Serious British stage actor Tom Hiddleston has come to Broadway this month to do serious British stage actor things like star in a production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, and he will not be taking questions about other trivial matters like the time he dated Taylor Swift three years ago, thank you very much. That’s the message you get from the compulsory Betrayal-timed New York Times profile of Hiddleston, which includes the delightful note that his publicist insisted that there be “no talk of Taylor Swift†only after the writer Laura Collins-Hughes arrived.
Changing the conditions of any interview right before it’s about to start is a real bold movie, and Collins-Hughes says that she wasn’t planning to bring up Swift anyway, but now it all inevitably becomes part of the story. “It’s not possible, and nor should it be possible, to control what anyone thinks about you,†Hiddleston says, talking around the subject that wasn’t supposed to be brought up in the first place. “Especially if it’s not based in any, um … if it’s not based in any reality.†Hiddleston goes on to add that he’s “protective about my internal world now in probably a different way,†and that it’s “because I didn’t realize it needed protecting before.â€
They’re all such thoughtful answers; it’s almost too bad that Hiddleston would apparently prefer not to talk about the subject at all, since talking around it only makes it linger. Anyway, fame sounds terrible, go see Betrayal, just don’t wear a Lover shirt when you stage-door or anything. Or do! I’m not his publicist.