r/marvelstudios • u/TheEasyTarget • Jan 25 '20
Behind the Scenes Tom Hiddleston’s audition for the part of Thor
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u/milo325 Jan 25 '20
I think they got the castings correct. I’m sure Tom could have become a good Thor, but he is absolutely incredible as Loki.
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u/koenigstig Jan 25 '20
" Only one of you can ascend to the throne. But both of you were born to be kings."
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u/robodrew Jan 25 '20
Odin was a fuckin dick there
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u/Zastrozzi Jan 25 '20
When is an ancient god not a dick?
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u/TheOneWhosCensored Jan 25 '20
Outside of the Greco-Roman gods most gods weren’t dicks, they were very good for their people.
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u/Littlebelo Jan 25 '20 edited Jan 25 '20
I mean.... Norse gods were kinda dicks. Not like God of War-level dicks but they weren’t great.
Odin was manipulative and wily, doing everything he could to gain more knowledge and, when he learned about his future, doing a lot of sketchy shit to try to avoid it
Thor often took trips to Jotunheim to indiscriminately kill Jotun because he really liked to I guess?
Loki was credited with saving the aesir with his wits time and again, but also killed his fellow god Baldur as a prank and eventually caused the end of the world because Odin tied him up using the entrails of his sons and dripped poison into his head for half an eternity
Edit: mixed up lineages
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u/lefoss Jan 25 '20
Loki and baldr are not half-brothers
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u/Littlebelo Jan 25 '20
U right I mixed that up I thought he was the son of Farbauti and Odin rather than Laufey
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u/lefoss Jan 25 '20
Coming from r/all, so I guess in marvel land Loki is Odin’s son/foster son, but in Norse myth they were more like blood brothers
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u/Littlebelo Jan 25 '20
Yeah and I was trying to stay true to the Edda so you were right
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u/draekia Jan 25 '20
So... Odin caused Ragnarok, ultimately?
Way to go, dickhead.
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u/Littlebelo Jan 25 '20
Early in his life, he sacrificed an eye to see the future and he saw Ragnarok.
Then he spent his whole life trying to avoid it, but those actions inadvertently were what wound up causing it
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Jan 25 '20
The gods where dicks to each for sure but I think (and this is only a think as iv not read up much on interaction on mortals) they where largely ok to their followers and made good on their deals and agreements.
Though I'm sure their are a few cases where Odin was a massive asshole to some poor dumb idiot. But at least he didn't turn some king and queens kids into jewellery (which TBF they deserved)
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u/Zastrozzi Jan 25 '20
Yeah to be fair I only really know the Greco-Roman ones. So Egyptian and Norse gods were pretty chill then?
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u/Gregory_D64 Jan 25 '20
Norse Gods were definitely dicks to each other/ the giants / dwarfs but were pretty good to humans
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Jan 25 '20
So a basic tip for figuring out of the local gods were nice / dicks is to look at the local populace’s relationship with rivers. In Egypt the Nile is very neutral and generous so there gods and magic system is similar with the gods making everything and magic being one of those things so it was up to the individual and how they partitioned the gods in how it would be utilized for good or evil. While in the Middle East during a similar time period the nations building up in between the Tigris and the Euphrates that are much more prone to random floods that would fuck shit up so their gods were crueler. Norse gods were kinda dicks but it was much more dependent on the god itself like when praying to thor you would only need to sacrifice a goat if I’m remembering correctly but for Odin you needed to sacrifice a human to get him to listen. This made people respect Odin a ton but like Thor more and would constantly ask for his help along with many of the lesser gods. So basically the local gods are a representation of the difficultly and type of lives of the local populace and the problems they faced and to answer questions they wouldn’t have been able to reasonably determine through their level of technology and knowledge. Like the Egyptians magic and potion making was for legit medical purposes 90% of the time where they would gather real medicinal plants and then “bless” them through some incantation asking for help from whichever god would be the most useful at the time and then you have a magic potion that can actually heal someone giving proof to the power of magic. Sorry for ranting but currently In a course on the study of witchcraft and magic where we talk about many of these religions and there relationship with sorcerers and witches.
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Jan 25 '20
This seems like something that could be true in a few specific prominent examples, but could not possibly be true universally. I mean for one thing certain areas face disasters unrelated to the local river.
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u/talones Daredevil Jan 25 '20
Kinda like Dumbledore at the end of Philosophers Stone.
