Tom Hiddleston Talks Sex, Nudity & Orgies

Pictured: Tom Hiddleston as Dr. Robert Laing in 'High-Rise'

A self-described feminist, British actor Tom Hiddleston is best known to most audiences for playing Loki in Thor, but he starred had two highly talked about films premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this year: I Saw the Light, a biographical film around country music singer Hank Williams, and High-Rise, based on the 1975 sci-fi novel by J.G. Ballard. Both feature risque scenes of the blue-eyed Brit, so when he spoke to Vulture, Jada Yuan wanted to know what was up with the provocative material.

High-Rise director Ben Wheatley rationalized that the film's brilliance or appalling-ness to moviegoers "depends on where you stand on orgies," according to a Q&A after the film's screening. Although Hiddleston says he hasn't had any real-life firsthand experience with orgies, he keeps an open mind to them:

"What's my stance on orgies? Listen, if it floats your boat, who am I to stand in judgment? I've never been in any real-life context like some of those. I think [author J.G.] Ballard was always, particularly with High-Rise, fascinated by extremity, and what happens to human beings in the most physically and psychologically extreme situations -- that actually the mask of civilization is a thin veneer. We're only one sort of neighborly argument away from all-out chaos and murder, and descent of sort of going back to the jungle. I really think he was just quite rigorous about always taking it to its end point. He never stopped at the boundaries of good taste."

Hiddleston also claims he doesn't have any issue with nudity either: as long as its all for the craft of cinema and conviction of literature: "I don't, particularly. If it's justified in the storytelling, I absolutely have no problem with it," he told Vulture. "That's sort of my condition, if I can see where it fits into the story."

High-Rise, which takes place in a dystopian luxury building in London, also involved lots of scenes with dirt and (presumably) fake blood. Tom described the shooting experience as "enormous fun because there were so many parties where it was about lack of inhibition and dancing and being mischievous. It felt like a very mischievous set."

He also mentioned why he was excited about Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror film Crimson Peak, in which he also stars opposite Mia Wasikowska, and why the sex scenes were essential in it, stating: "I really pitched for that scene because it's about the twin energies of sexuality and violence, these polar opposites. Gothic romance is actually all about sex and death, and there's always an undertone... Guillermo and Mia and myself all agreed that that sex scene had to be quite powerfully realized.

Watch the trailer for Crimson Peak below: