Life of Chuck's Tom Hiddleston Names His 4 Favorite Movies
Tom Hiddleston's four favorite films aren't the usual polite awards-season picks. No name-dropping Bergman or "I love Casablanca" cop-outs. Instead, he dropped a list that spans L.A. shootouts, existential Italian art cinema, old Hollywood joy, and one very enduring prison wall.
Here's the lineup, and what he said about each.
Heat (1995)
Michael Mann's Heat tops the list. Hiddleston called it Mann "at the peak of his powers," and had just as much praise for the cast—Pacino, De Niro, and especially Val Kilmer, whose performance he calls "maybe the greatest" of Kilmer's career.
What makes the film stick, he says, is Mann's total control over every detail.
"The detail and precision and care in every aspect of the filmmaking by Michael Mann is exquisite. It's only gotten better with age."
Released in 1995, Heat wasn't just a cops-and-robbers movie—it set the blueprint for how to stage action with weight and character. Christopher Nolan studied it obsessively before directing The Dark Knight. The downtown shootout has been imitated (and straight-up ripped off) by every action director since.
The Great Beauty (2013)
Hiddleston's second pick is Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. He says it "really surprised" him when he caught it during its UK release.
What struck him wasn't just the visuals or the performance from Toni Servillo, but the strange balance of philosophical weight and energy.
"It's got extraordinary wisdom in it… but it's incredibly dynamic."
Sorrentino's camera floats through Roman high society with both disgust and affection. It's a film about being old, rich, tired—and haunted by beauty you can't quite reach anymore.
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Hiddleston doesn't call Singin' in the Rain a classic—he calls it "eternal."
"When the world is run by machines, the machines will look back and wonder how on earth they made Singin' in the Rain."
The musical's pure optimism still hits. He name-checks "Good Morning" and "Make 'Em Laugh," but it's Gene Kelly stomping through puddles in a wool suit that he says will outlive everything.
Released in 1952, the film wasn't a huge hit at the time. But it's now regarded as one of the greatest musicals ever made—possibly the most rewatched too, especially by anyone who's ever been forced to fake joy on camera.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Last on the list is The Shawshank Redemption—and here, Hiddleston gets personal.
"It made a big dent in my heart and soul when I was young. It's continued to do that."
He calls it a "meditation on friendship and the freedom of the human spirit," and says he still remembers almost every frame.
Shawshank bombed in theaters but found a second life on VHS and cable, eventually becoming the most beloved film in the history of IMDb—and possibly the only Stephen King adaptation that doesn't feel like one.