Happy Sad Confused - Tom Hiddleston, Vol. VII

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Tom Hiddleston is back! One of our very favorites on Happy Sad Confused starts the year off right with Josh at this chat recorded at the 92nd Street Y. From the return of THE NIGHT MANAGER to the return of Loki in AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY to Tom's favorite Christmas movie, this is a fun one. Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why are so many dogs struggling with health issues and even dying too soon? World famous actress and passionate animal advocate Catherine Heigel says the answer may be hiding right inside your dog's food bowl. She reveals that the way most kibble and canned foods are cooked can release harmful compounds that may trigger problems like stiff joints, itchy skin, bad breath, and even those dreaded mushy poops. But here's the exciting part. Heigel and her team say they have discovered canine superfoods, simple foods and herbs that could help transform your dogs. health, from smoother digestion to fresher breath to more energy and mobility. And she's sharing exactly what every dog owner needs to know in a free short video. If your dog licks their paws, eats grass, has tummy troubles, or just isn't acting like

they used to, you need to see this. Watch Catherine Heigle's free video now at hscpet.com. That's hsc pet.com. Your dog's health will thank you. Is there a specific plan for the next time you're on stage, whether it's in the UK or here? Yes. This year? Is it Avengers Doomsday the Musical?

Never say never. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Hey, guys, it's Josh. welcome to another edition of happy, sad, confused. Today on the show, it's Tom Hiddleston. He is back on the show and in The Night Manager, Season 2 on Prime Video, check it out

and check out this amazing conversation taped live at the 90 Second Street Y, our home for live events in New York City. So happy to start off the year just right with a perfect guest, perfect show, perfect audience. Tom is so eloquent. As I say in this conversation, he is as eloquent as they come talking about his career, about acting, about what motivates him. It seems like he has an encyclopedic knowledge and memory of lines, of passages that is

on full display in this very emotional, sweet, fun night at 92nd Streetwise. So I know you guys are going to enjoy it. As always, remember, patreon.com slash happy say I confused. That is your home for all things. Happy Say I Confused. Early access, merch, you can ask guest's questions, early access to our lunch. early access to our live events, of which we're going to be doing a lot this year. Check it out, patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused.

Okay, I'm not going to give much more preamble except to say Tom Hiddleston always delivers on screen and in podcasts. This is his seventh time on happy, sad, confused. He is a gem. Enough said. And my thanks to the amazing crowd that came out in New York City to Ninth Second Streetwide. It's going to be another great year of live events. And just to remind you guys again, Nightman. Season two, Prime Video. Check it out. I've watched the whole season. It's fantastic.

It took about 10 years to get the second season the way it was worth it. You'll enjoy it and you'll enjoy this conversation. Here you go. Hi, everybody. How's it going? Welcome, everybody. My name's Josh Horowitz. Welcome to a live taping of Happy Second Feud's the first one of 2026. Thank you for coming, guys. I can't think of a better guest to kick off the new year, then the one and only Tom Hiddleston. Are you ready to bring him out? What can I say about Tom Hiddleston? He is one of our greats of stage and screen. He is as eloquent as he is talented. Last year was his year of dancing on screen. And on stage, I should say too, yes, much ado about nothing. And Life of Chuck, if you haven't seen Life of Chuck by now,

check it out. Amazing. And this year is a year where we get to return to some favorite characters of his. Later on in the year, we're going to get to see Loki back in Avengers Doomsday. We're very excited about that. But we also have to give it up for the one and only Jonathan Pine 10 years since the night manager, of course, out of the brain of the late, great, Jean-Locaree. We finally have a second season, and it is worth the wait. This new one is fantastic. I've been privileged enough to see all the episodes. You are going to love it. It debuts. Don't be jealous. It's okay. You'll see. see it very soon. It debuts on Prime Video on January 11th. Without any further ado,

let's die right in with the one and only. Tom Hiddleston, everybody. Good evening, everybody. Happy New Year. Welcome back, Tom. Good to see you, buddy. Thank you very much. It's lovely to see you. How were the holidays?