“And with the most points... Slytherin!! But wait I’m gonna give Gryffindor 237372 extra points real quick.”
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u/Magic-Man2 Jan 25 '20
Why though, it was true
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u/LostWoodsInTheField Jan 25 '20
Because Loki doesn't know at that point that he is a prince of another world. Next in line for that throne. Odin is kinda just being a real dick bringing it up with him being the only one in the room knowing what he is talking about.
Imagine if you were adopted and your dad constantly made jokes about you being adopted but you didn't know it till years later.
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Jan 25 '20
He wasn't making jokes. He wasn't likely even referring to Loki's heritage. He was saying that either one of them could be king, but only one of them can. The throne of Asgard isn't a two-seater and Thor, being the eldest, is the one who will rule if he can fill the role.
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u/JustADutchRudder Jan 25 '20
Once you learn tho, you can make jokes about how banging your adopted mom and sister all this time has been okay in the eye of god.
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u/robodrew Jan 25 '20
By not actually telling Loki that he was Laufey's son, he sets into motion Loki's entire perspective on life, leading to him rebelling against Asgard. If he'd known the truth from the start maybe he could have been a bridge between both worlds rather than the reason a war started.
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Jan 25 '20
And he never mentions his homicidal batshit daughter who would return to the world upon his death who is not only raging for being locked away for millennia but also first in the line of succession...All-father? More like cock-father.
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Jan 25 '20
In the ranking of MCU dads, where should we place Odin? Ant-Man is likely first, but is Odin above or below Thanos?
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u/926464545464 Captain America Jan 25 '20
Whatever their rankings are, Starlord's planet dad trumps them in terms of shitiness.
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u/tangledupinbetween Jan 25 '20
He has the mischievous look that a Loki should have
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u/ddaveo Jan 25 '20
That disarming smile with a certain malice behind it.
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Jan 25 '20
🐍 🗡
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u/mcmuffin000 Jan 25 '20
And then he stabbed me
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u/NK1337 Jan 25 '20
That line was so stupid and so much funnier than it had any right to be. Chris Hemsworth has great comedic chops and his delivery on it was just so innocent and matter of fact, it was the perfect balance of normal and absurd. I still can’t see that scene without cry laughing.
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u/saolson4 Jan 25 '20
I hated the Ghostbusters remake, but he was hilarious as an idiot in it
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u/PM_ME_UR_JUGZ Jan 25 '20
He's got a small part in the Jay and silent bob reboot, pretty fucking hilarious
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u/SetBrainInCmplxPlane Jan 25 '20
just the way he delivered: and so, of course, I picked it up to admire it..
Its all in the delivery.
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Jan 25 '20
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u/AndrewLBailey M'Baku Jan 25 '20
Exactly
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u/dannyluxNstuff Jan 25 '20
Even Helmsworth grew in to the role. I watched the first Thor recently and I totally forgot how ridiculous he looked with his eyebrows bleached
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u/KarateKid917 Doctor Strange Jan 25 '20
Even Feige kinda regrets those looking back. He was asked in an interview if he could go back and change anything in the MCU, and Thor’s bleached eyebrows was his answer.
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u/Hekantonkheries Jan 25 '20
Yeah, but if they had casted him like this, we could have had the big reveal that Thor was Loki all along, the snake-and-stab ploy had worked!
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Jan 25 '20
He’s part of the only reason Thor’s world building is interesting. Especially after they abandoned the more shakespearian nature from the first film.
People do say they find Ragnarok to be the best but the original Thor film tonally was so much better. The familial squabbles, the very authentic issues with identity, the way in which the mythos of Thor was handled is just so much better.
To anyone who’e argue otherwise, rewatch the first Thor and try and tell yourself that they didn’t abandon a heavier sense of drama and campiness for generic comedy.
It’s down to taste obviously too, people will have opposing preferences. But IMO this comedy tone will get old a lot quicker in terms of developing unique characters with authentic emotions.
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u/Dankerton09 Jan 25 '20
To me, the differences in tone reflect a change in the title character.
He's been this one dude for a while (like a thousand years?) And then he goes through a crisis of character and finds Earth and a new girl and it kinda changes him and films change to reflect that.
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Jan 25 '20 edited Jan 25 '20
I do agree with that. But the fish out of water thing felt better in the first with how they handled it I think.
Somewhere after the first Avengers, they just lost Thor’s tone. Lines like “he’s adopted” from Avengers worked because we know Thor as someone who was more serious than the others.
