Richard E. Grant was psyched to play an older version of “Loki” for pretty much one reason and one reason only: “Finally, I get to wear a muscle suit,” he told TheWrap.
So you can imagine Grant’s surprise and disappointment when he saw what the producers of the Marvel Studios’ series had in store when he took the role of “Classic Loki,” one of the many variants of Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief that appeared in the most recent episode.
“Like all these actors who play Batman and Spider-Man and whatever, they would step into the suit without having to go to the gym. As a 64-year-old man, finally I’d have this. And then of course I got there and they said, ‘No, there’s no muscles.’ I said, ‘But I look like Kermit the Frog,’” Grant said with a laugh. “And they said, ‘You just have to use your magic powers.’”
Comic book fans know that Grant’s version of Loki was modeled after the character’s very first edition of his classic costume from the comics. Even so, Grant was hoping he’d get a more physically imposing look.
“I said, ‘Come on, give me the muscle suit.’ It’s my dream, because you know, I haven’t been born with any. But they said ‘No, no, you don’t have any muscle suits.’ I was very, very disappointed with that.”
That was about the only part Grant was disappointed with for his brief but memorable appearance as an elder version of Loki, one that survived his death from Thanos (which happens at the beginning of “Avengers: Infinity War”) but his reward was living out centuries in solitude on a desolate planet.
It wasn’t hard for Grant to get into the headspace of this older, lonely Loki, considering he (like all of us) spent an entire year-plus in lockdown and often isolated from our friends and family.
“I was supposed to shoot this last March and then lockdown happened and then it seemed like maybe it’s never going [to happen], or be canceled or delayed, or they’ll cast somebody else. And then having to do two weeks quarantine in October in Atlanta before starting work. All of that so fed into the loneliness and isolation of that I thought well, that’s the key to what this disenfranchised person is. That anybody who’s gender fluid or have a different different different ethnicity or social situation where they don’t feel they fit in. That was the key to who this person was rather than God of Mischief.”
“Loki” airs its finale on Wednesday on Disney+