Have you been binging? Did you watch Stranger Things? Heeded rivalry. What did you consume your... I had to mention it, sorry. Not so much. I saw a couple of movies. I think we were just talking about I saw F1,

which I enjoyed enormously. I thought it was fantastic. It was kind of bowled over by. the cinematography, actually. Really, really brilliant. And the smashing machine, which I loved, and was really surprised by it. I thought it was a very tender,

quiet film with a very tender, quiet performance from Dwayne Johnson. It's amazing to see somebody like that take risks. He doesn't have to do that kind of thing. He could do the blockbusters till the end of time. Yeah, it was a wonderful movie. I'm trying to think of what else. Do you have a holiday tradition film?

Like, what's like, is it like, you know, elf? Is it the holiday? Like, what's like the ultimate holiday tradition film for you? Like, die hard. Canonically, a Christmas movie. Let's end that debate right now. It is a Christmas movie. Of course.

It closes with Let It Snow. It's a Christmas movie. It's up there. It shares the top 10 Christmas movie number one slot. with a Muppet Christmas Carol. It's hard to beat Michael Kane and a lot of Muppets. You just cannot, you like the lamb, not the rat,

like the lamb, not the rat. It's classic. It's classic. Yeah. Wait, were you in a Muppet movie? Did you share some time with a Muppet at all? That's a deep cut, Josh. Right?

I know you're... Muppets Most Wanted. I thought so. Yeah. A quite extraordinary. on set, I shared the screen with Tina Faye, the great Tina Faye, Danny Treyo, Jermaine Clement, Ray Liotta, oh my God. And Kermit the Frog.

That's like that old S&L bit, The Jeopardy, who are five people that have never been in my kitchen. Amazing. Well, we've run out of time. We can't talk about the night manager. We're just talking about Muppets. Good night. Let's talk about the night manager.

Congratulations, man. I speak for everybody here. We love this series. We are so thrilled. It is back. It took a minute. It took more than a minute. It took a 10-year minute.

Why the... I mean, you want to get it right. But in a nutshell, why do you think it took this long? Because there was will, right from the beginning. There was a will. So it's a really interesting story, actually, which is we made the... the first one, knowing full well that John LeCarray had written a novel called the Night Manager in 1993, and he had granted his consent for us to adapt it. And it was clear that we

were going to adapt the novel, and it would be complete. And as we were making it, there were no plans to develop a second season. And we opened the Night Manager at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016 in February. And it was an extraordinary night with the first time we had presented anything to a viewing public who were not part of the creation of the show. And all of us were there, Susanna Beer,

the director, Hugh Lorry, Elizabeth Dubicki, Olivia Coleman, Stephen Garrett, Simon Cornwell, Stephen Cornwell, who were Likare's sons who produced the night manager and Likari himself. And we went back to the hotel, afterwards, excited and thrilled with how it had been received.

And we sat down and Le Carre himself leaned across the table with a twinkle in his eye and said, perhaps we might make some more. And we thought, okay, but there's no more novel. There's no second book. And so there began a process of beginning to roll our sleeves up and think about how we might go about it. and he had many ideas. And what was complex about it

was that every time the world events were moving faster than the process of development. And I always felt that we all felt the night manager was resonant with the contemporary world, that you could feel that the world that we all live in was the world they inhabit. And actually what happened is we went through the pandemic.

And David Cornwell, John LeCarray, that David Cornwall is his real name. He and his wife got rather ill and sadly died in 2020. But they had communicated his profound trust in his sons and a committed belief that there should be more night manager before he died. And actually I was at the memorial service, it was extraordinary service. in his remembrance and his son Simon and Stephen at that, it felt

completely appropriate they said you know dad loved the show and he would love us to do more so let's keep talking and it was an amazing way to for him a legacy for him to leave all of us I suppose a tiny part of his extraordinary legacy

anyway cut to not long after David Farr our great screenwriter had a dream genuinely and it was a dream where there was an image of a black car driving through a remote hillside

towards a young boy and it was basically a dream about Teddy Teddy Dos Santos played by the great Diego Calva and where he places himself in the story and he wrote to Simon and Stephen and said I've had this idea and it's about going back

