Thread to talk about the actor...oh fuck it. You know what to do
>>700 Lots of online articles confirming that. Is a shot of Loki standing in some ruins holding up the Tessaract to someone.
TH, however, was not at D23.
>>700 This isn't a surprise, right? We've always said that he would be in it. The question has been about the size of his part. Maybe his presence in the trailer suggests that it will be larger than we've opined (fancy verb).
Yesterday was the Kimiversary of Snapchat Gate, aka the Death of Tayto (although that seems to have been predetermined), or at least the end of Tayto's Overexposure Period. The internet coughed up the strange story of TS maybe exiting her apartment in NY in a large suitcase. All OT except for this brilliant tweet.
https://twitter. com/itslaurenyap/status/887003356815929345
I for one will never look at TH and luggage the same way again. ;)
Just leaving this here (taken in Atlanta): https://www.instagram.com/p/BWyZXbtBko5/
I am guessing that this means no appearance at SDCC this weekend.
Marvel has also got a large stand at SDCC with many costumes including Loki. That suggests to me for some reason that the owners of the costumes are less likely to show - I feel like Marvel wouldn't be showing off the costumes so early in the con if it had something better.
>>704 They could fly out first thing tomorrow AM and make it in time - the Marvel panel isn't until 5:30 pm Pacific/8:30 pm Eastern.
>>705 I shall be waiting with bated breath. Will TH break his self-imposed purdah?
It's alive: https://www.instagram.com/p/BW3PGVOF6-o/
And it's wearing the same clothes as when last spotted in the wild....
>>707 But not at the TR signing table at the con (just CH, MR, and TW) - Marvel Live on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO4E23FvSRY
Interesting....
Per Twitter, he's at the panel in Hall H. No live stream available, alas. But he's aliiiive.
Captcha: exwume
Looks tired. But good hair: https://gitsie007.tumblr.com/post/163314674978/omninocte-cheers-mrhiddleston-tom-hiddleston
>>710 Yes! His hair looks so much better when it is longer on the sides, and on the top. He didn't even get Urbanati to style a new fashion options for him! Back navy sweaters and j brand jeans! People are debating whether Tom is sick, or tired, or bored since he has bags under his eyes. Maybe Marvel wanted Tom do do fewer press photos b/c they want to realize the audience's expectations about the plot and focus more on Thor as the humorous hero, and Cate as the villain of this chapter of the saga, rather than allowing Loki madness to ensue. I am so thrilled that there was a TS sighting article in the DM w/o a single mention of Tom at all! Hooray! If Tom announces a Shakespearean project for HBO (either Much Ado or Hamlet), to seize an Emmy award, my personal entertainment world will be utopic!
>>710, >>712 He does seem low energy when compared with his pre-Tayto self (especially if you look at some of the close-up gifs posted on various Tumblrs, you can see him drop his smiles or laughs pretty quickly). But in fairness, the lighting wasn't flattering to someone like him with deep-set eyes. And any bromancing was between CH and TW or CH and MR.
Tom seems a bit more his old perky self in the "intervention" to get Kevin Feige to show the IW footage they played at D23: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y41krxa1CCs (just the lead-in, not the IW vid itself).
Overall, it gave me the impression of his KSI appearances in Japan - on his best behavior and looking a little anxious about it.
But it's nice that TS got herself papped yesterday and he wasn't mentioned!
>>713 Agree with all this. I felt like he is rather "over" SDCC and publicity tours (at least for the present) and as such was dialling it in.
As you say, on this occasion the smile left his face pretty quickly - most of the time I think he does honestly enjoy himself and he has a very genuine smile. When he really is having a great time he never stops laughing.
Other signs: no haircut, no facial. Last year he was rarely seen without the blow dry (straightened, probably chemically, and pulled back from his forehead), and I think we discussed how he has some kind of non surgical facial before some events so he looks less lined. This time: no cut, no blowout and seemingly no straightening or other beauty treatments for a while.
Also: no Yours Truly. And not even a self-purchase. Remember SDCC 2015 when he had been on a shopping trip to his local Reiss and bought some nice new things? That blue/grey jacket and the grey jeans?
Here's a video of the panel taken from fairly close up so you can see his expressions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSJsUiTcwWQ . The TR section starts about 5:30.
Good point about the haircut (though we could hope he's growing it out for a role).
Nor does he seem to be into it in these cast pictures:
Oh well, he'll probably be off the radar again until the TR promo tour in the fall.
>>716 I guess he has done more SDCC appearances than anyone else in those pics bar Hemsworth (who looked totally over it last year - remember his "poses" with fans at philly?!!!). This appearance can't be a patch on having thousands of people scream their love at you in Hall H while you play Loki, I guess.
