Tom Hiddleston’s awesome thank you letter to Joss Whedon for Loki role

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Tom Hiddleston was pretty impressed with Joss Whedon's script for THE AVENGERS. In fact, after first reading the script, he was so happy with Loki's role in the Marvel film he just had to write a thank you letter to Whedon.

Amy Pascale's Joss Whedon: The Biography will hit stores on August 1, and a few excerpts from the biography have been released, including this lovely thank you e-mail from the actor to his THE AVENGERS director and screenwriter. While it's not as epic as Anthony Hopkins' fan letter to Bryan Cranston, Hiddleston's thank you to Whedon is still quite wonderful.

Joss,

I am so excited I can hardly speak.

The first time I read it I grabbed at it like Charlie Bucket snatching for a golden ticket somewhere behind the chocolate in the wrapper of a Wonka Bar. I didn't know where to start. Like a classic actor I jumped in looking for LOKI on every page, jumping back and forth, reading words in no particular order, utterances imprinting themselves like flash-cuts of newspaper headlines in my mind: "real menace"; "field of obeisance"; "discontented, nothing is enough"; "his smile is nothing but a glimpse of his skull"; "Puny god" …

… Thank you for writing me my Hans Gruber. But a Hans Gruber with super-magic powers. As played by James Mason … It's high operatic villainy alongside detached throwaway tongue-in-cheek; plus the "real menace" and his closely guarded suitcase of pain. It's grand and epic and majestic and poetic and lyrical and wicked and rich and badass and might possibly be the most gloriously fun part I've ever stared down the barrel of playing. It is just so juicy. 

I love how throughout you continue to put Loki on some kind of pedestal of regal magnificence and then consistently tear him down. He gets battered, punched, blasted, side-swiped, roared at, sent tumbling on his back, and every time he gets back up smiling, wickedly, never for a second losing his eloquence, style, wit, self-aggrandisement or grandeur, and you never send him up or deny him his real intelligence…. That he loves to make an entrance; that he has a taste for the grand gesture, the big speech, the spectacle. I might be biased, but I do feel as though you have written me the coolest part.

… But really I'm just sending you a transatlantic shout-out and fist-bump, things that traditionally British actors probably don't do. It's epic.

Joss Whedon's response?

Tom, this is one of those emails you keep forever. Thanks so much. It's more articulate (and possibly longer) than the script. I couldn't be more pleased at your reaction, but I'll also tell you I'm still working on it … Thank you again. I'm so glad you're pleased. Absurd fun to ensue.

Best, (including uncharacteristic fist bump), joss.

I think it's fantastic Hiddleston wanted to thank Whedon for Loki's role in THE AVENGERS, and I'd much rather read something positive like this instead of hearing an actor talk about not having a great time while working on a movie. It's too bad Loki won't be appearing in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, but I'm sure Tom Hiddleston would love to work with Joss Whedon again, even if it isn't as the God of Mischief.

Joss Whedon's AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON will open on May 1, 2015.