to Columbia which is where the novel is set and he wrote to me and we started to think about where this became a really exciting idea and we started to develop it and he went away and worked on it and then it takes time to develop six hours of series and just cut a long story short we knew we wanted to meet the bar and clear it and we set a high standard for ourselves and if we were going to to go again. It had to be better. It had to be bigger, braver, bolder, deeper. We had to risk more. It had to cost more. And in terms of spirit, you know. Tom saying his fee went up all lots. No, I get it. And I can be not the first, but the first at least here on stage

to say, you have succeeded. The show is fantastic. It is. Thank you. And the good news is that we'll get to this, to tease this, but you're going to make more. I'm not going to have to wait 10 more years for a third season. No, no, that's going to come sooner. So. to solve mysteries. Inspired by the beloved children's book of the same name, this podcast vividly brings Patrick's tales

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You allude to this. Look, it is grounded in a different time. Ten years have passed. Who has changed more in the last ten years, Jonathan Pine or Tom Hiddleston, would you say? Oh, I don't know. Probably Tom Hiddleston. Yeah, I would think.

But then that's the great thing about the ten years is the more we realized it would be ten years, the more we lent into it. There've been ten extraordinarily complex years in the world. We've all been through them. And we have, you know, there's been so much has happened, which, you know, the world in some senses is more fragmented and uncertain, or perhaps that's just a point of view, but there been so many political changes, cultural changes, environmental changes, untold international

conflict, a pandemic, and we kept imagining if you work at the center of the intelligence community. Those 10 years are going to have been complex. And I love the idea that Jonathan Pine at the end of season one, he's been, a fire has been ignited in his heart by Angela Burt, played by Olivia Coleman. And that fire will not be extinguished until the end of his lifetime. And he's seen behind the curtain. He's a field agent now for the intelligence services for MI6. And there's no going back. And so there's a desire to understand the world as it really is, not the world as it appears to be. And there's that amazing line.

A man's life expands in direct proportion to how much truth he can stand. And Pine wants to know the truth. And that's a great thing I admire about him, which is, you know, many of us probably be happy not knowing all the truth. Was full ignorance sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. And he just wants to understand the world. And so the fact that it's been 10 years, he's older, he's wiser, he's curious, he's got this sharp desire, a keen curiosity to understand. But also trauma, I believe it. Trauma from the first season.

They were, that experience. He nearly died several times. People he trusted and loved, died and nearly died. a woman he loved when it was in extreme danger. Another woman died. He had to kill two people to defend the cause. And these are traumatic events and those traumas haunt his nightmares. Richard Roper haunts his nightmares, literally. And so that was an interesting psychological starting point is to see this man who's got more scars on the inside,

more scars on the outside, with greater courage, greater competence and more trauma, more vulnerability. And that tension between his competence and courage and his vulnerability really, Georgie Banks-Davis, our amazing director and I used to talk about at the end of season one, Richard Roper, played by the great Hugh Lorry, is delivered to his captors.

The dragon has been slain. But the dragon slayer can't go back. back and a dragon slayer is only defined by the presence of dragons and in a way pine needs the dragon otherwise who is he and and what a fascinating character psychologically to play is actually I think he feels most alive when he's at his most peril in the most peril in the most danger in the most jeopardy the closer his feet are to the fire the more alive he feels which is an interesting, a human characteristic,

and not sure it's one we all share. I think a lot of us in danger would be like, get me out of here now. And I think he feels, so I find him fast. I love the character. I love and admire his moral courage. I want to be honest about what the night manager is about, really. It's about arms dealing and always was.

and that Roper is selling standard and chemical weapons under the counter to the highest bidder and profiting in the millions and the billions and lives a lovely charmed life that is paid for in blood and death and Lachari called him the worst man in the world. Of course, he's, Hugh Lorry,

so he's the most charming man in the world. Helps, yeah. But that's the pleasure of him is that he is, you sort of love Roper and yet you're reminded occasionally of his cynicism and Pine must resist it right and it's so and there's still this sense of of pine has this extraordinary capacity of a sacrifice and risk a great personal cost because he believes that people should not make money from the bloodshed of innocent children and And, you know, when you put it like that, you think, well, that's an easy thing to stand for. But when you're in so deep, as deep as he is, it's, yeah, so I find his courage extraordinary and his curiosity inspiring. And yet, I know I probably couldn't do it.

