If he wasn't just so darn villainous, Tom Hiddleston was initially pretty pumped to play the Prince of Asgard.
Swinging by Chelsea Lately Monday night, the handsome British star spilled to Chelsea Handler about how he was once in the running to play the titular hammer-wielding hero in 2011's Thor before being tapped to play Thor's adopted brother turned arch-enemy, Loki.
When asked by the funny lady about the audition process, Hiddleston elaborated on all the work he put in bulking up in order to land the lead role.
"I did less running and more lifting of things for awhile," the 32-year-old actor said.
"So you worked out for an audition. Which is a huge commitment. …Yeah, I mean it was pretty stupid to do that before the audition!" quipped Handler.
"Some would say insane. But it was really fun, actually. And I've never done anything like that before," replied Hiddleston. "I basically went from 180 pounds to 198 pounds and I had something like seven percent body fat."
Of course, Chris Hemsworth ended up getting the gig.
But lucky for Tom, director Kenneth Branagh and Marvel executives saw something else in his audition.
"I auditioned and I swung the hammer but they were always looking for Loki as well, and I think the closer I got, they were like, 'You should play the bad guy,'" Hiddleston revealed.
In Thor: The Dark World, the highly anticipated sequel hitting theaters this Friday, Loki and Thor join forces to save the Nine Realms from a race of Dark Elves led by the evil Malekith (Christopher Eccleston).
The Midnight In Paris star, alas, confirmed he won't be in The Avengers 2, turning over hellraising duties to James Spader who's set to play the villain in that one.
But besides Thor, moviegoers can also look forward to seeing Hiddleston ham it up in Muppets Most Wanted, due out next March.