Tom Hiddleston gets cheeky about his ‘Night Manager’ accolades

An internet search of Tom Hiddleston’s name, unsurprisingly, yields a surplus of news headlines: whether it’s his recent indoctrination to the world of Instagram or fodder about his relationship status with a certain pop star.

And then there’s the pièce de résistance: Soon after nabbing an Emmy nomination for his role as a luxury hotel manager-turned-undercover spy in “The Night Manager,” the 35-year-old British star took home a more rump-conscious accolade for the role.

He was named 2016 Rear of the Year for a racy sex scene featured in the six-part series — not out of left field considering his behind has earned the Twitter hashtag #Hiddlesbum. He follows in the ranks of “Harry Potter’s” Daniel Radcliffe, who was the 2015 recipient.

“I didn’t know it was going to be on the bucket list until it happened,” Hiddleston quipped in the Envelope’s video studio earlier this week. “I’m just happy it happened. I’m happy that that’s something that has come into my life in a way that I didn’t expect. Sometimes the universe hands you something on a plate that you didn’t expect and, for me, it was the Rear of the Year award.”

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Tom Hiddleston discusses his Emmy-nominated performance in AMC’s spy thriller “The Night Manager” -- and whether he could make the sacrifices his character made.

All kidding aside, Hiddleston’s turn in the cat-and-mouse thriller adapted from John le Carré’s 1993 novel was much more than a tush-fest.

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Hiddleston stars in the series that aired stateside on AMC as Jonathan Pine, a British soldier-turned-hotelier who is recruited to help take down an international arms dealer (played by Hugh Laurie). Along the way, the undercover hero assumes multiple identities — something Hiddleston says he discussed a lot with series director Susanne Bier.

“The whole story could be read as a discussion on identity,” Hiddleston said. “The fascinating thing about Pine is … at the beginning, he is a shell of a human. He’s a shell of a man. He’s hiding. He was of military service in Iraq as a British soldier, and he’s now of service in other ways as a night manager. He’s hiding behind a uniform and, in that regard, the uniform protects him from having to reveal his identity.”

For more on what Hiddleston had to say about his work on “The Night Manager” — or to get his response to how Robert Downey Jr. welcomed him to Instagram —check out the video below.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealy