Steven Prusakowski
The Night Manager is back on duty tonight with another new episode of the explosive second season – a season that arrived nearly 10 years after the critically acclaimed Prime Video series, based on the work of John le Carré, debuted. Tom Hiddleston reprises his Golden Globe-winning role as Jonathan Pine, the former soldier and hotel night manager turned MI6 operative. Set eight years after the events of the first season, Pine is drawn back into the shadowy world of espionage when a sighting of an old associate leads him to Colombia. There, he infiltrates the operation of a dangerous new arms dealer, Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva, Babylon), and his associate Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone, Daisy Jones & the Six), uncovering a deadly plot involving arms supplies and guerrilla training that threatens to destabilize a nation.
Full video interview with Hiddleston and Calva can be found below.
In a world of spy games, Jonathan Pine has to live a life of lies, playing a character, one false move or slip up and he is as good as dead. He hides in plain sight as he attempts to build the trust of the unpredictable Dos Santos. The magic of the second season lies in the chemistry between Hiddleston and Calva, something that was quite evident as Awards Radar spoke with them about their work.
Their characters navigate a dangerous dance of suspicion and fragile trust. Santos endlessly probes Pine’s making every conversation feels more like a tense interrogation with the threat of violence looming just beneath the surface. Instead of walking on egg shells, Pine is walking on land mines. Viewers will be holding their breath along with Pine. To pull off these intense scenes, heightening the threat Pine is under requires then takes things to the next level, often to the brink just before pulling back.
On set, this required a great deal of trust, allowing them to push the boundaries of their intense, often physical confrontations with complete safety and authenticity, allowing them to push boundaries safely. As Calva describes it, “With this guy, it’s for real. He likes to go, like, all the way… With this guy, if it’s about punching, he’s going to say, no, punch me for real. Punch me for real.” Hiddleston echoes this intensity, explaining their dynamic through his tennis analogy, “I always say I’m a huge tennis fan… when you work with a great actor like Diego, you’re working with a great tennis player, where you know what the rules of the game are. You know what’s in and you know what’s out. But you can hit it wherever you want. And if you’re playing with a great tennis player, they will return the shot. And it’s the rally between you, which is the spontaneous magic that can’t be captured.”
Scenes demanded real commitment, even going all in when being thrown overboard a moving boat, “I said to Slavko Sobin (Victor), ‘Hey listen, you’ve got to try and throw me overboard,’” explained Hiddleston. “And if it’s okay, I’ll resist. And at some point, if one of us feels like it’s out of control, just call the safe word.” For the physical scenes or for navigating high-stakes emotions everything rested on enormous trust. Hiddleston sums it up simply: “It’s about trust in the end, isn’t it?”
Calva extended the sports metaphor to highlight the collaboration on set, describing how “somebody has to put the captain band on and make the team go for the goal.” He explained, “coming from the first season, now second season, me and Camila being the new players in a way, we had Georgi (Banks-Davies) as our director and Tom was the captain. And we scored, I hope.” Hiddleston immediately affirmed the success, replying, “We scored. You scored many goals for us as a team.” He went on to express his deep appreciation for this teamwork, “It’s one of the things I love most about what we do is on any filming day, all of us with our specific experience, our specific skills, our specific imaginations are there together… And the collection of energy and everybody working together is one of the things I love the most about the work.”
The conversation shifted lighter when asked how long they would survive in their characters’ perilous shoes amid lies, spies, and violent guys. Hiddleston quipped he’d last, “About an hour. Maybe longer, what do you think?” Calva responded with more confidence, “I think I’d be okay probably.” Hiddleston quickly changed his tune, “I’m being facetious, for longer than an hour. But when I get into the hot water, I would want to be parachuted out of there for sure.” He elaborated on the contrast between acting and real danger. “As an actor, you go to work, put on the clothes of the character, but I take great comfort that at the end of the day, I get to go home and go back to my real life with my real attachments and real relationships that keep me tethered to my ordinary reality,” Hiddleston continued, ”Jonathan Pine particularly doesn’t have that. There is no offstage. There is no going home.”
The new season keeps delivering the same heart-pounding tension and layered performances that made the original a hit, with Hiddleston and Calva forming a dynamic cat-and-mouse duo built on respect and razor-sharp interplay.
Watch The Night Manager season 2 now on Prime Video. And be sure to check out the full interview (above) for more insights and a glimpse of their remarkable chemistry.
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