Richard E. Grant seems the ideal candidate to be conscripted into Marvel’s cinematic universe: He’s an Oscar nominee (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) who doesn’t take himself too seriously (he’s been in two Hitman’s Bodyguard movies) and he’s already on the Disney payroll (having joined the Star Wars franchise for The Rise of Skywalker). Yet, the actor says he and Marvel had never discussed his entrée into the MCU until Loki.
“I’d been in Logan, but that’s completely separate,” he told me over Zoom. “I’d joked on and off down the years with Tom Hiddleston, because of some vague similarity in the way that we look — me, a much older version of course — about working together as father and son in something. I assumed because I was asked to play Old Loki, I thought, ‘Oh, this is the call finally,’ because of the physical similarity. So, that’s as much as I knew.”
Grant made his Loki debut in the post-credits scene of episode 4 as “Classic” Loki, a Variant of our Hiddleston’s God of Mischief who dons Loki’s comics-accurate green and gold getup and ultimately goes out in a blaze of magical glory in the penultimate episode. Ahead of the Loki finale, Grant chatted with ET about answering Marvel’s call, his one major complaint with his costume and whether Classic Loki is gone for good.
Richard E. Grant: Well, the key is in Old Loki, because being 64, I was older than anybody on the entire crew or cast. So, that was the clue in, I thought, “Old Loki, that’s it — I’m in the old age roles now.”
What else were you told about him in that initial pitch? And was the costume part of it? Because it seems so much part of the character.
Yeah. And when the costume designer showed me my face on this costume that she designed and I saw the Jack Kirby drawings from the ’60s, I thought, “Oh, great! As I have no muscles” — as you can see — “I’m finally going to be in a muscle suit. I’m going to have muscles like Tom has got!” And of course, I got there and I said, “Well, where’s the muscle suit?” They said, “You don’t have a muscle suit. This is what you’re wearing.” I said, “But this is like Kermit the Frog. There’s no muscles. There’s nothing here! How can I fight in Asgard?” [Laughs] “No, no, it’s your magic that counts!” And I said, “Help me. Just give me the muscle suit,” but they refused. So, I’m still sore headed that I was never given a muscle suit to fight Asgard as in all the drawings. I still don’t really why they didn’t do that, but maybe they wanted withered Loki. Who knows?
So, what was your reaction the first time you got all the garb on and saw yourself in the mirror?
Horrified, because I had no muscles! I was standing there like sort of a geek with these Y-fronts. I remember when I was a kid in the back of all the comics, they used to have these little drawing adverts with a skinny kid having sand kicked in his face. And they used to have these chest expanders, they said, “Send off for one of these chest expanders and you too could look like Thor!” Well, I never did, and I thought, well, finally, when I’m cast as Old Loki, this is going to be my chance. And damn, they took it away from me in that too. So I’m pissed at them for that.
How did Hiddleston react when he first saw you in it?
He said, “You have no idea what kind of response this is going to elicit when it comes out.” I said, “That doesn’t sound too positive or hopeful to me without the muscles, Tom.” And he said, “No, no, believe me, I’ve been playing this part and there’s a universe of people who are so obsessed and so ready to see Classic Loki. Be prepared for it.” I didn’t really take him seriously. I thought, “Well it’s a TV series. How many people will watch this on a new channel?” Yada, yada. And how right he was looking into the crystal ball and how wrong I was, because since it came out last Wednesday, I have been absolutely flabbergasted by the response. My Twitter feed and Instagram have increased in vast numbers, and the response has been pretty astonishing. I’m amazed and grateful that it hasn’t been negative so far.
I loved your post, by the way, about how your father would have reacted to this costume.
Well, he was right! I’m still at 64 earning my crust by wearing makeup and green tights. [Laughs]
I have to assume this was also your first time with an alligator as your scene partner?
It was. And in reality it was three stuffed cushions sewn together. Sort of fun to hold!
Alligator Loki is such a breakout star and I loved seeing the blue plushy you used on set. What was it like filming those scenes? Did it feel absolutely ridiculous?
No, because I was grateful. Very often you’d have dots or crosses or just a tennis ball on a stick to react to, so the fact that we actually had the soft cushioned shape of something alligator-like was a help. But it’s just the nature of being an actor. You know that the CGI and the graphics and production design department, they come up with something amazing. What I didn’t take on board is that, of course, he’d have these beautiful gold horns on top of his alligator sideways eyes. I love that. I’ve only seen the stills of it, but it looks amazing.