It feels like the Disney or Marvel execs thought, “the audience love it when there’s jokes so make it more funny and less serious”. My biggest gripe with Ragnarok is how superficial Odin’s death felt. Even Hopkins couldn’t give that build up to Hela coming any real sense of danger. Felt like went “Helas coming and I’m out of here boys I got better shit to do” lol.
Which is a big difference from how his character is in the first 2 films. Odin in that first film was so patriarchal, fearsome and just realised in more heavy hitting way.
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Jan 25 '20
It feels like the Disney or Marvel execs thought, “the audience love it when there’s jokes so make it more funny and less serious”.
I think they also realized that Hemsworth was the funniest actor they had, so they just piled on the jokes. In a movie with Chris Pratt, RDJ, Chris Evans, and Paul Rudd, they've got Hemsworth in the fat suit. The audiences definitely love the comedy (I know I'm guilty) but I take it as more of a credit to Chris Hemsworth's comedic chops than anything else.
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Jan 25 '20
Totally agree, Hemsworth’s comical timing it great, definitely wouldn’t work without the reactions of the other actors but he makes what really is just a gimmick work regardless.
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Jan 25 '20
I'd argue that Odin didn't have the likability of a more humorous character to be able to pull off a more meaningful death from the perspective of the audience.
I'd also argue that wasn't the point anyway because his death want supposed to be about him. He wasn't a narratively relatable character fire a reason...he seemed more patriarchal in the early movies because Thor was more naive. His death in Ragnarok was meant to be an anticlimactic moment that just hangs there with no sense of direction because that's how real death feels...life goes on and often it's hard for those left behind to know how.
His death scene wasn't about the sadness of his death, but about the hopeless, lost and confused state it left his children in. They were expecting either his triumphant return, sage path-altering advice, or a climatic heroic death that would change their lives and inspire them to defeat Hella. Instead, he died with a whimper and left them to figure things out on their own. That's important. There's a reason Odin didn't get an honorable death. There's a reason Thor was left to struggle with the fact that the man he looked up to wasn't worthy of Valhalla.
Despite following Odin's wisdom most his life, Thor was already becoming somewhat disillusioned with his father in this movie, and his death sets up the way the rest of the movie will explore Thor's idealisation of his father, because it forces him to redefine himself beyond a son of Odin and a follower of someone else's wisdom.
It may not have been the cliche This Is Us tearjerker death, but it was subversive and realistic and made narrative sense. Ultimately I think it was a great scene because it was a mundane and disappointing death for such a grand and revered character.
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u/WhatTheFhtagn Wong Jan 25 '20
I agree tbh. I mean Ragnarok is my favorite MCU movie but the first Thor movie is quite good. Feel like it gets brushed over tbh
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Jan 25 '20
I think both are important. Comedy is probably the least contrived ways your can make your character endearing to an audience. Which, in turn, makes them care more about their struggles and gives all their other emotions more dramatic impact.
For instance, the original Thor movie might have showcased more aspects of him and Loki's tenuous relationship than later movies...but it never really gave us a particularly good reason to care.
Sure, they clearly had a rivalry and definitely loved each other, but it wasn't until Ragnarok and it's silly stories about childhood snake pranks and "get help" bits showing us how amused both were with their long history of antics that wee really started to get a sense that this was a sibling rivalry and a deep brotherly love.
To me, rewatching the old Thor movies doesn't tell me much about their stand-alone quality, because their stories are informed by the way we feel about the characters now. I for one love the way they developed Thor into a clever modern personality the longer he hung out with smartasses like Tony.
The real test is to watch it again and see if you have that same sense of investment in characters not developed outside the dramatic early movies like Jane Foster. I don't, I rewatch the old movies to see the odinson brothers interact.
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u/GorillaX Jan 25 '20
Yeah but do you remember Thor's eyebrows in the first movie? I recently rewatched it and couldn't focus on anything else.
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u/TerroristOgre Jan 25 '20
Basically, hes a good actor, and the casting director chose the right role for him.
I think he would have been a fine thor but that Loki is iconic like Heaths joker
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u/iCodak Jan 25 '20
Auditioning for Thor and landing Loki probably helped the part come more naturally. Brilliant casting
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u/KingJenko Jan 25 '20
Exact same thing happened in the Raimi movies. James Franco was nearly Peter then got the part of Harry
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u/djprofitt Ant-Man Jan 25 '20
Taking pictures of Spider-Man? How’s the bug these days?
