It’s been nearly 15 years sinceTom Hiddlestonprowled onto pop culture’s biggest stage as Loki, the MCU’s original tragic villain and a rolehe’s continued to reprise(and refine). As Hiddleston’s obvious star power grew with each new Marvel installment, he spent those same years forging a successful career in a range of independent films. Whether it’s a tortured antihero in the historical Gothic romanceCrimson Peak, a despondent musician vampire inOnly Lovers Left Alive, real-life country singerHank WilliamsinI Saw the Light,High-Rise’shedonist physician, or a conflicted priest inThe Essex Serpenttelevision miniseries, no fictional character seems immune to Hiddleston’s effortless charisma, dramatic insight, and gravitas. His essential qualities are arguably more evident now than ever after his turn in writer-directorMike Flanagan’sThe Life of Chuck, a critically acclaimed feature film adapting theStephen Kingnovella ofthe same name.
Although he can slide into any role as smoothly as tossing on a coat, Hiddleston, without fail, balances feral ferocity with vulnerability as acute as an open wound. His characters' raging anguish always simmers underneath his self-assured exterior. That super-weapon of his ensures his performances are gripping, poignant, and unpredictable — and snagged Hiddleston the Golden Globe for Best Actor (Limited Series or Television Film) for the BBC’sThe Night Manager, the six-episode adaptation of espionage writing legendJohn le Carré’s 1993 novel. During the press tour forThe Life of Chuck, Hiddleston sat down withVanity Fairfor their Rewatch seriesandshared an earnest anecdote aboutThe Night Manager’s impact— not on his subsequent career steps, but on one everyday viewer.
What Is ‘The Night Manager’ About?
Cairo hotel night manager Jonathan Pine’s (Hiddleston) quiet, controlled life changes for the worst when the alluring Sophie Alekan (Aure Atika) books a room. Even though they’re strangers, Sophie entrusts Pine with top-secret stolen papers indicting her wealthy criminal lover, Freddie Hamid (David Avery), as a chemical weapons distributor. Pine sends the documents to London’s International Enforcement Agency, where they catch the eye of Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), an intelligence agent hunting the notoriously untouchable arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) — an individual horrendous enough to earn the moniker “the worst man in the world.” Pine and Sophie act upon their mutual infatuation, but Hamid and Roper’s lucrative business relationship ensurethe pair’s love affair is short-lived. When a sourceinforms Roper about the leaked documents, Sophie is swiftly murdered. Her death devastates Pine, especially when the corrupt local police write the brutality off as a burglary.
Years later, an unexpected opportunity arises when Roper and his entourage — including his mistress, Jed (Elizabeth Debicki) — arrive at the Swiss hotel Pine now oversees. Despite his initial reluctance and his lack of espionage experience, the vengeance-driven Pine accepts Burr’s offer to join her sanctioned crusade against Roper. Rather than scramble from a distance for information only to watch Roper slip away again, Pine will — in so many words — make an in-person offer Roper can’t refuse.He assumes a new identity, infiltrates Roper’s inner circle, and navigates the tightrope of practicingenough charming brutalityto endear himself to Roper without revealing his true intentions — all while falling for Jed, against both their better judgments.
‘The Night Manager’ Proves Tom Hiddleston Was Born To Play a Spy
In 2023, 11 years after it aired, BBC One and Amazon Prime Video renewedThe Night Managerfor asecond season. As the crew filmed Season 2 in London,Hiddleston met the night manager of the hotel at which he was staying. The actor relayed the details to Vanity Fair:
“I drove up and parked my car and somebody came to meet me. And they were so enthusiastic, and I thought, you know, this is kind of extraordinary hospitality. And then, as he was showing me to my room, he said, ‘I just have to tell you,I became a night manager in hotels because I saw you inThe Night Manager."’
