Rodney Crowell Speaks About Tom Hiddleston Playing Hank Williams
“I’m as respectful of the man’s work ethic as I’m mystified by his transformational skills. Without a doubt, the filmmakers chose the right actor for the job.“

This is the long and short of how Rodney Crowell feels about the job British actor Tom Hiddleston is doing to morph himself into Hank Williams for the upcoming biopic I Saw The Light based on Colin Escott’s biography. Rodney Crowell was hired on by the production company of the movie to be the Executive Music Producer and Tom Hiddleston’s personal voice coach for his Hank Williams transformation.
In a lengthy post on Rodney’s Facebook page from earlier this week, the country/Americana performer expounded about his experiences with Tom while in training for the part.
During the month of September 2014, our house in Tennessee became the base camp for Tom Hiddleston’s steady transformation into Hank Williams. I’d been hired by a film company—whose vision of shining a gritty light on the life and times of Hank Williams piqued my interest no end—to produce the music and assist their leading man in finding his way into the heart of one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time.
The classically trained British actor arrived in Nashville on the fourth day of the month and the very next day climbed on a tour bus bound for Michigan and the Wheatland Music Festival, his traveling companions Claudia, myself, and a four-piece band consisting of Jerry Roe, Byron House, Pat Buchannan and Steve Fishell. Just minutes before taking part in an afternoon workshop with Sarah Jarosz, whose permission I had sought first, I asked Tom if he’d like to join us onstage and sing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” a Hank Williams song I’d heard him practicing on the bus. I was surprised when he said yes and skillfully performed the tune before what must have been 1500 people. Later that night, with my band on the main stage, and with very little urging from me, he rendered a joyful version of “Move It On Over.” Afterward, brimming with delight, he admitted, rather boyishly, that he’d never in his life performed with a band and had loved it.
The pick to have the part of Hank Williams played by Hiddleston has been a controversial one in some sectors. Hank’s grandson, Hank Williams III, has been a vocal opponent of the casting, saying that it would take an American to understand the unique the role of playing country music’s first superstar. Hank3 has also criticized the pick of Rodney Crowell as Hiddleston’s vocal coach. Hank3 told Saving Country Music, “It definitely puts Rodney Crowell in a strange position. I’m definitely not wanting to be hard on him. But if if Rodney Crowell is the voice coach, it says a lot right there … No disrespect to Rodney Crowell, but there’s two Hank Williams walking this earth right now.”
When video surfaced of Hiddleston performing at the Wheatland Music Festival, the debate started anew about Hiddleston’s abilities to assume the role realistically and believably. Producers for the film have said that Hiddleston will be performing multiple Hank Williams songs live in the movie, and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Move It On Over,” and “Lovesick Blues” are the three songs that have come up multiple times as being potential movie cuts.
Rodney Crowell went on to speak specifically to Hiddleston’s dedication and work ethic for the role.
On a typical day in September, I watched him sit for a wardrobe fitting, read through four hours worth of key scenes with the director and leading lady, spend another two hours with a dialect coach, and then, in order to lose the weight needed to look Hank Williams gaunt on screen, run seven wicked miles over hilly Tennessee terrain. With those chores done, he’d then commit to six more hours of singing, over and over again, a very hard to master song like ”Lovesick Blues.” And then, when he finally unlocked the mystery of yodeling the blues, hillbilly style, and was treated to a playback of his performance responded by saying “I can do it better, let me go again.” Then came a late dinner, wolfed down before giving in to a few hours sleep. After nearly a month spent collaborating with this gifted artist, I’m as respectful of the man’s work ethic as I’m mystified by his transformational skills. Without a doubt, the filmmakers chose the right actor for the job.
I Saw The Light is set to begin filming in Louisiana in mid to late October, and the casting of local extras has begun. Elizabeth Olsen has also been selected to play the role of Audrey Williams, Hank’s wife.
The debate will likely rage over the pick of Tom Hiddleston to play Hank Williams well after the movie is shot and released, but Rodney Crowell makes it clear that he believes they found the right man.
October 3, 2014 @ 2:20 pm
Off topic, but I see that you have changed the SCM page so that we can now browse through a wider range of articles.
Nice!
October 3, 2014 @ 3:24 pm
I’ve been hoping for something like this for awhile. Thanks, Trigger!
October 3, 2014 @ 3:19 pm
Have to give Tom credit for going up there and singing in front of everyone with little to no formal training. My understanding is that video was recorded prior to any vocal training with Crowell? I do not feel as strongly about the casting as some and if he has the full backing of Crowell well who I am to say any different. Looks like Tom understands the magnitude and gravity of this role and is taking it dead seriously. In the end this was the choice of actor made and he has my full support just as any actor in his place would as I want this biopic to get the treatment it deserves.
Side note but I saw the movie with Tilda Swinton and Tim Hiddleston called “Last Lover’s Left Alive” and there is a couple scenes where Tim’s character a brooding rocker is filmed in profile with an iconic picture of Hank Williams Sr. prominently placed on the wall beside him in the shot. Maybe a little foreshadowing? Chet Atkins and Eddie Cochran among other references were in that movie too so this whole casting of Tim doesn’t come as too much of a shock to me. I guess when you know the guy as a comic book character it can change your perspectives?
October 3, 2014 @ 3:22 pm
We all love Hank Sr so lets all put our faith in the powers to be who are making this film and anticipate the best instead of tearing the movie down before a single second has been filmed. People can complain and cast negativity on this project but I know I am eagerly anticipating the final result with open ears and mind.
October 3, 2014 @ 3:38 pm
Well, did any of us expect ol’ Rodney to say any other than what he said? I’ve badmouthed this choice up one side and down the other, knowing that it doesn’t make a dime’s worth of difference what anyone thinks except the director/producer who hired Hiddleston. This was always a fait accompli, but I applaud Hank III for speaking up for Southern American culture. He knows wherein he speaks.
I didn’t expect that Rodney was gonna say, “This limey really sucks! I better start spinning my ass off.”
A dialect coach?? Singing lessons? Crowell putting out reassuring press? Crash diet, perhaps? Jogging? This is p.r. and nothing else.
I wish the actor well, but Crowell putting in his two cents worth doesn’t mean jacksh*t to Hank, Sr. fans.
October 3, 2014 @ 4:25 pm
I wish the actor well, but Crowell putting in his two cents worth doesn”™t mean jacksh*t to Hank, Sr. fans.
Ben,
I’m a Hank Sr. fan. I also have a lot of respect for Rodney Crowell as a country music songwriter, artist and producer. I saw him last year with Emmylou Harris. I tend to think that he is a person of integrity and that he wouldn’t have posted what he did if he didn’t believe what he was saying. Don’t know if he’s right. Also, I’m guessing that if he thought Middleston was a trainwreck in the making, he wouldn’t have posted anything.
October 3, 2014 @ 4:57 pm
Jack,
I’m not saying that Crowell doesn’t have integrity. “Gilding the lily” does not reveal a lack of integrity. Part of his job is to give the actor confidence, And in this case, the actor has been thrown into a role that obviously does not come naturally to him.
And they are aware of the reaction to the casting, and to the reaction to Hiddleston’s frankly dreadful performance in Michigan. So Crowell is talking it up on behalf of his charge. That is part of the job. He’s a pro. I don’t have a problem with that.
My problem remains with the assumption that dialect coaches and music gurus can make an iconic, legendary tortured Southern genius out of a nice British lad.
I remember going to a Hollywood screening for “The Prince of Tides” with Nick Nolte.
Afterwards, a producer asked me what I thought of Nick Nolte as a Charlestonian.
“There was nothing Southern about him,” I said. “He came off like a California beach bum with a very weird accent..” Which to me, he did.
I think he won an Academy Award for it. And I’ll wager that Hiddleston will be called brilliant and the very embodiment of Hank and will probably be nominated for an Academy Award.
But the folks from Montgomery will know different.
October 4, 2014 @ 10:45 am
Fair enough, Ben.
I don’t know much about Hiddelston as I don’t watch many current movies. I did some remedial youtube research on him. Some small things I found in his favor were that he seems to have some impersonation skills and he chose to sing Dylan’s A Simple Twist of Fate to end his RS inteview with Peter Travers (apparently, the tradition of these interviews is to end with a song). Not a bad choice for such a young man. The singing was nothing to write home about,, though.
I also watched this panel discussion with some 20-something pop kids who were so excited to hear that Hiddleston would do his own singing. Although one of them “admitted” to liking country (what kind I can probably guess), I don’t expect any of them had any deep reverance for Hank Sr.
October 16, 2014 @ 2:43 pm
I find all the conjecture about this forthcoming role really interesting. I’m a pedantic person when it comes to accents, as I am English and hate it when people cannot do our regional accents (Russel Crowe, for one, and our own Ray Winstone for another!). However, Johnny Depp is excellent, as is ScarJo.
I wouldn’t be able to detect down to the local town for an American accent, but I know the difference between a broadly Southern accent and Californian, for example.
I am a Tom Hiddleston fan and I am on record as saying I HATE it when he sings! However, the bloke has the most astounding work ethic, as testified many times by many of his co-stars. I truly hope he does this film justice – for Hank’s fans, for Hank’s family, for his own fans, but most of all, for himself.
