Two factors helped Tom Hiddleston land the lead role in Marc Abraham’s I Saw the Light, having a unique resemblance to the late singer and songwriter Hank Williams and executing a killer Owen Wilson impersonation.
“I saw him in War Horse, and thought he looked a lot like Hank Williams,” Abraham said of Hiddleston to People. “And my casting director said, ‘You’ve got to make sure he can do the accent,’ and over a three-hour dinner [Hiddleston] showed me his imitation of Owen Wilson.”
Hiddleston was immediately cast to play Williams opposite Elizabeth Olsen in I Saw the Light, a biopic about the short, tragic life of the Opry legend.
The actor had worked opposite Wilson in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and admits he gets a kick out of impersonating others. “I’d done it in the past,” Hiddleston said of his Wilson impression at the New York screening of I Saw the Light. “The first time it happened, I was just telling a story about the Midnight in Paris shoot. It’s something I’ve always done when I tell stories. I naturally do all the voices.”
Hiddleston also spoke about his love for James Bond and neither confirmed nor denied if he’s up for the role of 007. “I liked all the Bond’s,” he told People. “But, you see, I grew up with Sean Connery and Roger Moore. And I also think Daniel Craig is terrific. I remember going to see Golden Eye and it felt like Bond had been absent for a long time.”
When asked about the James Bond casting rumors, he responded: “I couldn’t possibly comment on that,” he added. “Honestly, I feel like the conversation around James Bond is something that happens. It’s one of the nation’s favorite pub conversations. People love to speculate on who it’s going to be.”
I Saw the Light opened in theaters March 25.