I love hearing about, you talked about having a bit of relationship with the late Jean Le Carre. I mean, I grew up, my dad was a huge Le Carre fan, so I have such fondness for everything related to him. But, like, you've had this experience throughout your career where, like, the source author validates your work in some ways. I mean, recently, Stephen King, who often doesn't, like, come out and show up at a premiere showed up for Life of Chuck. I would imagine you interacted a bit over the years with the late Stan Lee. I mean, these are bizarre but amazing pinch-me circumstances I would imagine. Yeah, I am so – as you say them, it's like – I can't believe they happened.

Did you share much time with Stan at all over the years? Yeah, I remember he very, he turned up, I met him for the first time at the premiere of Thor in 2011. And he was such a gentleman, so kind, so generous, incredibly proud, I think. He was so generous about what we created. and yet it was his creation. So, yeah, really remarkable to have that open-hearted, I guess, generosity and hospitality.

Like, of course, you know, play Loki, and this is, you know, he loved what we did and what Chris Hemsworth had done. Yeah, to be sitting next to Stephen King at the World Premier of the Life of Chuck was completely surreal. Mark Hamill was there too that was also I know I was like what is going on

no it's amazing to have their blessing and Le Carre was really it was extraordinary it was very meaningful to me that he approved of what we had done

it was really all I cared about I think I've told this story before but before we started making the first season, there was a dinner we had with him, and we were all about to go away to Morocco, where we shot a lot of the first season. Actually, I hadn't been sat next to him. At the end of it, sort of around tea and coffee time, I went up to him and pulled up a chair and said, David, as I said, his name is David Cornwell? Is there anything you would like me to know before I start? And he said, and lent him with this kind of conspiratorial mischief. Of course,

Tom, by now you will have guessed. Jonathan Pine is me. And now he must be you. But there was an exhortation to take it, own it, possess it, pour yourself into him with all your passion, all your commitment,

all your vulnerability, all of your curiosity, all your courage. He's yours now. And I took that and ran with it. And then when I saw him afterwards, to know that he had loved it, that he approved of what we've made, was major. And I used to run into him. It was an amazing thing.

We lived not far from each other in London. I used to run into him in the local park, training my puppy. You know, he was on his morning constitutional, and I would run into any end, he would be doing his morning walk, and I'd be trying to teach my dog how to sit and heal and, you know, work on the recall. and we would have these extraordinary conversations about world events. I get these hot takes from John La Cary.

It's a perk of the job, to say the least. I have a silly but real question related to taking on this role way back when, and I've joked with you, I poked with you as I have with many actors about the whole James Bond of it all. But when you take a lot of role like this and it's offered to you, do you think about like, oh wait, is this going to help or hurt my James Bond chances back then because that's real, isn't it? I mean, that, I mean, you were on that list, you still are on those lists, like.

Honestly, at the time I was, I, I just, I just, I read the script and I was like, I've never played a part like this before. And it was so, it just was, I just knew, it sounds crazy, but I was like, I know how to do this. and it's interesting because it's at that time in my life I had done a lot of I hadn't done much contemporary work as in I hadn't done lots of stories set in the contemporary world and a lot of period a lot of elevated genre stuff and this the fact this was contemporary and was a thriller I know of course there's the comparisons but but it was it was I just understood it I thought this is so I think it was the character himself, the tension between his exterior and his interior that, you know, as presented to me in that first episode of the first season, on the surface, immaculate,

charming, collected, capable, calm. Like all great hoteliers, a great actor. So think of it. about it next time you're staying in the hotel. But also he had been a British soldier in the army and so there's this tension between

on the exterior there's still water a kind of effortlessness and immaculate, pristine face and inside a heart that's on fire with sort of moral

courage and private vulnerability and solitude and pain and trauma. You know, the way La Cary described him was he was the son of a cancer-ridden German beauty and a British sergeant killed in one of his country's many post-colonial wars. A graduate of a rainy archipelago of orphanages, foster homes and cadetion. units, a sometime army wolf child with an even rainier unit in Northern Ireland, a caterer, chef, hotelier, itinerant, collector of other people's languages, perpetual escape from emotional entanglement, self-exiled creature of the night, and sailor without a destination.

