late goals.

It was the year they famously won the treble, also taking home the Premier League and FA Cup silverware.

During his time with the club, Sir David scored 85 goals and collected honours including six Premier League titles and two FA Cups, before going on to play for clubs including Real Madrid, AC Milan, LA Galaxy, and Paris Saint-Germain.

He retired from the sport in 2013.

Alongside his football career, he is also known for his charity work, including serving as a goodwill ambassador for humanitarian aid organisation UNICEF since 2005.

Sir David’s wife Victoria, the Spice Girl turned fashion designer, joined him at the ceremony. The couple married in 1999 and have four children together – Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.

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Wild At Heart actress Diane Ladd dies aged 89

Published

1 day ago

November 4, 2025

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Wild at Heart actress Diane Ladd dies aged 89

American actress and Wild at Heart star Diane Ladd has died aged 89.

Laura Dern, Ladd’s daughter who is also an actress, announced her mother’s death on Monday.

Ladd was a triple Academy Award nominee for her supporting roles in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose.

She also starred in 1973 film White Lightning and HBO’s Enlightened in 2011 with her daughter. Often, they played mother and daughter together.

For the 1991 drama Rambling Rose they were the first, and only, mother and daughter duo to receive Oscar nominations for the same film in the same year.

‘She doesn’t care what anybody thinks’

Ms Dern, who starred in Jurassic Park, said of her mother in 2019: “She is just the greatest actress, ever. You don’t even use the word brave because she just shows up like that in life. She doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

“She leads with a boundarylessness.”

In 2023 they released a joint memoir together titled Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love.

The book was based on their conversations together during daily walks after Ladd was given only months to live, after she was diagnosed with lung disease.

Ms Dern said at the time: “The more we talked and the deeper and more complicated subjects we shared, my mother got better and better and better.

“It’s been a great gift.”

Ladd was married three times and worked into her 80s.

Entertainment

Forget the gym – a ‘cultural workout’ could be the key to better health

Published

4 days ago

November 1, 2025

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Forget the gym - a 'cultural workout' could be the key to better health

Culture lovers have long believed in the healing power art. Now, science has caught up, with new research showing it has measurable benefits on the body.

A study from King’s College London has found that looking at original artworks, in a gallery, doesn’t just lift us emotionally – it also has a positive impact on our physical health.

Fifty people aged between 18 and 40 were shown art by a selection of leading 19th-century artists: Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, van Gogh and Gauguin.

Participants viewed five paintings for three minutes each, in a 20-minute session.

But while half viewed the original paintings in the Courtauld Gallery in London, the others looked at reproductions in a neutral setting.

Their heart rates and skin temperature were measured with research-grade digital watches to indicate levels of interest and arousal, and saliva samples were taken with swabs before and after the session to measure stress hormones.

The results in those looking at the results in the gallery were significant, and immediate: The stress hormone cortisol fell by 22% and inflammatory markers linked to health problems including heart disease, diabetes and depression were reduced by as much as 30%.

No change was observed in the reproduction group.

Dr Tony Woods of King’s College London, who was the study’s lead researcher, told Sky News: “The magnitude of the difference between being in here and looking at the real art, looking at the copies in the laboratory, the difference between the two participant groups was quite enormous.”

It’s good news for the NHS, which is increasing its use of social prescribing, which can include visits to galleries.

Dr Woods went on: “The government’s health strategy is all about prevention. And this is a gift to [Health Secretary] Wes Streeting. Art is very well worth investing in because of the return on investment – it will keep people out of hospitals.”

Over one and a half million people in the UK accessed social prescribing between September and August this year across the UK, and NHS England told Sky News their ambition is to make it available to every person in England.

Dr Woods says the next steps of the study will be to find out how long the positive effects last, and research further into the effects of art on older participants.

Russell Tovey, actor, art lover and co-host of Talk Art, chatted to Sky News about his favourite piece at the gallery – van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889).

Tovey jokes: “Look at this painting here. It’s quite a troublesome picture, especially for me with my ears…

“But you can look at the surface and the way that he makes brushstrokes and the scale of the things and the colour he used. And you think about his life at the time and where he was living, and all those questions and answers will reveal the painting.”

Tovey adds: “Art is intrinsic to humanity,” and “shows us who we are”.

And now with the new findings, the hope is that gallery visits will be considered just as good as your ‘five-a-day’.

Tovey goes on: “It’s good for your health, it’s beneficial to your mental health and to your wellbeing to be in a museum and to be around art…

“If you eat well, go to the gym and go to a regular art gallery visit, then your health will be through the roof.”

Tovey’s podcast co-host, gallery owner Robert Diament, agrees: “I think it’s really important just to slow down a bit. Going to a museum or gallery can be part of your self-care routine… It will improve your life.”

Amid rising costs, reduced funding and dwindling visitor numbers, the findings could also provide a boost to galleries.

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund director, told Sky News: “These museums and galleries were set up in all cities and towns by people, you know, hundreds of years ago, who felt that it was good for people. So, this is the evidence, finally, that they were right.”

The national charity for museums and galleries, Art Fund champions art around the country, with initiatives including the National Art Pass which offers free or discounted entry to hundreds of museums, galleries and historic places around the UK.

So, what do gallery visitors think of the news that their time looking at art will positively impact their wellbeing?

Charlie, 10, from London said: “It makes me feel quite calm, and it draws me in.”

His dad Patrick, who had brought Charlie with his two young brothers to see the exhibition, added: “Looking at them on screens, or even in books, you just don’t get the full impression.”

Taeseok, an arts student from Amsterdam visiting the UK for the first time, said it felt good to stand and focus on just one thing, with no distractions. He summed it up: “Things around you start to not matter at all… It’s just you and the artwork.”

Re-framed as a course of treatment instead of an indulgent pastime, could the hard edge of science change the role galleries play in society?

If so, it could be a fitting reminder to the government of the true power of art, at a time when so many institutions are struggling to survive.