Wow, the two Thor 3 articles about Comic Con don't headline Tom. He's even completely excluded from the 2nd article, it's just about Cate as Hela and Chris as Thor. Doesn't Luke use the DM for Tom's catch up articles? And doesn't the DM use Tom in general just to get more clicks? Will there be no more scheduled coffee/running articles following the convention when Tom returns to London? I'm intrigued. Maybe not only does Marvel wantthe focus on Chris and Cate, and doesn't want a Loki distraction. But also, Tom is doing his part by being on best behavior and not reminding anyone of last summer's or disaster with she who will not be named, and he is also hesitant to do more PR since he doesn't have any other projects to announce? Hmm...I prefer quiet Tom to loud Tom. Just wish there was career news. Maybe he has some meetings set up in LA before the return home? Just hoping.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4721932/Chris-Hemsworth-Cate-Blanchett-attend-Comic-Con.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4723636/Cate-Blanchett-unrecognisable-Thor-villain.html
"Tom Hiddleston got a typically wild reaction from the audience "
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/comic-con-2017-latest-trailer-thor-ragnarok/
Tom sighting in London already - see tumblr account for fennecfox12 who said they met him and shook his hand twice.
>>718, 719 No meetings in LA before he returned - he was spotted at the airport shortly after the panel ended (why he missed the press line). If he was sick, he must really have wanted to get home.
>>718 The first DM link took me to their Australian edition, which could explain the focus on CH and CB. Also, Tom apparently didn't do any interviews, so there wasn't really anything to write about besides what little he said during the panel.
Of course, there had to be a cycle of CDL claiming he looked off at SDCC because he was pining for Taytay, then Gossip Cop refuting that (and trying, less successfully, to deny that he didn't look unhappy at all at the con and that last summer hasn't damaged his career): https://www.gossipcop.com/tom-hiddleston-embarrassed-taylor-swift-relationship/ . Then other rags picked up those stories, plus TayJoe made a ridiculous super-hidey pap appearance and Tom's name was of course pulled in. Which led to the odd moment of a Celebitchy writer calling out TS for throwing Tom under the bus: http://www.celebitchy.com/544051/taylor_swift_is_in_a_happy_place_even_though_she_seems_like_she_is_hiding/ !
Tom sighting at a play with a female RADA friend who's in it:
twitter(.)com/wonderkid_100/status/890338583235764224
The RADA friend is probably Sian Clifford, I'm guessing since she's in it. Guess things are all good between the two if they're hanging out again (they probably never stopped maybe even though the public facing aspect made it seem like things soured).
Thought I'd drop by to leave this gem. Poor Ryan Reynolds.
http://elitedaily.com/entertainment/celebrity/taylor-swift-blake-lively-ryan-reynolds/2030351/
Yeah, don't know who probably hates that couples picture more - Ryan Renolds or TH! I'm starting to think that Tom will be clickbait for TS articles until she moves on to yet another man-of-the-moment.
Also, he's been spotted out and about a lot in London this week, including on his first day back (>>720). If he was sick at SDCC, it was a short-lived bug....
Well, here is the project: https://radahamlet.com/#booking-info
I am not sure what to think about this. It is Hamlet and it is directed by Kenneth Branagh. But it is being staged in RADA's theatre to raise money for the school and it is running for rather less than a month. It is not exactly Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican. Strikes me as all very odd.
>>726 And it's not been publicized much yet, apparently, since Tumblr hasn't melted down (though it's early here in the States). My initial reaction was Branagh helping out his underemployed friend while doing some good for RADA, and TH getting a high-brow project with a crack at a role that BC has already done.
The casting is cool - mostly women. I didn't recognize any of the other actors; how well known are they in UK theatre?
Nicholas Farrell is probably the best known. He was in Chariots of Fire and he has done a lot since then, mostly TV. Lolita Chakraborti is a tv regular on a very long running soap called Casualty (like ER - without George Clooney!). The actress playing Ophelia has been cast by Branagh in his Murder on the Orient Express, but is pretty much straight out of RADA (I had to look her up).
That tumblr Hiddlestonanons has been talking about a RADA connection for a long old time now. Which is.....interesting.
>>727 Yeah, I thought Branagh was helping TH out in what is basically a school play for charity.
Apparently I am wrong: they have been thinking about it for ages and "now felt like the right time and the right place" (as opposed to, say, the Donmar or the RSC, National etc) https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/aug/01/tom-hiddleston-to-star-in-branaghs-hamlet-for-three-weeks-only
It is a smart move in one sense. The tickets are gong to be very hard to get hold of and the run is extremely short. So it is bound by default to be th "hottest ticket" of the year.
>>729 I think it is Branagh helping TH out. The "thinking about it for years" like just sounds like a PR shill so people don't think it's nepotism. At least it does to me. They might have been thinking about working on something Shakespeare together but probably in a bigger venue. Anyways, it's interesting that it's a ballot system. So no critic or journalist reviews then. Just a big pool of Hiddleston fans?