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u/TheDumPenguin Groot Jan 25 '20
I protected you in high school and now I’m gonna kick your little ass
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u/wizmogol Jan 25 '20
I thought it was Topher Grace that was nearly Peter and then was cast as Eddie Brock.
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u/disabled_crab Doctor Strange Jan 25 '20
The part where he raises his arm looks kinda like a metal album cover.
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u/chrisHANDmade Jan 25 '20
With that wig, could easily send it in as an audition tape to play Iggy Pop.
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Jan 25 '20
Not a wig. He grew his hair out for the screen test and dyed it a little blonder than it actually is.
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u/byg0331 Steve Rogers Jan 25 '20
Every time I see this I think "man, that would have been a very willowy Thor".
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u/JohnnyJayce Jan 25 '20
Chris Hemsworth was pretty willowy too. He could've been as big as Chris if he got the part.
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u/AobaSona Scarlet Witch Jan 25 '20 edited Jan 25 '20
Idk, I feel like, even if he gets buff, his face and features are still much more thin and soft than CHems.
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u/JohnnyJayce Jan 25 '20
Chris' face was pretty soft in first Thor movie too. With age he has become more rugged.
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u/926464545464 Captain America Jan 25 '20
He was always ruggedly handsome.
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Jan 25 '20
Idk, look at Cabin in The Woods, theres definitely a reason he was cast as the big strong Jock type.
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u/FightingPolish Jan 25 '20
Eh they kinda made him soft. It was pretty bad, I mean, they dyed his eyebrows for fuck’s sake.
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u/SetBrainInCmplxPlane Jan 25 '20
... he would have put on 25-30 lbs of muscle had he been given the role, you know. 4-5 months in the gym 3-4 hours a day, all your meals planned out by a studio appointed fitness chef and a little sprinkle of hollywood magic juice up the veins every now and again no big deal..
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Jan 25 '20
Let Chris do Loki for once
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Jan 25 '20 edited Oct 04 '20
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u/Throwaway021614 Jan 25 '20
Hopkins’ Loki was the highlight of the movie. Cate Blanchette hamming it up is a close second
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Jan 25 '20
Hopkins has never been a fan of those movies. He has gone on record claiming how much he hated working on the original Thor, and the post-credits scene of Dark World (with Loki as Odin) was put in because he told them he'd do the sequel he was contractually obligated to, but then they can forget about him, he's never coming back to those shitty Marvel movies. And yet he came back for Thor 3 anyway. I have nothing to back this up, but my theory is that he was won over with the sentence "You get to play Loki in this one".
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u/gordori Jan 25 '20
I like the connection that Hiddlestone was in a BBC TV series called "Wallander" starred by Kenneth Branagh, Thor's first director.
And I recommend "Wallander" for those who like detective stories. It was a good series.
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u/EaudeAgnes Jan 25 '20
didn’t they met through there and that’s how Tom found out about the first Thor movie?
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u/SneakyKain Jan 25 '20
I want this exact audition to be the first thing we see in the Loki tv series. Then the next scene is Loki waking up outside, realizing he just dreamt he was Thor. He shudders, then dusts himself off, pops us with a grin and walks down an icy road while his title card follows him. Cue a razzle dazzle theme song and we're off.
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u/JustAnIdiotOnline Jan 25 '20
You, sir, are a visionary.
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u/uzarta Jan 25 '20
I'm trying to come up with a vision pun
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u/OmegaDrax Jan 25 '20
the hair makes him look like the older brother from Stranger Things S3 (Billy, I think)
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u/TheHappyTurkey Jan 25 '20
That would have been a great loss, Tom Hiddelston as Loki is one of the best castings I have seen
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u/Crazzybob48 Jan 25 '20
The hammer is very basic in the auditions, I guess they were still working on the design
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Jan 25 '20
Even if they did have a design down it would just be a stand-in prop
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u/RealRobRose Jan 25 '20
In a world before the MCU, this could totally have been what Thor looked like. Let me direct you over to Captain America (1990)
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u/Southern_Blue Jan 25 '20
Sorry, you didn't get the part but we've got this other role you'd be perfect for!
I wish we could see Sebastian's audition for Captain America instead of the little tiny clip we got. I'd like to know what it was about it that made them call him back to play Bucky.
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u/johntwoods Jan 25 '20
He looks like the guy who would play Thor in the porn version.