The Night Manager will see you now – Tom Hiddleston checks in with High Life

Words: Matt Maytum
Photography: Jason Hetherington 
Styling: Gareth Scourfield

It’s one of those moments in life where you get to see hidden London,” grins Tom Hiddleston, recalling his High Life shoot in the capital’s storied Hotel Café Royal, from which he could see over Piccadilly’s iconic illuminated billboard. “I’ve never stood at that vantage point. I’ve walked through Piccadilly Circus probably over a thousand times in my life. I could see London in a different way.”

It’s a fitting setting for the shoot, as Hiddleston gears up for the return of hit spy series The Night Manager, where swish hotels play a key role. This particular location offers noir-ish shadows to reflect the show’s themes of identity and duality. But its past also feels thrillingly apt, as the venue has a history of espionage and intrigue. Among other politicians and intelligence officers, Churchill was a regular, and it was the ideal spot for the 1930-founded crime-writer group The Detection Club to hold its secret initiation ceremony (and a slap-up dinner afterwards). One eventual member was the late David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, the security-services operative turned author of novels including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and, yes, The Night Manager.

“It was in a really British place, a really iconic location, but with these clandestine perspectives,” recalls Hiddleston over an Americano and a plate of scrambled eggs when we catch up later in a cosy London café. “It felt very appropriate.” He’s also keen to name-check not just photographer Jason Hetherington but the whole team who worked on the shoot. His refusal to hog credit is a recurring theme as he continually shouts out key collaborators, such as the team – including writer David Farr, director Georgi Banks-Davies, and exec producers (and Le Carré’s sons) Simon and Stephen Cornwell – who helped bring The Night Manager season two into being some ten years after the first series was a critical and ratings smash.

“There was a great sense of, when we go again, if we go again, we have to be absolutely sure we can clear that bar,” contemplates Hiddleston. His character, Jonathan Pine, was a former soldier turned hotel night manager, whose particular set of skills saw him recruited by the Foreign Office to bring down arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). That experience has left scars.

“I think one of the most interesting things about the experience is it’s been ten years in the real world, it’s been ten years for me personally, it’s been ten years for Jonathan Pine, and he has lived through everything we’ve lived through since the last one,” adds the actor, who could almost be undercover now, wearing a casual blue shirt and puffer jacket rather than a sharp suit or Asgardian robes.

With the world more fragmented and uncertain, digging deep into Pine’s life and head space was one of the key appeals for Hiddleston, who got to know Le Carré (who cameoed in the first season) before his death. One quote of Le Carré’s, given in a documentary interview, has continued to resonate: “You learn early on there is no centre to a human being.”

“I think that is what a great spy story scratches at,” considers Hiddleston. “How has this human being become so good at the game of deception and betrayal? Behind the masks that we wear, who are we really?” He seems incapable of taking a shallow approach, whether he’s examining a spy, a super-(anti)hero or a Shakespearean icon.

But for all of the psychological richness The Night Manager offers, there’s also the excitement and glamour of globe-trotting. This time, Pine finds himself going rogue in Spain and Colombia to investigate Teddy dos Santos (Diego Calva), who may have connections to Roper’s shady network. As Hiddleston explains, on top of a riveting thriller engine, “We get to take the audience on an adventure through places they may not have seen before. Colombia was amazing. I’ve never been to South America before. There were some days out in the jungle and in Medellín. Medellín is an unbelievable city.”

Let it be noted that Hiddleston’s pronunciation of place names is spot-on, and – as one of Britain’s most successful actors of screen and stage – his profession has afforded him some life-changing travel opportunities. A particularly special one, he points out, is monster-sized adventure Kong: Skull Island, with the giant ape’s mythical home created using a composite of places in three real-world locations: Oahu in Hawaii, the rainforest of Queensland, Australia, and Vietnam’s lakes and valleys and Ha Long Bay. “To have travelled with one film to Hawaii, Australia and Vietnam was breathtaking,” he says. “And you get this unique experience because we’re often going to locations you wouldn’t get to see. You just wake up and think, ‘I can’t believe I get to be here.’ I’ve lived a blessed life.”

Among his career blessings is having played a pivotal role in the biggest film franchise of all time, as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having impressed early on in his fledgling career on stage, television and film, Loki sent him stratospheric. He has played the trickster across film, TV, animation and a live Comic Con appearance since Thor in 2011 (he originally auditioned for the title character, but fate had other ideas), constantly finding new dimensions to the mercurial Asgardian outcast. “I’ve been playing Loki for nearly 16 years, and the character itself is still fascinating, so complex, so deep. God of mischief, but also god of redeeming character arcs,” he laughs. “Every time I play him, it’s different, and there’s always somewhere new to go.”

Loki has brought Hiddleston an ever-growing fanbase – the expanding universe and the character’s enduring popularity always bringing new fans in addition to those who have grown up with the character. “It’s such an honour to be accepted into the imagination of young people and children,” he says. “It’s so moving sometimes when people stop me in the street and say, ‘You’re my childhood.’”

His adventures as Loki are set to continue in one of the most anticipated films of this year, Avengers: Doomsday, in which Robert Downey Jr returns to the franchise as villain Doctor Doom. “It was just so fun,” says Hiddleston of re-entering to that world. “It will absolutely transcend your expectations, that film. That’s all I know. I can say it transcended my expectations: the structure of it, the movie itself… the places it goes to is extraordinary.”

Hiddleston has also continued to return to the stage. In 2025, he starred in Jamie Lloyd’s neon-bright take on Much Ado About Nothing in the West End. Balancing TV, film and stage has been something he has actively sought to do. “I love working in all three,” he enthuses. “And I would say they all feed each other. I’ve always admired the actors in generations above me who managed to strike that balance where something about the vulnerability of being on stage keeps you honest as an actor.”

Another important aspect of his life has impacted how he chooses roles: Hiddleston and partner Zawe Ashton recently welcomed a second child. He calls fatherhood “the most important role I’ll ever play”, and among the many considerations to take into account, one he pinpoints is, “‘What do I want to leave in the world for them?’ That’s the best way of putting it, I guess.” It’s a sentiment that chimes with his 2025 film, The Life of Chuck, an inventive and uplifting Stephen King adaptation that saw him break out into a truly life-affirming dance number that required two months of training.

As for where he goes next, there could be further missions for Jonathan Pine. There have been conversations about a third series, he says. “I think there’s something thrilling about a trilogy, because it means the journey can have a few more twists and turns… We can push Pine and these other characters to extremes they haven’t yet known, and those extremes will be revealing.” Beyond that, he’s continuing to dig deep into his passions. After our chat he’s jetting off to film National Geographic docuseries Surviving Pompeii. “My whole life I’ve loved that story,” he says.

Also out this year is another film that has allowed him to indulge his adventurous side: Tenzing is the story of the relationship between Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and explorer Edmund Hillary, the first people to summit Mount Everest. “It was as unique an experience as an actor as I will ever have – to climb, to walk and hike almost to base camp,” he says of playing Hillary. The film also shot in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. “It was completely overwhelming. Beautiful, sometimes physically challenging, completely inspiring and unrepeatable. Coming to a mountain near you soon, or a cinema!” he smiles. That passion for exploration is not going to dim any time soon.

The Night Manager season two will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on 1 January in the UK, and on Prime Video, where available, from 11 January. The Night Manager season one is available to watch on board selected British Airways flights.