In 2019, Hiddleston returned to the West End to play Robert in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, charting a long-term extramarital affair through a non-linear timeline. Hiddleston’s real-life partner, Zawe Ashton, played Robert’s wife, Emma, and Charlie Cox played his best friend.
LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer commented that “the real Hollywood star power comes in the form of Tom Hiddleston […] This is a magnificent, searing account of Pinter’s most autobiographically charged play.”
The production then transferred to NYC’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, marking Hiddleston’s Broadway debut and first Tony Award nomination. New York Theatre Guide’s critic wrote, “Hiddleston fairly crackles onstage. He is elegant and restrained and seems to be controlling the rage that runs in his veins.”