October 16, 2014 @ 3:34 pm
I cut my teeth on the likes of Hank Sr, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Patsy Cline. My dad used to spin those records and we’d sing along for all we were worth. I’m a Hiddleston fan as well, but I’ve been a country music fan for a hell of a lot longer. I don’t have an awesome pedigree like you,sir…I’m just a simple fan who knows what she likes.
You do realize that Hiddleston’s performance in Michigan was the first time he’d ever sung 1) with a live band and 2) in front of a crowd? The man is not a professional musician, he’s an actor with a job to do. I give him massive credit for getting up on stage and giving it his all despite having very little preparation.
Tom Hiddleston is a classically trained actor who’s done everything from Shakespeare on stage to major Marvel movies to independent British films and he’s excelled in every single one of his projects. Will he be able to pull off a credible Hank Williams? That remains to be seen, but I’m willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt.
October 3, 2014 @ 4:52 pm
Wow, did you really just use the term ‘limey’, Ben Jones. NOT cool at all.
October 3, 2014 @ 6:43 pm
Yep, I call all my limey friends “limies”. In fact I learned the phrase from a limey.
And I also learned that people who are genuinely “cool” are not concerned about being perceived as “NOT cool”.
Be cool, and peace…
October 3, 2014 @ 6:43 pm
Yep, I call all my limey friends “limies”. In fact I learned the phrase from a limey.
And I also learned that people who are genuinely “cool” are not concerned about being perceived as “NOT cool”.
Be cool, and peace…
August 2, 2017 @ 2:08 pm
I’m British and have no problem being called a limey, I don’t see it as a derogatory term. Mind you, I’m Welsh as opposed to English so am not sure if the term really applies to me anyway. As long as it’s not said with any cruel intent it’s all good. Just out of interest, does the term “yank” offend you guys? Just something I’ve occasionally wondered.
With regards to the topic at hand, Hiddleston’s a tremendous actor and he does look a tiny bit like Hank Williams (only a tiny bit, mind you) so he could be a good choice. I have no idea what his singing voice is like though, but he’s proven himself pretty good at accents generally. Hope he does well by the great man.
I’ve heard that he’s a bloody lovely bloke too, which makes a change from the typical stroppy actor, and it’s always nice to see good guys doing well. There’s always a risk inherent in playing iconic figures though, particularly if you’re not from that icon’s country, and Hank Williams is about as iconic as it gets. I guess we’ll see how it pans out.
August 2, 2017 @ 2:24 pm
Sorry, ignore this, was searching Rodney Crowell and this came up, didn’t realise it was three years old! I’ll have to give the film a watch though…
October 3, 2014 @ 4:35 pm
let’s forget about Hiddleston for a second…why Rodney Crowell?
October 3, 2014 @ 6:47 pm
Well, he is a very talented guy. Songwriter, producer, etc.
And I guess T. Bone Burnette was already booked.
Rodney knows the music inside and out. Whether or not he
can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse remains to be seen. And heard.
October 3, 2014 @ 8:52 pm
I will give the whole thing a fair shot and watch the movie. I think Hank III could be a little upset, because maybe he feels like members of the family should be a little more involved, like when Jett showed her displeasure for not being on that Hank Williams album a little while back. As far as Rodney being a vocal coach, I have no problem with that. In all reality the best person for that would probably be a real vocal coach. I know Hank III can sound like his grandfather, but it doesn’t mean he can hop someone else do it.
October 3, 2014 @ 10:46 pm
Hank III is just pissed he lost out on a paying gig. There’s no comparison between anything he’s done and Rodney Crowell’s career. I guess he realized he can only ride Daddy and Granddaddy’s name so far.
October 4, 2014 @ 11:26 am
That is truly the most hateful comment I’ve ever read. It’s his grandfather you monster! You obviously know nothing about 3 and you are just a shallow and sad person.
October 4, 2014 @ 7:24 pm
Hey Jim Kidwell,
What a chickenshit thing to say. Hank III is a genuine talent who never said he wanted to play that part. But he, like many others, said exactly what a lot of people were thinking, that an actor from the Southern culture would be more natural for the part.
For that, you take snarky cheap shots at the man.
If Hiddleston (or you) listened to the recent post on here of III’s “Honky Tonking” you can get an education on Hank Sr,s sound, which is as compelling now as it was over 60 years ago.
Ben Jones
October 5, 2014 @ 1:17 am
Ben- ” that an actor from the Southern culture would be more natural for the part.” Natural does not mean better. How do you know that Hiddleston has not listened to Hank Sr, Jr. or 3 music?