Who doesn't want to play that guy? You must read some great bedtime stories to your kids. They're very lucky. But what an extraordinary description. That's chapter three of the novel. Are you rain man? Where is this all coming from? What are you talking about?

I've been playing this part for a long time, John. Yeah, but obviously that's like stenciled into my brain because it's such a, it's such a, those phrases are so extraordinary. A collector of other people's languages, obviously, literally. but metaphorically, you know, someone who speaks Arabic, speaks French, speaks German, speak Spanish, and is able to move between, to code switch, he's a chameleon, someone very skilled at playing other people, as you've seen in that clip, he's inventing a persona, Matthew Ellis, and Matthew Ellis is also a kind of the other side of Jonathan Pine. He's expensive, he's a reckless financier, He's cavalier.

He's reckless and careless and has money to burn and money to waste. And that actually flexes, it sort of exercises something in pine that doesn't get exercised. But this ease between things, I think LeCarrie was fascinated by that. He was fascinated by the masks we wear. And also in spy thrillers. Spies have to pretend to be other people to extract information. They have to seduce in order to betray. They have to lie to get to the truth.

And in so doing, it's easy to get lost in the maze. And your performance has to be perfect, way more perfect than a professional actor, because the stakes are so high. One slip up and you're a dead man. And I suppose LeCarray is asking, is there a center to a human being? Or are we just roles that we play, you know?

And that's what that passage speaks to is this a collector of other people's languages, an escape from emotional entanglement. You know, emotional entanglement, attachment, I need those things. I need attachments. And I hold them dear. They tether me to my very ordinary reality,

which I cherish and which I love. And so I know who I am, because of my attachments in the world, you know, human relationships with real human beings who have real names. A spy has none of that. No relationships, no attachments. Now we're quoting heat. We are. Don't attach yourself for anything. You cannot walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner. The truth is we were kind of late getting on stage because we were watching a heat trailer backstage. Not a joke.

It's absolutely true. We're talking about Heat 2. Which goes into production this year. We'll be first in line. We will. Is it a date? We'll be there? 100%.

All right. So we did tease season 3. By the way, I thought about Michael Mann a lot while making this. I would imagine. Because there's something about, and I've talked about this before, I love Michael Man. I came into contact with his films at a very formative time in my life. The Last, the Mahicans, Heat, the insider. And what I love most about his work is the detail.

There is such precise attention to detail. And the effect on me was that you just feel incredibly taken care of, that you can immerse yourself in this world because everything is right. Everything is true. Everything is authentic. What people are wearing, what people are doing, what they're saying, the car they're driving, the poster on the wall, the quality of the light.

And that quality of detail and precision and rigor in a filmmaker is actually a mark of such respect for the audience. And so we took great care and took pains over the detail in this. War is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time, and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.

This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Goodbye, Kyle. Did the sound of those words call to you like Pavlov's dog? Then you might enjoy our podcast, Turtle Time. Every week, you can join me, Riley Hamilton, and my co-host, Amy Scarlotta, as we cover the most pressing Bravo news and dig into the new episodes to answer important questions like, who the hell is Adrian Maloof in this world? Listen to Turtle Time on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday and Friday. We do know you are returning as Loki in Avengers Doomsday. That's true. This is a true fact. True. He's so talkative until this subject. When last we saw our buddy, he was holding all the timelines together on that throne. True.

I guess his grip let up a little bit at some point. Wait a second. Is he sitting on that throne the entire vendor's doomsday, or does he stand up at some point? The last we saw him, he was sitting on the throne. Yeah. What happens next? You'll have to wait and see. Did you get an opportunity to do things? look, we always talk every year or two when this happens,

new stuff that you'd never gotten a chance to explore in the character? Yes. Man, that's why they pay me the big bucks. It was very exciting. It was very exciting. It was very exciting. Did you ever see, I mean, I'm sure you revere folks like Ian McKellon, Patrick Stewart.