>>730 They may well have been thinking about it for years, but it only came to fruition when/because the Hiddleston diary is empty!! (i.e. It totally is Branagh helping TH out of a tight spot)
As to reviews: I don't think I have ever seen a RADA production in that theatre reviewed in the mainstream press, which says it all about the venue. I am sure they will hand out a few tickets to the press to get some free positive publicity, though. What's the point for TH otherwise? If you perform Hamlet to 160 people for 23 days and it only gets "reviewed" on tumblr, why bother? NB google has exploded with news stories in mainstream outlets with nary a mention of t shirts or Taylor. It's the most positive press he's had since Tayto, without a doubt. That's what's in it for him.
>>731 The Guardian article says that there won't be tix set aside for press and they'll have to take their chances with the lottery like everyone else. Not sure what frame of mind that would create for any critics who do manage to get a ticket.
>> (multiple above) I'd seen that they'd be talking for a long time about doing Much Ado. Not surprising that they avoided a "fool for love" comedy for TH now.
>>732 I didn't see that - my eyes glazed over before I got that far!
Long time lurker here, first time posting. From what i've seen from CB and other forums that has TH threads, basically all of his crazy fans are flooding up the lottery for the tickets.
So this is going to be Coriolanus all over again, with just the audience being flooded by his fans with nothing else to do with their money than to see a barely relevant actor play a role that's played before by way better actors before him and probably after him and during him.
TH is really lucky that he has Kenneth Branagh to fix his career reputation. Those RADA students won't ever be that lucky.
>>726 I'm sure tumblr and the folks over at CB think that it's up there with sliced bread. Both Andrew Scott and Cumberbumber have recently done major productions of Hamlet, both critical and commercial successes but no doubt this will be the best EVAH (co-signed tumblr and CB). Looking at the article's comment section, Guardian readers aren't so sure.
>>730 Yes. Shill but still obvious nepotism or favoritism. One hand is washing the other and both are washing RADA's back. Will no one think of Unicef and S. Sudan? Won't they get a cut? Maybe TH will pass the bucket like Cumbeebat did.
You all have nailed this on the head. It's paddling pool level and he's probably happy about that. Some are probably thinking that this will get a West End to Broadway to the planet Mars transfer. My money's on three weeks in a tiny theatre and o-u-t. As Anon said, this is a cleanser. It's a sorbet meant to make our palates forget about the previous Tayto course.
Does this do anything for the drought? He's still got nada on the horizon, tv or movie. Is he being too picky or does he not have offers?
>>728 I've got an eye on that tumblr as well. She mentioned that he had a new RADA project a few months ago and put the word in quotes. Some seemed to think this was code for a new relationship but this is indeed a 'project.' Like tofutti is 'ice cream.'
>>732 He wants tumblr reviewing this. I can imagine the majority of reviews will consist of 😍😍😍😍😍😍. With no mention of Tayto!
>>736 Hello!
I don't see this as a Broadway transfer, partly because Branagh's company hasn't done any transfers so far, even with big hits like his Winter's Tale. I think 3 weeks and out is exactly what will happen.
Also on reflection I think I was wrong about him wanting the odd review. He is playing a cleverer game: positive press for doing charity work, fandom interest, respectable theatregoer interest (Ken!), but no reviews.
Question: when do you think Ken and Tom cooked up this bright idea? (forgetting for a moment the nonsense KB spouted in the Stage yesterday about it being 7 years in the planning).
>>738 Weren't they spotted having a meal earlier this year shortly before one of the awards shows (when KB got an award but TH didn't attend)? I'm betting that was when they concocted this.
Tom hasn't always shown that he's keen on Hamlet- see this gif set: http://the-haven-of-fiction.tumblr.com/post/140761269222/this-is-what-happens-when-you-drink-thomas-you
>>738 A risk of no professional reviews is that it will be "reviewed" on twitter and FB, not just Tumblr. If it's not good, social media will be a lot harsher on him than any pro critic. But I agree on your thinking about his strategy. Alas, as we've seen, there's no one on his team who seems to think through "what could possibly go wrong?"
>>740 Don't know how to quote people here, sorry. But I think SM won't be as harsh as critics. At least critics are a bit more objective with the POV about his performance without rose-colored glasses on and an unhealthy obsession with him. His stans on the other hand tend to flood every thread or website with a comment section that so much as criticize him and go on the attack for their idol.
Someone on Lainey Gossip had a good article on what TH intentions for this out-of-left-field play and I think they hit the nail on the head
http://www.laineygossip.com/tom-hiddleston-to-star-in-kenneth-branaghs-hamlet/47578
This isn't Lainey herself but another person on the staff. Lainey tends to excuse Swift's antics a lot but what I like about her nowadays is that she's calls out TH's BS.
recesnap and giveusaclue are doing the most in the comment section of that Guardian article. They always defend TH like the loons they are.
