 "Crimson Peak" director Guillermo del Toro and comic book writer Stan Lee have called him "the nicest guy on earth/you'll ever meet" with del Toro adding that he ruined the usual barrier of being either nice, or good-looking.Kenneth Branagh noted that the first time he ever saw Hiddleston, playing Cassio in "Othello", it was quite clear to him that he was an utterly naturalistic speaker of Shakespeare.Michael Billington of "The Guardian" wrote that Hiddleston's key acting quality is "his ability to combine a sweet sadness with an incandescent fury, suggesting a fierce intellect gnawed by intense melancholy and yet subjecting to bouts of intemperate rage."