True. Did you bump into them at Crafty? Did you at least... It was amazing to be, it was amazing to be in that ensemble. The, you know, there was a, sometimes there were two, this is, I mean, no spoilers here, two units running for, simply for economy. And so there would be one, maybe a scene being shot on,

a scene being shot on the first unit and another scene being shot on the second unit, not the same actors. And so sometimes on the studio lot, you would cross paths with people and think, this is a pinch me moment. Insane. It's a big cast. It must be a principal cast of, I don't know how many actors. Yeah.

There's a few. There's a few, yeah. Here's the last thing I'll ask, and I think you can say this, at least, is like the circumstances of finding out. Like, does that come through, like, a text, a phone call? Is it from the Rousseau's, from Feigy? Does it always happen differently at this point? Kevin Feigy.

Yeah, Kevin Feigey and Louis de Esposito. Yeah, very exciting. Gave me a call. I picked up the phone. This note says, ask him more about Avengers' D's Day. They asked me a question. I said yes. Hey, listen.

Yeah. Robert Downey Jr. is playing Dr. Doom. There's our exclusive. You heard it here first, sir. Did he kill it from what you saw? Good performance. Did he kill it? I can't hear your mic.

Okay, sorry, sorry. Okay, here's a new one for you. It's not Avengers related. Don't worry. We've done the profoundly random questions over the years, the Happy SAC Confused. You've answered those already. I'm going to try something different. This is the Happy SAC Infused Movie Matrix questionnaire, okay? Wow.

Ready for this? I love it already. This is perfect for you. Alien or aliens? Alien. Interesting. Okay. Yeah.

Horror over action, I guess. I mean, in that one I'm saying, that's... Yeah. The construction of alien is perfect. Okay. Absolutely perfect. Do you have a favorite Spider-Man of all time? Oh.

For reasons I cannot disclose. Tom Holland. No disrespect to Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield. We're all kind of here because of Toby McGuire in a way. Yeah. Like, that film was the beginning of where we are. Best comic book movie of all time. Wow.

I don't know, but can I say while I'm in? No. Yes. You want to take yourself out of it? How about one you were not in? Yeah. Okay. One I'm not in, Batman.

Tim Burton, classic. Batman. Directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. That's my first instinct. That's what comes to mind. Yeah, I get it. That's tied to my childhood. Yeah.

To change my brain chemistry. I wouldn't have played, I don't, truthfully, I don't think I would be, I would have played Loki without that film. Oh, really? Yeah. In what way? Well, I think, I think that's sort of like, the way Jack Nicholson played the Joker was so, at the time in my life when I saw it, it just kind of, it made such an impact on my imagination

that I understood he was the villain, but he was having such a good time. And I could, that could describe something. somebody else I know. And he was so charismatic and he was so inventive and so free. But I also loved Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and Batman, and I loved their dynamic. And I think probably when I came to play Loki for the first time I had, I consciously carried Jack Nicholson in mind.

In fact, Kenneth Branagh and I used to have a short hand because Loki was so complex and so full of, contradictions and charisma and charm and also vulnerability, that we would do different takes in tribute to different actors. So we did a Peter O'Toole take, which wasn't an impersonation of Peter O'Toole, but it's sort of a tribute to his sincerity and vulnerability in films like The Lion in winter. And then a Jack Nicholson take, where I was having the most fun in the room. And then a Clinise would take, where whatever I was feeling would be hidden deep within me and you wouldn't be able to see it.

So to give him different flavors of things in the edit. I love that. Okay. Scariest movie ever made. The Shining. The funniest movie ever made. Also, what's the one, the dissent? Yes, yes.

Yeah, the cave diving one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. There's one shot in that, which I will never forget. It's so frightening. If you've seen the film, you know what I mean. The funniest movie ever made? Gosh, the funniest movie ever made.

