From Loki to Chuck: Tom Hiddleston's Best Performances, Ranked

I Saw the Light was the movie that saw the Westminster-born actor cast as Hank Williams, a famously folksy, salt-of-the-earth American singer—a choice that didn't go down well at the time with Williams' fans and even his own grandson. Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of Hiddleston, you might appreciate seeing him try to tackle a role like this—in some ways, it's not dissimilar to what Joaquin Phoenix achieved (albeit more successfully) with Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. 

The slightly middling movie probably deserved the mixed reviews, but credit to Hiddleston for taking a swing at it and even singing the songs. 

From his early days in the industry, Hiddleston proved himself adept at holding the screen in large canvas movies and quickly became a go-to actor for some of the biggest-name directors. This was certainly evident when Guillermo del Toro offered him the role of Thomas Sharpe in Crimson Peak, a riveting gothic horror that fans of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow or Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden will definitely appreciate. 

The movie is a classic haunted house tale, with Mia Wasikowska as the writerly heroine and Hiddleston as the tragic antihero—a man whose loyalty to his scheming sister (a typically wonderful Jessica Chastain) may prove to be his undoing.

Directed by the relative indie newcomer Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Kong: Skull Island never quite got the recognition it deserved at the time of release, despite being warmly reviewed by some critics. This is a solid adventure yarn that takes its cues less from previous Kong films than from movies like Apocalypse Now—so if you like that kind of journey into madness trope, as seen more recently in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, you should definitely check it out. 

In a clear nod to the Heart of Darkness writer, Hiddleston’s character is even named Conrad—except that here the man is not a writer but a former SAS captain who joins an expedition to the titular island in 1973. You can probably guess what they find there.

Alongside some memorable smaller roles, such as in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, Hiddleston has been at the helm of a number of independent films. Among the best was High-Rise, an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s satirical dystopian novel about a luxury apartment complex—and if you’re a fan of other Ballard-inspired work, like Crash, or appreciate the speculative science fiction of movies like Snowpiercer or Children of Men, this might be the one for you. 

Directed by Ben Wheatley, a red-hot filmmaker at the time who has gone a bit off the boil in more recent years, the movie stars Hiddleston as Robert Laing, a physicist who moves into the titular tower block just as its oppressive social order begins to fall apart.

When The Life of Chuck won the TIFF audience award back in 2024, it looked like a certain bet for last year’s Oscars. Weirdly enough, that never came to pass, with the movie having to wait almost 12 months to be released. No matter: after finally arriving in cinemas and now on streaming, it has been charming audiences ever since, not least as it promises the opportunity to see Hiddleston dance.

Based on one of Steven King’s more heartfelt stories, it’s a movie that takes place in reverse, beginning with a worrisome teacher (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in a sequence. that seems to resemble the end of the world, and only introduces Hiddleston’s Chuck midway through the second act. It would be wrong to give anything else away, but suffice to say, if you’re partial to the sentimentality of a good Robert Zemeckis movie (like the recent Here or even Forrest Gump), there's a good chance you'll warm to it. If not, prepare to cringe. 

One of Hiddleston’s early career highlights was starring opposite Rachel Weisz in the legendary British filmmaker Terrence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea—and if you’re a fan of the director’s later movies, like Sunset Song or A Quiet Passion, this one’s a real beauty. 

Based on Terrence Rattigan’s play and set in 1950, the story mostly takes place in a single apartment, where Weisz’s Hester Collyer, the wife of a judge (played by Simon Russell Beale), has a romantic affair with Hiddleston’s Freddie Paige, a young RAF pilot struggling with PTSD from his experiences in WWII. 

After everything that’s happened since, it’s incredible that Hiddleston’s first two feature film roles, in Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated and Archipelago, remain two of his very best. These were also the movies that really made Hogg’s name as a filmmaker, so if you appreciated her more recent movie, The Souvenir (and its fascinating sequel), I highly recommend going back to check these two out.

It’s especially interesting to see how Hogg uses the actor’s unconventional sex appeal.

One of Hiddleston’s all-time coolest roles came in the Palme d’Or-nominated movie, Only Lovers Left Alive. Directed by independent cinema legend Jim Jarmusch and co-starring the great Tilda Swinton (another of Hogg's frequent collaborators), Only Lovers is a vampire movie told through Jarmusch’s unique storytelling style—so if you’re a fan of the director’s other work, like Paterson or Broken Flowers, you will definitely be into it. 

The story focuses on two vampires (Hiddleston and Swinton) as they reminisce about meeting everyone from Lord Byron to Oscar Wilde and Jimi Hendrix. Conflict arises when a younger vampire, played by Mia Wasikowska, appears on the scene.

On the small screen, Hiddleston’s roles have been equally as eclectic and captivating. He’s popped up in period TV films and series such as Return to Cranford and played William Shakespeare’s party-boy Prince Hal in The Hollow Crown’s “Henry IV Part I” and “Part II”. None has done more for Hiddleston’s popularity and career than the BBC’s BAFTA-award-winning adaptation of John le Carre’s novel The Night Manager—an espionage-inflected thriller (costarring Hugh Laurie) that fans of le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or the more recent Slow Horses will love.

Having been mentioned as a future James Bond for years, The Night Manager gave audiences a thrilling taste of what that might have looked like—another reason to watch for any Bond fans out there. The performance also landed him an Emmy nomination and secured him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a miniseries, marking an early high point in his career. Then, just this year, he returned with a second season, which has been welcomed by fans and critics with open arms.