Giveusaclue even had the nerve to judge someone who wasn't keen on TH being Hamlet and ask them what works of TH they saw and when they answered she turned herself into a pretzel to say that the person didn't see the best of TH work and those works that were faulty were the directors fault and/or trying to push her interpretation of TH performance as Pine into her interpretation.
This is why I can't stand his fandom at all. It makes the Cumberbitches and Beliebers look sane in comparison.
>>741 You do 2 arrows and then the number and it hyperlinks back to the post you are replying to - so you did it right!
We don't tend to quote chunks of text like commenters do on (e.g.) the Guardian, which I find a relief because you don't have to scroll through it all to get to the actual reply.
>>742 I hope you don't mean us(!). We are a backwater of his fandom here - speaking personally, I wouldn't be here if I weren't still on some level interested in him and his work. But I like to think we are constructively critical when the need arises (quite frequently over the last year, ahem!). Also that we didn't come down in the last shower and don't believe every self justification that falls from his lips. Also that we tolerate differing views. There are many places on the internet where the stans chase you with flaming torches for doing any of those things, I agree.
Your comment made me think back to when TH did something that we all felt positive about. There have been so many imperfect works and truly terrible publicity decisions over the last 18 months or so. It might be easier to get behind Hamlet if we had a cat in hell's chance of seeing it, or objectively being able to say if it is good.
>>743 No I don't mean this thread. Actually this thread is quite refreshing compared to the sychophants in other forums. In other forums, even one I've been a long time member in without naming it, the thread is inundated with Nannies currently which are the worst that I'm considering of abandoning it together.
I don't consider myself a fan of TH but his constant fail of climbing up the Hollywood ladder of success and recognition is not only much more interesting then any movie he's done but funny as well.
I've always thought he was a fame whore once the first Avengers became a big hit and every time I brought that up his fans would attack me denying he wasn't one until...well the Swift era. But their are still a lot of vocal stans of his that insist he isn't a famewhore.
TBH I don't even think him dating Swift herself was that bad, you like who you like, but its how he blamed everyone else but himself on the stunts he allowed to join in and then when the jig was up he wanted the adoration he had at the height of his popularity during the Avengers era like if nothing happened.
Concerning Swift, I think more fans were angry at him dating her instead of the stunts and constant blaming of others then himself. He threw his fans under the bus and there was this misogynistic undertone from his fans of Swift holding him hostage when he's a 35 year old man at the time. This is a constant theme with his fans when he dates a woman; hate her and proclaim he can do better even tho he hasn't been in a LTR in the longest, so he might not be a catch as his fans proclaim.
I just feel his fanbase is only loyal to him because he tells them what they want to hear and that he panders to them, thats why you get constant reviews from them saying he's great in this or that when his performances haven't been riveting or that great imo. And his stans monopolize every review site out there so objectivity is low.
There's a huge double-edge sword with his fandom. They love him as long as he's single and panders to them but yet they don't actually spend money on the movies he's in with the exception of Loki.
CP being a movie which was practically aimed at the Tumblr demographic but failed at the Box Office. An movie actor's Box Office revenue is extremely important for his career, money talks and studios see that which means he gets more quality work, but his fans don't support him that far. Its either play Loki, do cutesy online vids with fans or do stage theater in which the stan treats the theater as a fan convention or pop star concert.
And when they do see his movies they just talk about how hot he is or the gratuitous semi-nude scenes he's in. Yes he's good-looking...at times he can look kinda odd looking, but these amateur film connoisseurs don't call him out when his acting is lackluster and when he's miscast coughskullislandcough
Sorry for the long post just had to rant there.
>>744 This Swift thing really needs to stop...until her inevitable song about him releases then they can make fun of him again. That headline is SMDH and LOL at once.
>>738 I didn't read it. Good thing. Seven years! Seems Sir Ken maybe was a mentor to TH in prevarication as well as acting. I'm assuming they've been taking about doing something together for 7 years. Sure both wanted it to be bigger, more ambitious and not a band-aid for a bad PR decision.
>>739 What month? Not knowing anything about the The-atre, I would think it would take a good while to arrange everything. I wonder if this was from last year when TH presented KB with that theatre award. What else are they going to talk about over dinner, TH's love life?
>>746 DM Caption: 'Mr Slippery: Terrified Tom was pictured careering down an inflatable moistened chute with Taylor....' Freudian slip?
>>747 Welcome! Yeah, but it won't. The comments are very pro-TH but comments won't keep journalists from mentioning Tayto. I mentioned here that Gyllenhaal still gets asked about TS and connected to her some 7 years after their 3 months. And JG never gave a 'heart and bolognese on sleeve' interview about TS.
>>749 I don't remember which month - maybe April? I'll try to track it down this eve. Yes, it would take time to arrange everything, but not nearly as long as it would for a film. It doubtless helped that KB is the President of RADA. And if they didn't do open castings calls, that also would have allowed for speed.
Imagining TH talking to KB about his love like makes me think of KB's uproarious laughter on the GNS when Tom was asked about Hiddlestoners....