That is a big question. What's the film that's made me laugh the most? Um, when I saw it for the first time, I remember this very well, that this came into my head, this I'm not, this is honest about what came into my imagination. I remember, I can know how old I was, I remember watching Ace Ventura for the first time. And I was just cried laughing. I literally cried laughing for the entire film. I was like, this is next level.

I've never, this is funniest man alive. The reboot starring Tom Hiddleston very soon. Is it the funniest movie of all time? Maybe not. The producers is pretty funny. I go Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein. That's up there.

I mean, I know there are a lot here, but movie you can quote backwards and forwards. You've got a lot in that brain. But what's the movie really, like, just in your bones, could recite if I asked you to? God. Mary Poppins? Okay.

That is unassailable. That is a classic. Yeah, it's so beautiful that film. I probably, yeah, could that one's well known. And finally. Die hard. Die hard. Yeah.

It all comes back to die hard in the end. What's your go-to movie theater snack? Salted popcorn. Yeah. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. Okay, some questions. What is the fun?

I'm really just, what is the funniest movie ever? the maid. Wow. We got Clary Lewis, Clue, yeah. Analyze this. Some like it hot. We've got

Stepbrothers comes up. Stepbrothers. Stepbrothers, excellent. Excellent. Okay, now it's turning like into anarchy here, guys. Anchorman? Yes.

Will Federal at his best. It's hard to beat. The naked gun. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Some questions from our lovely audience. There's a sequence in the naked gun.

I'm happy to talk naked gun. Where he's trying to break into the apartment. Yeah. And he discovers the letter, which is the evidence he needs. Leslie Nielsen, and he takes out a zippo lighter to see the writing better. It starts the whole part of it. And the letter catches fire. catches fire. The whole apartment catches fire, the curtains, the piano, the sprinklers.

Eternal. That is an eternal piece of footage. And I cry every time from laughter. Wabowski? Lobowski. Come on. I was privileged enough to see you in betrayal, both in London and here. I missed much ado, which was so acclaimed. I know, guys. Any chance of much ado coming here or other... You never know. You never know. Is there a specific plan for the next time you're on stage, whether it's in the UK or here? Yes.

This year? Is it Avengers Doomsday the Musical? Never say never. No, yeah, I'm sure we'll be here. I'm sure we'll find out soon. I just, I actually can't, I can't, I can't, I don't, want to get it. It's not, I'm not fully, um, I don't, I suppose I'm not actually not fully possess. I don't feel I have the authority. I love these rare moments when he can't actually speak. It's so, so powerful. I feel great. Always take me there. Yeah. No, I don't have the

authority to share the information just yet, but I'm sure we all will at some point. We were talking before about like the masks that we all adopt, how Jonathan Pine adopts. Do you apply that to, does the work ever inform that? Meaning, I guess, do you ever adopt a mask of a character out in the real world? Are you the kind of person that would take Jonathan Pine or Loki

or whoever into a Starbucks or into the real world? Does that, is that helpful for you as an actor or is that a bridge too far? It's not neat. I think, yeah, I don't know if I get away with it. Well, Loki would be tough at a Starbucks. Let's be real. Sometimes I try,

this is ridiculous, Sometimes I try, people will say, like, I don't know, I'm filling up, I'm at the gas station, right? I'm filling up the car and it's late and it's, you know, the context is entirely normal, right? And I'll go and I'll pay for the thing and I'll, you know, get a snack or whatever in a bottle of water. And the guy behind the candle will go, you look, you look just, is anyone ever told you? you look just like Tom Hildeson and I try to go

yeah I get that all the time you know it's funny you're not the first person to say this like am I not the first person to say that yeah it's for people people do say that and then eventually they're like but are you and I go

but no but people say I do it's a ridiculous game and I'm like I'm way taller than him please I should say that but to your to be serious For your point, like what's interesting is that you're bringing up is like, you know, I think, probably the privilege I feel I'm afforded as an actor is that I get to play all of these people and that I get to explore myself in all of them.

