Sunday, September 4, 2011

'Avengers' Star Tom Hiddleston Teases 'Shady Deals'

Judging from the overwhelmingly positive response to the "Avengers" footage screened at Disney's D23 convention over the weekend, the film's marketing and PR teams are doing a bang-up job of keeping the buzz building for the highly anticipated summer 2012 film. The actors are doing a fine job as well, given the fact that they can't ever reveal too much about the plot. When MTV News caught up with the actor behind the film's master of mischief, "Thor" star Tom Hiddleston, we asked him what kind of villainy Loki will be up to in his second big-screen appearance. "He's the god of mischief and the god of menace," Hiddleston said. "He's still complicated. He's still motivated by this tragic jealousy of Thor and the fact he doesn't have a place in the universe, the sort of awful history of his genealogy." The Englishman added that jealousy is a key emotional motivator for the complex character. "It's making him evolve. That jealousy has made him more self-possessed," Hiddleston said. "He knows who he is. He knows what his powers are. So he's definitively more menacing, but it's still motivated by this awful spiritual desolation," he explained. "Out of that, he's come to the Earth and he intends to rule the human race as their king," he continued. "He thinks — like all the delusional autocrats of history — he thinks that absolute power will get him self-respect." But it's not all about being dark and brooding, Hiddleston assured us. "He has a lot more fun too," he said, before impressing us with a pretty spot-on impression of his "Avengers" director, Joss Whedon. "Joss Whedon's perpetual note to me is: 'Tom, more feral, more unpredictable, and enjoy yourself.' " In addition to his impressionist skills, Hiddleston teased that Loki won't be making mischief all by himself. "He's made some shady deals. That's what I'm allowed to tell you," he said. "In the footage [screened at D23], there is a line where I say to Iron Man, Robert Downey, 'I have an army,' and that's definitely true," he promised. "I have amassed an army to help me subjugate the earth." Check out everything we've got on "The Avengers." For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com. Tom Hiddleston Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images