7 YEARS?! WTF! Oh and how convenient when TH still is on damage control duty. What other damage control/distractions will he announce when Swift's album releases? This man is too much.
If he and Branagh were legit thinking up something for 7 freaking years it wouldn't be a charity show for their expensive school that runs for barely a month. TH is so transparent on what he's trying to do.
And one article (misquoting) said 20 years! If they'd really started discussing this 7 years ago, that's during Wallander or Thor filming. I'd hope at that time KB's end of the convo would have been "Sorry, but you're not ready yet, love!"
>>753 20 years ago? LMAO! So Tom and Ken have been discussing this since Tom was 16 and this is the best they could come up with? /sarcasm
His stans are reloading the DM article and downvoting any comment that laughs at that headline. So defensive. Brit tabloids always trolls celebs like no other, Hiddles ain't safe from it.
I was about to chime in with what a clever plan doing Hamlet for charity to fund RADA students is, and then I ran across this horrid new DM article about Tom and Hamlet where they call this performance "tiny" and make the headline all about Taylor Swift! They printed all the pics from July 4th party with the water slide, and highlight Tom's elite education. The British has not let anything go, and are going for clicks. Wow. Like Cumberrbatch, Tom is so well trained in Shakespeare that his interpretation will be solid. But more and more when I watch his performances I find that he uses his academic research skills to create the perfectly structured textbook Shakespearean character as it is on the page. But, unlike Ben Whishaw or Andrew Scott, Tom's interpretations of these classical parts never really surprise me. And Tom seems to lack the spontanaity/supreme intensity/animalistic attack of maybe a Richard Burton. When Tom next does a full Shakespearean production on stage, I'd love him to do work with a true visionary surrealist director like Julie Taymor or Ivo van Hove, b/c they don't think that acting should be just be about the perfect elucidation of the text, and would give him a jolt of creativity, and further distinguish his next classical production from all of the others that have been staged in London.
>>755 I meant to say "the British press" have not let anything go. They usually are quite supportive of their thespians. I didn't mean all Brits, just the press. So sorry.
>>755 I think he needs to stop being perfect in his search for acting perfection.
During the brief High Rise promotion at TIFF 2015, Jeremy Irons was quoted saying, about TH, something like 'think of what a great actor he'll be once he gets more life experience under his belt.' I realized Irons was right when I couldn't put my finger on the hollow ring I was getting from the performance in TNM.
>>756 We've discussed before how the British press really turned on him during Tayto, and were still pretty savage as of KSI. But so far it's only the DM using this news to keep up the clickbait. And (not sure if this is good or not) the DM quickly turned to the current news - fans and the tickets ballot: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4754158/Tom-Hiddleston-star-Shakespeare-s-tragedy-Hamlet.html
>>757 It's a shame there are no current plans (per the official site and their twitter responses to questions) to record this production. It would be fascinating to see if Tom's recent life experiences carry through to his performance. (I for one expect that "frailty, thy name is woman!" will be particularly charged.) So far I've only caught up to his Henriad, and I found his Prince Hal to be more technically proficient than realistic acting. His style did work well for me as King Henry, though.
How is Branagh regarded as a theatre director? He did bring a good performance out of Tom in Thor 1. And Tom seems to trust him, which might help him to be looser in this part.
Yeah so TH's true intentions are finally revealed to the surprise of no one http://blindgossip.com/?p=86395#more-86395
>>759 Not much of a blind, is it? Any of us here could have written this. BG have done this in the past, stated the obvious after the fact, I.e., when news has already broken. It's heartening to know he can 'still book jobs' or BG thinks he can because we haven't seen proof of that.
The bloom is off the rose for me but I don't want to see him going on Celebrity Big Brother. Nor do I want him to have to consider Sharknado III. But this is kinda him getting his cred back on the cheap. I have the feeling he's thinking these three weeks will rehabilitate him and then it's back to Hollywood for more leading man roles or OSCAH worthy parts. Don't know if that plan will work.
>>755 TH and Burton shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence. I wonder if he'll ever be able to reach the heights of Burton, O'Toole or Harris whose raw and realistic performances were in some part inspired by their lives and demons. I see him being more like Olivier, Hopkins and KB who are more about technical proficiency and skill. Both sets have passion and skill but it manifests itself differently in performances. >>758 And I'm not yet willing to put surviving a poorly received fauxmance up there with the hot crazy that was being in a relationship with Miss Taylor while smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish. >>757 He's led a fairly sheltered and blessed life in many ways, which I don't begrudge him. However, that does tend to limit the experiences a person can draw upon when acting. I call it the Emma Watson phenomenon.
>>758 Branagh is a very accomplished Shakespeare director, both on stage and on film. He was 30 when he directed the film version of Henry V which is in my view an outstanding piece of work which has stood the test of time. I saw The Winter's Tale (which he also directed) - he hasn't lost his touch. His verse speaking is also outstanding. TH, in common with very many of the younger generation, needs to sharpen that up.