But it's a very, it's an imagined reality. So the boundaries feel very safe. But of course, these are, you know, these are aspects of myself in all these characters, others I couldn't do it. Or if they're not aspects of myself, that I'm stretching myself with imagination to get there. And it's such an interesting, I find it's such an interesting thing to reflect on occasionally, which is that, you know, there's that phrase, the body keeps the score, you know. Sometimes it's a discipline to remind myself that if the tears I shed belong to me, they're my tears, but they are the characters imagined tears, if that makes sense. Or if a character's charming or open-hearted or generous, that's my heart, that's my generosity, it's my charm.

If the character is angry, that's my anger. It's not real, it's not based in reality. It's a response to something imagined. Or if a character like Pine, for example, I find his curiosity is mine. His desire to understand the world, as it really is, not the world as it appears to be, is something I share with him,

but I don't have his resources or his competence and I find his courage inspiring. So the whole, the privilege I feel as an actor is that I get to explore the breadth and range of the experience of being alive. And hopefully that that exploration is something that resonates for you, for the audience, that we all, through art and through stories,

explore the breadth and range in the experience of being alive. And that's why it matters. It's why it always mattered to me as a member of the audience. And I feel other artists and other actors have done that on my behalf and shown me facets of humanity that I didn't know existed or told me stories about the world and about us as a people, as a, you know, as human beings that I didn't know or understand. Yeah, so it's like the masks in a way, it's like not to get too overly sincere. Here was the EM Forster quotation when he talks about connection, that stories that emerge from human imagination carry the power of connection, only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted and seen at their height.

I think I'm paraphrasing, but the sense of connect. Connection is the only reason for doing. anything and stories connect you to other human beings. Well, it is a, that deserves applause, yes. It is the mark of an actor that's kind of achieved a certain kind of, more than competence, that's not the appropriate word, but like that can fully bring all of themselves to a character and also find that balance and find that, you know, you've talked before, like, you have a rich life. you have a rich life outside of work that you couldn't be a spy because you want that that other life and to be able to kind of like still be able to give fully of yourself

and the range of human emotion and connection and to yet still be able to go home and live a life that's the ultimate dream. Yeah and of course it's it's creativity it's it's an it's an experiment the as I say these are these are characters that exist between on stage or they exist on set between action and cut. And I cherish the discipline it takes to know that they stay there. And I go home to my real life

with my real responsibilities and my real attachments, again, which I hold dear. And that's who I really am. And like any artist, you know, a composer, a writer, or a painter, the work is about playing with an idea. It's about giving an idea shape or clarity and seeing how it lands.

But it's an interesting journey always because it's like it's like traveling to a foreign country and actually hopefully a curiosity and understanding that maybe in this other place they don't do things. it's not the same. They have different cultures and different practices and different customs and food and there are things that they do differently, but there are things that they do the same. And you hopefully return home,

retaining that expansion with a wider, deeper understanding of human beings. And that's how I feel about playing characters is it's like traveling away from home and hopefully at the end of it, I stop playing the character, but I retain the expansion. And the whole art of it is really an act of compassion. It's trying to have deep compassion for human beings,

be they real or imagined, so that the stories we tell and the performances we give can resonate with you, can resonate with the audience, and that we can have more compassion for each other and for our deeply individual stories and see how much we share. I feel like every answer is a mic drop moment for the night, but that is the mic drop moment for the night. I wish every other actor was half as eloquent as Tom Hiddleston would make my job a lot easier. He's the best that what he does, he's the best that talking about what he does.

talking about what he does, excuse me. Congratulations, man. Season two of the night manager, January 11th on Prime Video, spread the good word, give it up for the one and only. Tom Hiddleston, everybody. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused.

Remember to review. You rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh. From the darkest corners of our imagination comes a game show that's more ridiculous than terrifying. Welcome to Tickled to Death, the horror comedy game show where nothing is sacred, everything's a little unhinged,

and the only thing more cursed than the questions are the jokes. I'm Roz Hernandez, your fearless host, and each week I'll be leading a brave group of guests through twisted horror trivia, improv games, and enough sarcastic banter to make you question all your life's choices. So come for the screams, stay for the snark, Listen to Tickled to Death wherever you get your podcasts and hit follow unless you want the show to follow you. In the meantime, don't get tickled to death.