Swimfan

Welp.  I'm swimfanning pretty hard.  I haven't been so head-over-heels in love with an actor for years.  In fact, I think the last time it was this bad was in 2008, when I was so infatuated with James McAvoy that I went to see Wanted, despite Wanted being everything I dislike in action movies (dark, cynical, and gleefully violent).

Running alongside my deep love for The Avengers (excellent reviews about Joss as director and about the spirit of optimism in the film) is my total and overwhelming adoration of Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki in the film.  I already talked about how much I like Loki, both for his joie de vivre (shades of Sawyer from LOST) and his pathetic villainy that he cannot give up even when he wants to (shades of Draco from Harry Potter).  Director Joss Whedon told Hiddleston, when playing Loki, to be more feral and to have more fun.  These are things I like to see in my fictional bad guys.

But that's Loki.  I'm really in love with Tom Hiddleston.  Superficially, he is one of the most attractive men I've ever seen.

Evidence.

A few years ago, I upgraded my celebrity swooning from simple attractiveness to actual theatrical skills.  Now I've upgraded again.  Hiddleston has talent in spades.  What he also has is a delightful sense of humor and thoughtful intelligence.

Yup.  I've been watching hours of Tom Hiddleston interviews on YouTube.  I actually had to force myself to take a day off the internet because it was getting so consuming.  The man is addictive!  He's interested in the psychology of his characters, he throws big words into conversations without seeming condescending, he's wonderfully humble and grateful toward his interviewers and fans.

I can't get enough of him.  I've put the movie Deep Blue Sea on hold, solely because it is his only other recent movie that isn't centered around a horse.  I also checked out The Great Gatsby to reread, because he played F. Scott Fitzgerald in Midnight in Paris, and my addled brain thinks that means he wrote the book himself.  I bumped up my Norse mythology book to the top of my reading list, because of his insights into Loki's character and the interrelationships among the Norse gods.  He's also got me interested in Shakespeare, since he quotes him on Twitter and performs in several of his plays.

As much as my celebrity crushing is indicative of my inherent immaturity, I'm like to think of this as a higher form of immaturity.  Sure, Hiddleston is ridiculously handsome.  But it is his intelligence and charisma that attracts me just as much.  Instead of wanting to tape pictures of him to my wall, my infatuation with him is inspiring me to dig into literature and mythology.

I like to think that this is a womanly crush, rather than a girly one.  I'm growing.  A little.  Very slowly.  But let's be real, I'll never stop obsessing over things (or people) that I like.