>>745 Well, I'd say it's, or at least was, a board of check and balances, so if blind apologists are unlikely to feel comfortable here, the same it's, or at least was, true for people merely wanting a place were they can hate on him without contradiction.
And maybe I shouldn't even be saying this since I don't post very much (there's hardly anything to post about, bless!), and maybe me being a non native of the English language gave me the wrong impression, but from what you posted it seems like you fall in the second option. I apologize if that's not the case, but when someone writes they are not someone's fan and then they proceed to list all the things they have been disliking about said someone since 2012 it makes it difficult to take it differently.
One more thing, CP was aimed at tumblr? Really? Guillermo Del Toro wrote the script thinking of TH's tumblr fans? Come on! Give a well established director a bit more credit.
Hello everyone!
I hope you are all well. I swear I only passed by to wish good holidays and not to scold, but then I read the news!
In the spirit of the checks and balances I've just written about and since anonsy isn't around anymore for the accuracy part, alas, I'll take it on my almost on the beach shoulders to point out a few things to add to the discussion.
At the beginning of May 2016 TH did an interview at BBC4's Front Row with Kermode and Mayo where when asked:"whether there were any other Shakespeare characters he'd like to take on." he said:"I do have my eyes on something...you'll find out very soon, I think." (the podcast is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078x6kx)
So this Hamlet production was that, Branagh was busy with Dunkirk, the Garrick Theatre's season he presented and Murder on the Orient Express, ergo the delay. But TH's commitment to it predates Tay-tay.
As for reviews, of course there'll be reviews by critics, it's Branagh and it's Hamlet, the press will buy a ticket and go watch.
>>743 Anon, he went to CominCon and Yours Truly didn't style him! That's positive, also a guy groomed him so someone not connected to Yours Truly! Also positive. He is not caring about his fans, finally understood that there's not point in being nice to the press and, even if we never took that stance, after being accused of not doing anything practical about iniquity in the school system etc. he is partecipating in something practical that will benefit plenty of students for years to come and he was way in the background in the official photo! Kepp the faith Anon! :)
>>762 As a foreigner I agree with Branagh when he talks about the ease TH has with Shakespeare, he makes the verses very easy to follow. So does Rory Kinnear. If you say Branagh is even better (I only ever watched his Much to do about nothing but I didn't enjoy it very much) I'm now curious to see Branagh on stage. I missed the chance to watch Winter's Tale at the cinema (in my country famous plays of the year are show at the cinema)
>>764 COUCH POTATO!!!!!!
You're back! Forget Hamlet. This is the most exciting thing the board has had to deal with this year!
>>767 And I don't make you pay for it!
>>760 I hope his management or anyone with common sense around him tells him it takes more then a 3 week stint doing Hamlet to get your old reputation in Hollywood back.
>>763 I don't hate him but I don't like how he comes off sometimes. He just has this veneer of insincerity that I find sinister in a way, and no this isn't me confusing him with Loki.
I know actors aren't suppose to be 100% genuine but some can really hide it well through a natural charm while not sounding like a pretentious a-hole. It's a like/dislike outlook I have with him and i've wanted him to stop pandering to his fanbase for so long but not this abruptly.
It's one thing not pandering to them it's another just shunning them completely because of a miscalculation of what you could've thought you get away with in a contract relationship with someone, and than blaming the media and your fans for the bad outcome because it didn't go your way and not taking responsibility.
The thing with CP is that it was rewritten once TH took over the role once Cumberbatch dropped that it sounded like a bad fan fic, I doubt the original script was like this well...I hope. Also Del Toro kept pandering to Tom's fanbase specifically a bit too much at times. Del Toro is great at visuals but he lacks sometimes with writing.
Also while he shouldn't pander so much to the press anymore he also shouldn't be testy with them. He needs to make his transition to a serious actor more subtle because if not it'll just add more to this insincere persona he exudes.
Anyway, if my not so positive posts are an annoyance to the thread i'll just stick to lurking from this point on. No big deal.
>>764 Couch! Welcome back. I missed you and your analyses.
>>765 No YT, no LW because laying low for months. Made me wonder if they've all been put on hiatus for the time being.
>>766 Yeah, the connection makes me side her too, maybe she was not the one who got away after all.
>>769 Unknown, so are you a former fan? Or a really jaded fan?
>>769 Probably disappointed/annoyed fan. I liked him in the Thor 1 days, but like I said after Avengers he became a caricature of his former self.
>>769 >>772 No one is trying to make you leave based on your non-flowery opinions of TH. If nothing else, we are not nannies here. I can understand being annoyed with him. The past year feels like he's squandering his potential. I'm glad K:SI was relatively successful compared to the 3 movies before that.
>>774 I think he squandered his potential with Skull Island. He was miscast in that role and imo the movie was awful and his character was useless. He just hasn't either chosen good scripts or has been offered awful ones.
