Why Tom Hiddleston's Original Loki Costume Was Straight-Up Bad For His Health

Kenneth Branagh's 2011 fantasy hit "Thor" is a brazenly ridiculous movie. It follows the adventures of the Norse gods Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and Heimdall (Idris Elba), and their part in the shining CGI realm of Asgard. They are not the gods as seen in Norse mythology, however, but the Marvel Comics versions of the characters. This means they are actually powerful interdimensional aliens (!) who modeled their look and appearance from Earth's northern gods in the 10th century. Their magical items, like Thor's enchanted hammer (which you can grab a replica of right here), are actually a form of super-advanced technology. These kinds of sci-fi conceits were necessary to ensure that Thor would eventually be able to interact with characters like Iron Man and Captain America. 

The designs of "Thor" are very, very shiny. The costumes (by Alexandra Byrne) were designed from the Marvel Comics, but given a plastic/metallic sheen, making the Asgardian fashion look very armor-forward. The Asgardian royalty all wore fabulous capes, golden gauntlets, and glimmering chest-plates. Most notably, the royals all wore outsize headdresses. Old drawings of Loki from classic comic books saw him in a yellow helmet, sporting two horns that curled up and back, a full foot above his head. Alexandra Byrne designed something similar for Tom Hiddleston, who, in several scenes, had to wear some very uncomfortable looking headgear, also sporting giant curved horns. 

Hiddleston hated that helmet. He didn't have to wear it throughout "Thor," but he did have several scenes in the thing, meaning he likely had to leave it on for 12 hours at a time while performing. In a 2010 interview with MTV News, Hiddleston declared that the Asgardian armor and helmet he had to wear prevented him from sweating and left him overheated. 

Although the costumes were skillfully designed to look slim-fitting on Tom Hiddleston, the actor revealed that they were actually quite heavy. Hiddleston referred to his helmet as a balaclava, which is typically a full-face mask made of cloth, with an opening for the eyes, like a ninja might wear. The Loki helmet wasn't a full-face balaclava, but it did cover Hiddleston's whole head, his jaw, and his forehead, so for him, it was close enough. And it was sweltering to wear. As he described it: 

"[The helmet] was extremely hot, because we were all wearing a lot of armor — we were wearing leather pants and breastplates and shoulder plates and bicep plates, and the cape was very heavy. [...] So you're hot anyway, and then you put on what I called the steel balaclava — the horned, steel balaclava — and all the heat that's coming through your body that would normally get out through your head can't get out through your head. [...] So my brain would slowly fry. And sometimes that would really feed what I was doing. I would be going kind of mad in there." 

It might have informed Hiddleston's performance for the better, however, as Loki is a villainous usurper who aims to oust his own father as king. If the actor seems particularly wide-eyed or crazed in his helmet-wearing scenes, it could have been the costume that forced his performance over the top. One can almost hear him singing Gilbert & Sullivan's "Princess Ida": "This helmet, I suppose, Was meant to ward off blows. It's very hot, And weighs a lot, As many a guardsman knows." 

Hiddleston has no plans to star in a production of "Princess Ida," but Loki will return in "Avengers: Doomsday."