“My problem remains with the assumption that dialect coaches and music gurus can make an iconic, legendary tortured Southern genius out of a nice British lad.”
I remember going to a Hollywood screening for “The Prince of Tides” with Nick Nolte.
Afterwards, a producer asked me what I thought of Nick Nolte as a Charlestonian.
“There was nothing Southern about him,” I said. “He came off like a California beach bum with a very weird accent..” Which to me, he did.
Isn’t that what was said about Matthew McConaughey. Except Mathew was a Southern guy with a surfers attitude.
Ben please tell us “The Prince of Tides” was not the last movie you saw.
And that’s what acting coaches do….Al Pacino, Italian American turned into a tortured Cuban soul in Scarface.
Christian Bale English actor turned tortured “Boston Irish” boxer in “The Fighter.”
Joaquin Phoenix born Puerto Rico turned into a tortured Johnny Cash “Walk The Line.”
And quiet honestly maybe the Euro’s maybe more in tune with Hanks music than the Southerners being too busy with bro country.
October 5, 2014 @ 9:18 am
Dear Marc,
As it happens, I actually have some experience with the acting profession. Hang on y’all, while I lay out my credentials. Bear with me. I have made a living as an actor for over 50 years now. I have appeared onstage in about a hundred productions, and over two thousand appearances. I have also appeared in hundreds of feature films, television productions, and countless commercials, including a long running television hit. I have worked with directors such as Orson Welles, Stanley Tucci, John Boorman, and Mike Nichols. I have worked with many gifted actors including James Earl Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Anthony Hopkins, Jackie Gleason, Emma Thompson, and John Ritter. I have also made a living as a writer and producer.
I also do a lot of singing professionally. Last night, believe it or not, I did a duet with Hank Williams’ daughter Jett on “Jambalaya”, a song her father wrote. Jett is a wonderful lady and a fine entertainer. (She was our guest last night at The Shenandoah Jamboree.)
So I kinda resent snotball, condescending comments with half-baked analysis about acting and casting.
No, natural doesn’t necessarily mean better. But often it does, and especially in a role like Hank, Sr. ….Film acting involves being “natural”, coming to a scene totally being the character, with no technique showing whatsoever. When an actor is comfortable and natural in a part to begin with, it makes the job much easier. That quality of reality, of naturalness, is what directors (and audiences) are looking for. Michael Caine, a wonderful actor and a master of dialect, is a cockney. When he plays a cockney it is perfect….no “acting” involved. But when he plays a Southerner, it comes off as artificial to American ears. He knows that, and he knows he was hired because he is Michael Caine, and that sells tickets. And I would rather see Michael Caine doing anything than most actors at their best. Modern film acting looks for “the truth”, and many of our best screen actors were influenced by the Actor’s Studio and Constantin Stanislavsky.
In film, the adage “less is more” is paramount. Thus it is better to cast an actor who doesn’t depend on classical technique to play every dimension of a man from another culture. You follow me? “Being, not acting.”
Perhaps Mr. Hiddleston will prove me wrong. I worked with the fine young English actor Adrian Lester in “Primary Colors”. He has a great ear, and a natural way, and he was very good in the film. But the character he portrayed was fictional, meaning it could be pretty much whoever he wanted it to be. The same is not true for Hiddleston.
Oh, by the way, Al Pacino did not need an “acting coach” to play Scarface. And Al
forgot about “less is more” a long time ago. I thought Joaquin Phoenix was way off on Johnny Cash, whom I knew. But I’ve seen him in things where I thought he was excellent. And Bale was fine. I do know that he prepared for much longer than the month or so that Hiddleston has had. And I never said that McConaughey has a “surfer’s attitude.” He doesn’t at all.
As for the remark about Southerners digging bro-country, I would suggest that this garbage faux-country racket is not coming so much from the South as from the “Music Industry”, which is driven by a Hollywood/N.Y.C. mentality. Brits do love traditional country music, which is where our Southern native music came from, especially the North of England, Wales, Scotland, and (not British) Ireland.
And I am certain that Mr. Hiddleston has listened to Hank Williams’ music. If he is any kind of actor at all, he is listening to Hank Williams’ music right now, on a Sunday afternoon in the South.
Tell me some more about acting, Marc…..
October 5, 2014 @ 11:03 am
Ben- “Oh, by the way, Al Pacino did not need an “acting coach” to play Scarface.
Al Pacino on preparing for Scarface I worked with my friend (Pacino’s longtime friend and acting coach Charlie Laughton) Charlie Laughton and with Bob Easton, the dialect coach, intensively. Steve Bauer, being Cuban, helped me with the language; he taped things for me, and he told me things I wouldn’t have known.”
