Tom Hiddleston is used to flashy fight sequences. In the three Marvel movies he's made (and the fourth one that will shoot this summer), these elaborately choreographed scenes are staged in front of green screens. We may panic watching Loki dangle from the side of the rainbow bridge in Asgard, but obviously no children, small animals or hunky Internet boyfriends were harmed in the making of the "Thor" films.
Hiddleston's latest movie, "High-Rise," is far less action-driven, and perhaps that's why the movie's fight scene was far more dangerous. Or at least he was worried it would be.
HIddleston plays Dr. Robert Laing, a 1970s pathologist who moves into a chic, full-service London apartment tower seized by a dystopian class structure. In the 40-story building, the privileged reside in the top half, while the underclass is relegated to the bottom floors. The besuited Laing moves to the 25th story following the death of his sister, and he is quickly invited to opulent parties thrown in the owner's penthouse. After a power outage, resources dwindle and a surreal tribe warfare breaks out. From there, the movie -- based on J.G. Ballard's novel and directed by Ben Wheatley -- gets pretty bonkers.
None of it is as adrenaline-inducing as Hiddleston's superhero work, but that's precisely why the 35-year-old Brit had to apologize in advance to a stuntman in case he inadvertently clocked him. The scene in question is a raid at the high-rise's in-house supermarket, where supplies have grown scarce. A brawl erupts.
"The raid ... was very, very chaotic," Hiddleston said. "I shook hands with a stuntman who I knew was going to play somebody involved in a fight with me. Ben had said, 'I don’t want this to look like a superhero fight,' and he said that as a huge fan of superhero films. He said, 'I don’t want this to look choreographed so that it has kinetic action. ... Do what you need to do, warm up, plan whatever you need to plan.'"
Wheatley shot the scene with handheld cameras so as not to need unnecessary cuts in the editing room, meaning the action was captured continuously. He offered for Hiddleston to wear pads for protection, but the actor's "transparent" white dress shirt didn't allow it.
"But the stuntman was padded up," Hiddleston said. "We just shook hands and we were on a parquet floor, and we just rolled around. We warmed up a bit and we looked at each other and I said, 'I apologize in advance if I accidentally clip you on the ear.'"
Both men made it out unscathed, and Hiddleston called the experience of staging a fight sequence on the fly "refreshing." Now he's off to the end days of Ragnarök, where the character stakes are high but the actors' physical risks, if all goes well, are relatively low. (No offense to Robert Downey Jr., of course.)
"High-Rise" is now in limited released and available on-demand. It also stars Elisabeth Moss, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Luke Evans and James Purefoy.
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