Tom Hiddleston finds his groove
This year, in the acclaimed film The Life of Chuck and a buzzy, inventive adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, Hiddleston danced like no one was watching
While making The Life of Chuck, Tom Hiddleston confronted the limits of his body. In the film, Hiddleston plays a man who dies from a brain tumour before turning 40. It opens with his death, then runs the tape of his life backwards to revisit formative scenes from his childhood, like how dancing saved him after the death of his parents, to imbue his short time on earth with a singular significance that feels cosmic.
In the middle of the film, an adult Chuck walks toward a drummer busking outside, deposits his briefcase on the ground, and launches into a six-minute dance routine with the precision of a military strike. The scene required Hiddleston to undertake two months of training as a crash course in the history of dance. “On Monday, we would do jazz. On Tuesday, we would do swing. On Wednesday, we would do salsa. On Thursday we would do samba,” he says. “And on Friday, we would check in with my knees.”
Hiddleston saw the routine as something of a personal challenge, lighting up when he read in the original short story by Stephen King that Chuck “takes flight” when he begins to dance. “I thought: Learn these dance moves now. Commit to the challenge of being as precise and free as Chuck is in that moment, because I might not be able to do it forever.”
The film’s message of finding joy “in a world that feels like it’s falling apart” resonated with audiences. At the Toronto Film Festival last year it won the coveted, and often Oscar-determining, People’s Choice Award, the same honour which this year went to Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet. It also struck a chord with the actor himself, who, despite the film’s dystopian opening act and close focus on death, found the story life-affirming. “Chuck makes it to 39 and no further. I’m already 44,” he says. “It just made me hold on to the people that I love. I didn’t find it maudlin or morbid at all, it really made me appreciate life.”
Hiddleston’s dance moves have had a big year, also taking centre stage in director Jamie Lloyd’s production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Soundtracked with 90s club classics, and with bottles of Jägermeister and heaps of pink confetti littering the stage, the Shakespeare comedy took on the energy of a house party. “I’ve always loved dancing,” Hiddleston says. “I think it’s a language we learn before we learn the language of self-consciousness.”
This lack of self-consciousness is a common theme of Hiddleston’s work. Perhaps you are thinking of his dialled-in take on a suave military officer in The Night Manager, the long-anticipated second season of which is coming next year. Perhaps you saw the viral clip of him dancing on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man, in which he springs to life like a wind-up toy. Perhaps you know it from watching him revel in the ridiculous side of Marvel’s capricious anti-villain Loki.
Hiddleston says that when first playing Loki he was “borrowing references [he] knew from Shakespeare”, an idea that came full circle when some critics saw the fingerprints of Marvel on the Much Ado production. Does he see similarities between the two universes? “Shakespeare wrote really larger-than-life, complex characters and part of the privilege of getting to play those parts is that you get to inhabit that complexity,” he says. “What I found with the Marvel stories and characters is that they have this capacity to cross culture and language and age. They are wildly different but the heroes are who we want to be; the villains are who we are afraid we are.”
Hiddleston’s performances are animated by the same sincere enthusiasm. This was the key to his Benedick in Much Ado, with Hiddleston greatly admiring his character’s front-footed energy. “There’s something very generous about those people in life – they keep the vibe going at the party.” he says. “I guess my expression of that was to commit to extremely silly dancing, and some very foolish rolling around on the floor.”
The audience responded to that enthusiasm in kind, with the production breaking records for the five highest grossing weeks for a play in West End history, and the final week achieving the highest box office figures to date. Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell – who played the opponent in his “merry war”, Beatrice – both started to see the play as a “400-year old ride” that they often simply had to get out of the way of. “You find yourself turning into a bend thinking, this is really funny,” he says. “Then you realise, this has been funny for 400 years. It will always be funny.”
The production revisited another period in the past with its playlist of what he describes as “90s bangers”. During the run, Hiddleston’s friends would come along and find themselves drawn into this story of two middle-aged people who might have left it a bit late in life, nostalgically set to the soundtrack of their own mispent youth. These songs – like “The Rhythm of The Night” by Corona and “Groove is in the Heart” by Dee-Lite – rang out as audiences came into the theatre and throughout the production, inviting everyone into the party. “People would say that it was so reassuring to hear those songs and tracks, like oh mate we’re back in the 90s! There’s something about time-travelling back to your mispent youth and refinding your folly… at least in my case.” he laughs. “There’s some good tunes in there.”
Who are this year's honourees?
This year, we're celebrating a slice of the movie actors, musicians, TV stars and sportspeople who made 2025 their own.
After terrifying us all in Oscar-favourite Sinners and the long awaited 28 Years Later earlier this summer, Jack O'Connell is gonna be there — and we're hoping he'll light up the dancefloor with an Irish jig. So too will Task's Fabien Frankel and Severance's Tramell Tillman, who have emerged this year as two of TV's heaviest hitters. (And yes, we've got Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno, the boys from The Summer I Turned Pretty, the biggest show of the year.) Adding to our bumper contingent of A-list acting royalty, Stellan Skarsgård — who put in one of the buzziest performances of 2025 in Sentimental Value — and Tom Hiddleston will join us on the night.
We'll have theatre mega-producer Jamie Lloyd, after his Evita with Rachel Zegler became the talk of the West End over the summer. England rugby hero Maro Itoje joins us after he captained the British & Irish Lions to victory in Australia. Following that Euros win, we couldn't do MOTY without the Lionesses, and Lewis Capaldi joins us after his big Glasto comeback in the summer. And our VIP list is rounded off by three musical acts who've taken the year by storm: Laufey, Nemzzz — who will perform for us on the night — and Wet Leg.
GQ Men of the Year takes place on 18 November. Check out all the action on our MOTY homepage
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