UPDATE ― Monday, 4:40 p.m.: Tom Hiddleston apologized Monday afternoon for his speech, which he described as “inelegantly expressed.”
“In truth, I was very nervous, and my words just came out wrong,” he wrote. “Sincerely, my only intention was to salute the incredible bravery and courage of the men and women who work so tirelessly for UNICEF UK, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and World Food Programme, and the children of South Sudan, who continue to find hope and joy in the most difficult conditions. I apologise that my nerves got the better of me.”
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At the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Tom Hiddleston won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made For Television ― we don’t write the award names ― for his work on “The Night Manager.”
During his speech, Hiddleston told a story that started off well enough, with Hiddleston bringing up a recent trip he made to South Sudan with the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“It’s a terrible situation happening for children [in South Sudan]. ‘The Night Manager’ is about arms dealing, and there are far too many arms going into South Sudan,” he said.
All good so far. Talking about South Sudan is important. Then, he started into what seemed like it would be an illuminating anecdote.
“One night we were having a bite to eat at the canteen, where we were staying, and a group of young men and women tottered over to the table, and we were all having what they call a ‘dirty beer” in humanitarian language,” he said. “They were a group of Médecins Sans Frontières doctors and nurses. And they wanted to say hello because during the shelling the previous month, they had binge-watched ‘The Night Manager.’”
At that exact moment, right after Hiddleston said “binge-watched,” Vince Vaughn, Christian Slater and Naomie Harris together made three of the greatest faces ever seen.
Hiddleston continued, “And the idea that I could provide ― or that we could provide ― some relief and entertainment for the people who worked for UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières and the World Food Program, who are fixing the world in the places where it is broken, made me immensely proud.”
Suffice it to say, this was not the sort of South Sudan awards show speech that people expected when Hiddleston first opened his mouth. They expected a speech about South Sudan, not about how much people in South Sudan liked “The Night Manager.”
Hence, well, all of this:
Before You Go
