‘Tom Hiddleston has a great affinity for kind of the bull fighter, very stoic, tall, reaching, almost balletic style. And that speaks very much to him, and how his character and personality are as Loki. And so we built a lot of his stuff off of that. Had a lot of fun with him, you know, exaggerating his movements and flowing. We did some sequences as drills for him obviously using the blades, but for the most part it was about him try to be very graceful, and have Sylvie be... more of a street fighter, because she never lived the God life, she was always hiding, she was always on the run. He comes from this place of grace, and she doesn’t.’- Loyd Bateman, Fight Coordinator on Marvel Studios’ Loki
Q: How is his [Tom Hiddleston's] movement then, in terms of co-ordinating him?
A: He is very co-ordinated, he learns very quickly and he drills, he is not afraid to do it a thousand times and he'll go slow and move through it and you know frankly Sophia, she'd be done like totally cooked and he's like "just a few more" and she's like "oh my god, I can't do anymore of these" like he would just keep going and going. He's got an amazing amount of stamina, in fact before every take of everything he'll do like 20 squats, 10 pushups and sprint 100m back and forth and then do the take. Every time, all day long he's sprinting and running and doing- seriously- all day and I'm not just talking about the fight days, he does it on the regular acting days to he'll do a bunch of squats and push-ups and do then do the scene. It's pretty crazy. He's massively strong and tons of stamina it's great.
Q: It must be nice to have an actor that is willing to put in that effort and go beyond to really bring the action that you are designing to life, it makes it so much more appreciable, you know as a fan.
A: absolutely and he you know- you can do so much more with him because they're in it, they're traced the whole time, you get actors who are like ' eh I dunno if I can do this, just let the double do it' and its really annoying, it's like why we've got you here right now, we've worked hard all day, I know your're tired but we're all tired lets just do this, so it was pretty great, he put in a ton of work.
Q: As a fan I appreciate seeing the actors really go all out and then being able to watch them do it really it just makes it cooler
A: way cooler, it's way cooler when the actors are doing it themselves and you can tell they've put in the work and you are not cutting from a tight shot of them grinning and a wide shot of the double, there's so many times when they cheat that stuff and it's like 'eeh i don't buy it' especially when you know right, it's fine when you don't really care but when you know and you're looking like yeah they just cut into the actors face there cause they didn't use them at all.
-Loyd Bateman, Fight Coordinator, Marvel's "LOKI" @ 25 mins on Kung Fu Drive-In Podcast
Listen to this episode from Kung Fu Drive-In Podcast on Spotify. Capoeira practitioner, fight coordinator, stuntman, filmmaker LOYD BATEMAN joins the show fresh off of Season One of Marvel's LOKI! Loyd served as the fight coordinator for the series and talks with me about designing action for an Asgardian god as he skips through time. Also, we go into his study of the brazilian martial art of capoeira and how it prepared him for the stunt life. Plus some incredible insights into the preparation of some of Loki's actors before they yell ACTION!
[extract]
Approx: 9 - 10:30mins
‘Tom Hiddleston has a great affinity for kind of the bull fighter, very stoic, tall, reaching, almost balletic style. And that speaks very much to him, and how his character and personality are as Loki. And so we built a lot of his stuff off of that. Had a lot of fun with him, you know, exaggerating his movements and flowing. We did some sequences as drills for him obviously using the blades, but for the most part it was about him try to be very graceful, and have Sylvie be... more of a street fighter, because she never lived the God life, she was always hiding, she was always on the run. He comes from this place of grace, and she doesn’t.’
25:10 How was [Tom’s] movement in terms of coordinating him?
‘He is very coordinated. He learns very quickly. And he drills. He is not afraid to do it a thousand times. And he’ll go slow and move through it. Frankly Sophia, she’d be done, like, totally cooked, and he’s like, ‘Just a few more’, and she’s be like, ‘Oh my God! I can’t do anymore of these!’ He will just keep going and going. He has an amazing amount of stamina. In fact, before every take of everything, he’ll do like twenty squats, ten push-ups, and sprint 100 metres back and forth, and then do the take. Every time. All day long he’s sprinting and running.’
Wait. Seriously?
‘Seriously! All day. And i’m not just talking about on the fight days. He does it on the regular acting days too... It’s pretty crazy. He’s massively strong, and tons of stamina. It’s great.
It must be nice to have an actor that is willing to put in that effort, and go beyond, to really bring the action you’re designing to life, ‘cause it makes it so much more appreciable, as a fan.
‘Absolutely. You can do so much more with them, because they’re in it, it’s their face the whole time. You get actors who are just. ‘palm it off to second unit, let the double do it’. And it’s really annoying... So it’s pretty great. He put in a ton of work. So did Sophia by the way. She worked her butt off, and, when we started the show she had just had a baby a month prior. And she’d never trained martial arts of any kind in her life, so she was fresh.’