I never saw it. I never was interested in the Kong movies, ever.
>>769 I agree. When Jake Gyllenhaal decided he didn't want to do PR relationships anymore with staged pap photos following Reese Witherspoon and the really corny Thanksgiving pap walk with his his sister, his niece and Taylor Swift in 2011, he accepted responsibility for his own role in the drama, refused to talk to the press about his personal life ever again, and fired his whole team! Jake is in a different position than Tom was, since Jake wasn't so widely identified as a fame whore at the time, plus he was already a young Am. male Oscar nominee in a time where we hadn't seen an Am. young dramatic actor pop up, until Ryan Gosling and now Oscar Isaacs (and Bradley Cooper but he is not my fave.)
>>764 I remember that Kermode interview. And if that mystery project was indeed Charity Hamlet for RADA, and it was planned before Tayto, it's tragic that so much of of his choices are now coloured by and seen through the prism of that crazy summer. Any actor has self serving interests for doing charity work because it helps define your brand makes you seem empathetic, but in this instance Hamlet is now thought of his attempt to win back critical credibility. Ouch.
I've always wanted to see Tom on tv in an episode of Miss Marple on PBS, but not at this time: ) If his schedule is not blank by choice, maybe he needs a Colin Farrell level reboot to his career. He's a male drama school grad and an Olivier a recent golden globe award winner for worldwide hit miniseries. In the long run he will be fine, but maybe he won't he won't lead dramatic award bait films for a couple of years. He needs more theater, more Indy films in Europe with strong scripts, maybe another strong tv part like TNM, and to take supporting roles in films that have cohesive scripts and strong directors if available.
Well, to some of the media, even doing Hamlet for charity isn't enough to be taken all that seriously - note the title of this piece (despite the link text, it's about internet boyfriends): http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a47103/tom-hiddleston-playing-hamlet-london/
Well, to some of the media, even doing Hamlet for charity isn't enough to be taken all that seriously - note the title of this piece (despite the link text, it's about internet boyfriends): http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a47103/tom-hiddleston-playing-hamlet-lon don/
Sorry for the double post / phone not playing nicely with the site!
A different perspective on so many recent Hamlets: https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2017/mark-shenton-can-many-hamlets/
>>779 Elle magazine confines to turn from Tom. Wow. But Ben Whishaw has never been an Internet bf! He's an astounding actor, but he's always been way too private, and now he happens to be married to a man. And nor is Jude Law, who got married and had kids very young and is too busy with his career and being a ladies man/slut puppy to be anyone's Internet bf. That's a stretch. Nor did Oscar Isaacs systematically and purposefully attempt to entertain fan girls with his online presence. Hamlet is a play that the the all male actors want to play, and that whole general public knows the title of and probably read in school, so producers will always get their money back if they stunt cast it.
>>782 Sorry. Elle magazine continues to turn from Tom, is what I meant to say.
A side note, the writer of the infamous TH GQ article focusing on spaghetti bolognese w/o pasta and TS fauxmancing, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, has a brand new New York Times Magazine article talking to Oprah about weight loss and exposing the diet industry! Apparently Taffy has struggled with body image issues and dieting for her whole life, and winds up crying over the phone to Miss O herself. The article is poignant and heartfelt, but Taffy just teased a TH reference in her twitter account that "You can be fat AND mistaken for Tom Hiddleston's girlfriend. What a world, right." I'm speechless. Taffy is on the move for fame, officially.
Twitter @taffyakner
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/magazine/weight-watchers-oprah-losing-it-in-the-anti-dieting-age.html?_r=0
>>764 Just to play devil's advocate, it also could be that in the May 2016 interview Tom was stretching the truth (as we've discussed recently). That said, and to clarify some of my earlier comments about this, I do think it's possible that he and KB have been discussing this possibility for as long as they've been working together. But I don't think Tom would really have been anywhere near ready for the role until now (and it's interesting that Branagh referred to this being Tom's "first time" in this title role - he might be thinking Tom will do it again someday).
>>777 Agree strongly that it's a shame that, if this project was planned pre-Tayto, it's now slightly tainted by his need to restore his reputation. How different would some reactions have been if this had been produced last May?
>>782 Not that Elle's good opinion is a big loss for him (in my opinion), but it is a 180 turn from how they treated him earlier in his career. It will be fascinating to see if his Hamlet regains him any favor, especially with the serious press. Will the Guardian ever forgive him?
>>784 Taffy has absolutely worked that GQ article and the "mystery brunette" pap shots for all they're worth. And she ended up working for the NY Times. Maybe she should have given Tom advice about his career rather than his love life!
And a second "too many Hamlets?" article: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/hamlet-too-many-tom-hiddleston-kenneth-branagh_44267.html
She has some good ideas for roles Tom could have tackled instead. Personally, I'd like to have seen his King Scot. (And Berowne, yes, please!)