October 5, 2014 @ 5:57 pm
two questions…how do you not name drop the legend James Best? and what was it like to work with Jackie Gleason?
October 5, 2014 @ 1:23 pm
Well Marc,
I hope Tom Hiddleston doesn’t hire the same guy. Pacino was completely over the top in that mess of a movie. It made me long for the wonderfully controlled actor who was brilliant and restrained in the first two Godfather films and his other early work. “Scarface” was a cartoon and he played it like a cartoon character, maybe the Tazmanian Devil…
Like I said, Pacino forgot about “less is more”….
October 5, 2014 @ 6:45 pm
Hey Lunchbox,
Well, there were several legends on “The Dukes”. Sorrell Booke who played Boss Hogg was a great Shakespearian, an opera singer, and a man who spoke 7 languages fluently. He was a brilliant man whom the CIA used to break codes. He had been in Army Intelligence during the Korean War. Denver Pyle who played Uncle Jesse had been in countless westerns, and of course he had been Briscoe Darling on the Andy Griffith Mayberry show. His boys were, of course, the California bluegrass band The Dillards. I really dug Denver in “Bonnie and Clyde”. A great story teller. He lived on a boat at Marina Del Rey and drove an old Bentley. I see James Best all the time. He’s living now in Hickory, North Carolina…..pushing 90 and I can’t keep up with him. Writing plays, directing and producing films, selling his paintings, and doing theatre.
Yep, a living legend. And then there was Waylon, a genuine artist at the height of his skills when I worked with him. He was the real deal.
I got to the set of “Smokey and the Bandit” at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning and Jackie Gleason was in full throttle. He had a feast going on in a big tent, lots of food, lots of good looking’ women, and champagne for breakfast. He lived large. I just had a bit part on that one, but he treated me great.
Now ask me about Daisy Duke…..
Ben
October 6, 2014 @ 7:54 am
My only question about Catherine Bach/Daisy Duke was how you paid any attention to whatever else was going on on-set when those legs were present and on display…
On topic of the actual thread…I’ll maintain hope for Hiddleston. I’ve been waiting on a good Hank Sr. movie since I first read Escott’s biography, and would also love a good Hank Jr. movie. I hope it does well, and prefer to remain optimistic.
October 6, 2014 @ 8:05 am
Hey Joseph,
Catherine Bach was indeed a great distraction…Perhaps that is why there were
so many car wrecks…..”distracted driving”.
These days Cathy is appearing on “The Young and the Restless”, and is still quite a distraction.
Hiddleston is a gifted pro and will do his best, and most likely the film will do well. It
is a great story, and the spin and the hype machine is already cranked up, as we have seen from some of the comments on here, some of which come from people who are clueless about country music and especially the culture of the 1930’s Deep South that produced Hank Williams. They are into “flakking projects”.
But as I said before, the folks from our culture will sure as hell know the difference.
I’ll tell Daisy “hey” for you…..
Ben Jones
October 6, 2014 @ 9:41 am
Haha, indeed on the crashes! When Mark Wills sang “my first love was Daisy Duke” I was right there with him.
As for Hiddleston…yeah, I’m a bit torn. I’m a dedicated Southron, an aficionado of Southern culture, and I want to see the best effort put forth in transferring the life of an iconic Southern figure to the silver screen. But I will admit I know nothing about acting, the movie business, or anything along those lines (if you wanna talk about chicken houses, we can do that, but that’s neither here nor there…), so I go with what the folks in the know think is best. Obviously there’s a difference of opinion here, but if we can come out of this with a respectable story centered on the life of Hiram King Williams, I’ll be happy.
October 6, 2014 @ 2:26 pm
Mr. Jones,
thank you for answering my question. i wanted to asked about Mr. Booke and Mr. Pyle too but i just picked one real quick. Jackie Gleason is one of my favorite entertainers too and any stories about him absolutely fascinate me.
thanks again…
October 10, 2014 @ 8:22 pm
It’s true that you can only fully understand a culture if you are part of it. It’s not true that such a thing matters to an actor. It’s called acting. Actors who are good and competent must be able to portray events and people whose lives they have never lived.
Secondly, Rodney Crowell is a real musician whose contributions to country music matter and therefore so does his word.
Hank 3 is a spoiled child who can’t make it without riding his family’s coat-tails.
That’s why you didn’t get the job, Hank.
October 21, 2014 @ 7:39 pm
Lyndon,
Please see Mr. Jones’ comment above to Jim Kidwell.
It’s called reading… top to bottom, left to right, group of words together is a sentence.
Good luck.