text: Tom Hiddleston: I have been inspired by Ibsen and Indiana Jones - Business Live
  Tom Hiddleston: I have been inspired by Ibsen and Indiana Jones
  Back in 2010, few cinemagoers had Tom Hiddleston on their radar.
  Fast forward a year and he has been a staple on the big screen, appearing in four films, including Kenneth Branagh's Thor and Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris.
  His hard work and constant perseverance has already paid off, winning him a place on the shortlist for the Bafta Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award.
  Tom, looking sharp in a fitted three-piece designer suit and slicked-back hair, says he still has to pinch himself at times.
  "It's been a very busy year, but it's great!" says the 30-year-old. "To be totally honest, before the beginning of 2010 I had only ever made one feature film, and then I made five in 12 months."
  As well as playing villain Loki in Thor and American author F Scott Fitzgerald in Allen's nostalgic romantic drama, the London-born, Eton-educated actor has starred in mentor Joanna Hogg's Archipelago and Terence Davies' period piece The Deep Blue Sea, alongside Rachel Weisz.
  His next appearance is as debonair cavalry officer Captain Nicholls in War Horse – Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the stage play, based on Michael Morpurgo's novel.
  "It's been a rollercoaster ride. The directors I've worked with in the space of one year are on the wish list of the directors I'd like to work with in a lifetime," says Tom.
  "To go from Kenneth Branagh to Steven Spielberg to Woody Allen to Terence Davies, all four of them are some of the most accomplished cinematic artists in living memory. I've been very, very lucky."
  Set amid the backdrop of the First World War, War Horse centres on the close connection between a young boy, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), and his horse Joey.
  Tom's character buys Joey, only to ride him into the battlefield.
  "The experience of the film is breathtaking. It's about hope and courage and perseverance, set against the shocking waste of that particular war," says Tom.
  "Steven told me he'd been looking for a story to tell about the First World War for a while, and then he saw the stage show and was moved beyond words by it."
  The Oscar-winning director has likened Tom to screen legend Errol Flynn.
  "Steven gave me the most amazing note during the cavalry charge," he says.
  "He said, 'Give me your war face at the top of the shot, but as you feel the camera move across your face, I want you to de-age yourself by 20 years. I want to see the child in you.' That was astonishing."
  The role was challenging at times, as he had to master riding on a horse with weapon in hand.
  "Working with swords requires a lot of precision, practice and discipline – especially working swords around horses. From day one, we had to start learning to ride one-handed," he recalls.
  Tom, who got a double first in Classics from Cambridge, was inspired to act after watching a Henrik Ibsen play.
  "When I was 14, I saw John Gabriel Borkman with Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins. It wasn't an easy time in my life at that age and I felt a unity of understanding in the audience.
  "But I don't want to be too po-faced about it. Long before I saw the play, I saw Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and wanted to do that too.
  "Some of the great times of my life were in Thor and The Avengers, where it's superheroes, gods and flying through space and time."
  He made his screen debut in the ITV film The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby in 2001.
  A handful of TV roles in Wallander (he is a dating his Wallander co-star Susannah Fielding), Cranford and Casualty among stage parts in The Changeling, Cymbeline and Othello soon followed.
  "Success didn't happen instantly," he admits. "There has been rejection along the way. It's a tough profession but it's also the best job in the world."
  This year he is preparing to play Henry V in a BBC adaptation and twice reprising his role as Marvel baddie Loki – in The Avengers (opposite Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans) and the forthcoming Thor 2.
  "The best characters in Tim Burton's Batman and Die Hard are Jack Nicholson's Joker and Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber, so this year's a fulfilment of a long-held dream where I get to be the ultimate baddie in a big blockbuster," he says.
  "Having said that, there was a day over the summer when my friend texted me inviting me to a barbecue. My response was, 'Just being the world's most evil super-villain. Joss Whedon wants me to be really feral and really dark, so I won't be able to make your barbecue, sorry'.