Briana Darnell on Instagram, 25th July 2021: Adding to the pile of "@twhiddleston is a gentleman and kind human being" stories, he unknowingly stopped me from an intense panic attack on set last year.
While filming Episode 4, I had a brain injury flareup. I couldn't keep focused and was forgetting everything @itssophiadimartino did in rehearsal. It got bad enough that Tom had to step in to tell me what to do and where to go. I was insanely embarrassed as I prided myself at being good at my job, yet I couldn't remember basic choreography.
As my internal anxiety was growing to panic levels, Tom suddenly took me by the shoulders and just held on for a minute with a gentle gaze. I realized later it was actually part of the scene, thus was likely just Tom being in the moment. But I like to think somehow, subconsciously he picked up on me needing comfort at that moment.
Touch is my communication style/love language and during COVID touch was especially rare. That simple hold on my shoulders and kind eyes took me down from teetering on a crying panic attack to just mild embarrassment I could then shake off and continue working.
I'll never know if Tom did it on purpose or not, but I'll always be grateful to him for it.