Welcome back, Coach! Enjoy the beach.
>>764 He doesn't seem to say that in this podcast (I only listened to his segment - minus the singing! - so it could be in another part). Maybe he said it in another interview. Without insider info it's hard to say when this was decided. I personally don't think this was seven or 1+ years in the making. They probably have always talked about doing a stage production together but the very unusual nature of this one (utterly stacked in favor of TH: charity, short run, difficult to review, hot ticket in town) makes me think it is a quickly constructed response to Tayto.
No Yours Truly and LW might be explained by the fact that he didn't do any press. I have a feeling (an awful one!) they'll be back come Nov. promo. Is it time for another board prayer circle? Or an exorcism?
>>769 Unknown, we've all disagreed on this board. We're still here. And we can handle the negative. ;)
>>779 We've talked about how he went from hero to zero with Elle. It was somewhat repeated with the Guardian during Tayto. GQ seems to be his go-to now. How fickle is magazine.
>>784,786 Yep. If only TH could have parlayed Tayto like Taffy did that article.
When I asked how long everyone thought this had been in the planning, I hadn't forgotten the interview last year in which he said he had another Shakespeare project in mind.
I am not sure that this was necessarily that project. It could have been something quite different (maybe it was poor old James Ivory's Richard II, who knows!).
I have to say that I share Anon.'s view that this feels like something of fairly recent date. TH showed relatively little interest in his alma mater previously, and I think these RADA sightings started in spring this year (possibly with the KSI screening there in early March). I wonder if somebody planted the seed then. He has been seen in the vicinity a number of times since.
>>777 It's only tainted for US/UK gossipy, click-bait articles, and fans that are still thinking about it as first thing. The NYT had not mention of TS for example, and if you check news from serious publication from other countries again no mention of TS.
>>782,786 ELLEUK's editor is different, from 2013, and the magazine also took a different turn. I think we mentioned it last year.
>>785,788,789 I think it was that for the dubious answer he gave, like it didn't depend exclusively on his availability. Ivory seemed to be waiting for TH, here felt like TH was waiting for someone else. If KB was only ready this year it could only happen in Sept. because of Marvel and Thor 3 promo.
>>786 After I recently read a tweet of hers, posted soon after the GQ interview, I changed my view of that GQ interview, in part at least. Which in turn partly changed my point of view on tayto - I'm crossing my fingers that nothing will happen to make me change my mind again!
Speaking of pandering fans: "Game of Thrones's Sophie Turner: 'I got a job over a better actress because I had more followers' "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/08/03/game-throness-sophie-turner-got-job-better-actress-had-followers/
Do you think she realizes she just gave her fans the power to make or destroy her career? Probably not.
>>769 Sorry Unknown, maybe my post wasn't that clear, I didn't mean that your dislike could be too much for the board, but that the board might be too much for you, if you thought that this was a place just to dislike the guy. As the others said we often disagree, mainly because we write in light fun, and changing one's mind is no big deal here since we all realize that we only know bits and pieces.
Nobody could have guessed that SF and Sian were bff, or that Sian and TH still hanged out. If anyone had offered that idea we would have pointed out how it didn't make sense, we would have sounded very reasonable and very competent. And we would have been completely wrong.
That's all, if you like it here, by all means keep posting.
Oh hi Couch and other oldies and newbies.
I was jarred from my long TH induced slumber earlier this week by news of his Hamlet. Unfortunately the article I read was the Times, and to quote Branagh:
“The play also asks, ‘What is reality? What are facts? And whose facts are they?’ In the age of fake news, our audience can’t avoid that connection. And underpinning that rage, it also talks of the effects of ‘the poison of deep grief’.”
Fake news... what is reality... the poison of deep grief...
This could be catastrophically worse than leftover bolognese at dawn.
I think regardless of the possibility of years of preliminary discussions, Sir Ken and not yet Sir TH intend to draw deeply on the summer of (no) regrets. To date it's the source of his greatest anguish and an untapped goldmine of torment.
>>796 Hello!
Hopefully he won't think of dressing him up with a tanktop.
>>796 Oh god...does this mean this interpretation of Hamlet will be Tom sympathetic? I really hope they don't take the political fake news propaganda and try to skew that concept in favor of TH and him getting laughed at in the media because...just no. That's not fake news, that's your PR plan failing because it wasn't well thought-out.
I wonder if TH is still trying to blame everyone else but himself over last summer. Has he seen and accepted last summer for what it was or is he still in denial?
>>766 Hello Couch! Welcome back!
I had meant I side eye Sian, not SF. It's mostly because of how superficial her understanding of feminism and other life observations like social media seem like but then again it doesn't sound that different from TH and what comes across as his understanding. Probably why the two are friends.
I had no idea about SF and liking the Casey Affleck tweets. Guess she's one not to rock the Hollywood boat lest she loses work because of it, considering she's still at the bottom of the ladder career wise.