On August 1, Amy Pascale‘s “Joss Whedon: The Biography” will be hitting shelves and within its pages is an email exchange between the writer/director of The Avengers and star Tom Hiddleston after Hiddleston first read the screenplay for the superhero team up and Business Insider has published the back-and-forth and it goes to prove Hiddleston’s eloquence extends beyond his characters on the screen and exactly why Loki may be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most entertaining villain:
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.
In response to the email Whedon was clearly moved:
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.
[amz asin=”B00LRHYYEI” size=”small”]With all of that out of the way, I have to say the idea of a Whedon biography seems a tad too early. I mean, the guy is only 50 years old and is currently directing the sequel to one of the largest box office successes of all-time on the heels of the massively disappointing Serenity.
Whedon’s television career is impressive no doubt and excellent content for the first part of a three part biography with this Avengers phase serving as part two. So why jump the gun before he’s even had a chance to step into part three? Has the audience’s patience worn that thin?
Whedon’s “part two” continues next May with Avengers: Age of Ultron.
