Tom looks up to 6ft 3in co-star Liz
Tom Hiddleston makes an intrepid undercover operative battling a silken- tongued predator — and trying to save a delicious damsel in distress — in The Night manager.
‘It’s John le Carre — not Ian Fleming!’ the actor stressed of the 1993 novel, which has been adapted into a gripping six-part espionage thriller, which was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last night ahead of its launch on BBC1 on Sunday. (The BBC TV production was made with the U. S. cable channel AmC and Londonbased The Ink Factory.)
‘I play an ex- soldier in the British Army who had two tours in the middle East,’ Hiddleston said of Jonathan Pine, the character he portrays in the absorbing drama.
Following a tragic event in Cairo, Pine takes a post as the night manager of a hotel in the Swiss Alps. ‘He’s hidden in the snow, and then one night, he greets some important guests.’
The group is led by Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie.
‘Le Carre describes Roper as “the worst man in the world”,’ Hiddlestone said. ‘Richard Roper is somebody who is the most elegant, sophisticated, charming Englishman — but who is selling napalm and sarin gas to the highest bidder in the middle East, and le Carre’s moral anger about it is fierce.’ Hiddleston said he lucked out with The Night manager and lauded his fellow cast members. ‘Hugh’s so good in it, because he’s such a charming, sophisticated fellow himself.’
olivia Colman plays Angela Burr, the m16 officer who persuades Pine to go undercover to take down the arms dealer from the inside. In the book, Burr was a bloke, but Colman grabs the role and makes it her own.
one key part is taken by Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, who until now has given solid performances in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and a version of Jean Genet’s The maids that played in Sydney and Brooklyn. But it’s The Night manager that will catapult her to stardom.
‘ Elizabeth plays Hugh’s girlfriend,’ Hiddleston said, adding that we shouldn’t give too much away about what she does with the role of Jed.
I don’t think it’s revealing too much — or maybe it is? — when I note the moonlit nude swimming scene Debicki performs in.
She’s an exceptional actress who holds her own in sequences with a top-tier cast that also includes Tom Hollander, Tobias menzies and Douglas Hodge.
She’s also exceptionally tall — at 6ft 3in, Debicki is threequarters of an inch taller than Hiddleston and she carries her height beautifully.
WORKING
from a screenplay by David Farr and cinematography by michael Snyman, the director Susanne Bier deftly exposes the fault line that lurks under the surface of some of our shadowy government departments.
Hiddleston arrived in Berlin from Australia, where he has been filming kong: Skull Island with best actress oscar hopeful Brie Larson.
He then heads to Vietnam to continue shooting the kong film, and there’s much speculation about him returning to the role of bad boy Loki in Thor 3.
‘might do,’ was all he would tell me about the marvel film.