Directed bySusanne Bierand co-starring Laurie and Colman’s respective acting prowess, as well as a star turn from Debicki years before her haunting portrayal of Princess Diana inThe Crown,The Night Manageris asleek, suspenseful psychological thrillerthat erases any doubt about Hiddleston’s capacity to play a wide range of leading men. He steps into the ambiguity, intensity, and enticingly enigmatic mood the genre requires like it was constructed for him (or vice versa). Roper’s second-in-command, Corky Corkoran (Tom Hollander), neatly summarizes Pine’s appeal when he describes the man as a “human hand grenade.” Already accustomed to the people-pleasing of a public-facing night manager — composed, polite, and seemingly harmless — even the world’s nicest can’t concealPine’s rage as a grieving lover.
“I Felt Like I Had Lived an Entire Life”: Tom Hiddleston and Mike Flanagan Explain How They Filmed This Crucial Easter Egg for ‘The Life of Chuck’
The duo also discuss the casting process and how Hiddleston relates to the Stephen King character.
When that intensity doesn’t have an outlet, it manifests in Pine’s livid stare, his twitching jaw, or the restraint with which he holds his coiled muscles; when he can indulge his fury, bloodshed comes naturally to him. Pine is the kind of undercover agent who sacrifices his moral center and abandons his existing life for a cause, but his motivationhappens to be personal vengeance, not altruism. Although it’s a familiar narrative set-up,Hiddleston’s eye for human detail excavates the trope until it’s compelling again. Pineplays a multi-layered pretenseuntil he lives the lie as naturally as a second skin — although unspoken moments imply the character’s emotional remove has existed since beforeThe Night Managerbegins.
Tom Hiddleston’s Layered Performance Balances Vulnerability and Ferocity in ‘The Night Manager’
Like many performers who commit themselves to animmersive, gritty spy thriller,Hiddleston employs the acting trick of a character upholding a facade while making slight gestures, involuntarily or purposefully, that cue the audience into what they really mean. Pine keeping his mask intact becomes especially difficult once every accumulating factor turns into an overstuffed house of cards. Obtaining information for Burr, reeling in Roper’s trust like a fish on a hook, and developing feelings for Jed is playing with a dangerous, ill-advised fire.
Just as frightening as Roper’s potential wrath aboutPine and Jed’s attraction, however, is the tender fragility required to admit one’s loneliness and reach out to an understanding soul.Bier’s direction is a perfect match forHiddleston’s most finessed qualities, emphasizing tell-tale beats like uncomfortable pauses, clenched fists, fingers romantically grazing another’s knuckles, and guilty eye movements. Within those tense pauses lies the weight of maintaining a false identity while trapped in the belly of Roper’s beast — the same beast Pine has let transform him into a quasi-monster, if it means sating his vengeance.
OverThe Night Manager’s six episodes, the blade that is Pine’s fury never rusts, but with Jed, he reverts to the protective affection he showed Sophie. This man does care; his crusade starts with his doomed love affair. If the eyes are the window to the soul, thenHiddleston illuminates his character’s soulas clearly as if he projected the multiplicity onto an IMAX-sized screen: melancholy, ferocity, determination, fear, and compassion slipping free when Jed sneaks through the cracked armor he believed he’d forged into impenetrability. Hiddleston toldVanity Fairthat le Carré gave the actor his blessing to play Pine, the author’s fictional avatar, in whatever way Hiddleston saw fit.He more than carries the series, staking his claim as a compelling protagonistwhile matching technique and wits against a magnificent Colman, atormented, resilient Debicki, and a chilling Laurie.
Tom Hiddleston’s Real-Life Impact With ‘The Night Manager’ Highlights the Power of TV
Without getting too sentimental, encountering a certain piece of media at the right time can change anyone’s life. Noteworthy examples includeMae Jemison, the first Black woman astronaut, who wasinspired byNichelle Nichols' powerful presenceinStar Trek: The Original Series. There are just as many non-celebrity stories the public will never know: individuals who joined the entertainment industry because a movie seized their imagination and never let go, or who become frontline healthcare workers thanks to medical dramas — the list goes on.The passionate, heartfelt enthusiasm of Hiddleston’s London hotel manager perfectly illustrates how a particular work can direct someone onto a paththey otherwise wouldn’t have pursued. “Each project is such a unique andspecific chapter of my life,” Hiddleston went on to reflect. InThe Night ManagerSeason 1’s case, it also turned the pages of a chapter in a stranger’s life. If that isn’t why art matters, then what is?
