Q. There is one scene in the new film where Loki's imprisoned where he lets down the magical façade of his prison cell. It's a symbolic breakdown following a tragedy where you see the man and not the magic.
A. I'm so proud of that scene. I had lots of ideas about it and they showed me an early draft and asked for my input. I kept saying, "We have to take Loki to rock bottom. We have to break him." And so in that moment, there's a literal and physical manifestation of his mask of control.
Loki presents an illusion of sleek elegance and control to everyone, but actually inside is this bleeding broken heart. That truth is given literal shape. He presents an illusion to Thor and Thor calls him on it, and then suddenly the illusion dissipates and dissolves away and you see the truth of Loki's soul in his body and his face.
To play a character as complex and unpredictable as that is a gift as an actor. It's so juicy because you're playing internal truths and external truths. That's the fun part of acting it's a version of some kind of psychology in a way. You're studying how people interact, how they hide, how they present, and Loki is a brilliant case study.
