The Improvised Avengers Scene That Tom Hiddleston Regrets Filming
With 10 years under his belt now as Marvel's resident trickster Loki, including his own TV series on Disney+, it seems that there's not much that Tom Hiddleston hasn't done in the MCU at this point. But there's certainly one thing he wishes he hadn't.
The moment came during a scene for 2012's "The Avengers," and it's one that has stuck with Hiddleston for quite some time now — to the point where he's brought it up on late-night talk shows. In an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in September 2019, Hiddleston spoke about one stunt towards the end of the film involving Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor. With the help of a little movie magic, Hiddleston was meant to dodge actual physical harm, but Hiddleston ended up improvising with disastrous results.
Hiddleston let Hemsworth really punch him in Avengers scene
According to the "Loki" star, Chris Hemsworth actually delivered a punch to his face during their fight scene on top of Stark tower in the last act of "The Avengers." Tom Hiddleston described in 2019 what went into the decision and how he immediately regretted it afterward.
"On film, it's all about angles when you're fighting. You're trying to get the angles of the different parts of the choreography to tell the story," he told Stephen Colbert. "There was a scene in 'Avengers' where Thor had to strike Loki across the face and I was wearing the horns, which weigh about 30 pounds. And I couldn't really sell the hit, the smack. So I just said to Chris, 'I think you should just hit me in the face.' Terrible idea. I went down like a stone."
Hiddleston — a classically trained actor — noted how if "The Avengers" had been a theater production he would have been paying the price of his improvisation on a nightly basis. "On stage when you're doing a fight, you have to do it every night. So, one hundred-odd performances. I think if I was being hit in the face by Chris Hemsworth day after day, I don't know if I'd be able to manage that. It wouldn't be sustainable."