THE DARK STAR
Hollywood’s new favourite villain, Tom Hardy is no stranger to danger. But his latest film roles offer up surprises ...
For a while it seemed like Tom Hardy might have been typecast. Most of the London- born actor’s roles to date have been, in his own words, “psychologically damaged
characters”. There was the notorious British criminal Charles Bronson in Bronson, for which he bagged his first BAFTA. The sociopathic ex-con Freddie in Sky1’s The Take. A troubled cage-fighter in Warrior. Batman’s arch-nemesis Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
Does Tom Hardy have an aversion to playing
the good guy? “It’s funny, isn’t it? The characters
I’ve played have been mostly violent, and I’m so
far from being violent or aggressive,” he says. “But
nobody paid any attention to me in America until
Bronson. It gave me a calling card and passage into America, where I’ve always wanted to work.”
Hardy recalls the time, almost a decade ago now, when he was turned down for the role of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. A well-known film producer told him that “Women all over the world have a picture of what Darcy is and I’m afraid you’re just not it.” Perhaps tellingly, he was successful auditioning for that other great 19th-century heartthrob, the violent and brooding Heathcliff, in a television version of Wuthering Heights. It was where he met actress Charlotte Riley, now his wife.
Not that he minds being given these troubled roles. “There’s another component to those characters – a legitimate or illegitimate suffering in their psyche. That’s much more exciting to me,” he muses. “I’m playing people who have an obstacle to overcome and struggle to express that.”
After reaching the mainstream with Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, though, he’s finally starting to be offered a little more variety. Earlier this year he received rapturous critical acclaim for his role in Locke – a rather atypical production about a man faced with a difficult moral decision. “In a way it was like a contemporary theatre piece,” says Hardy. The film is more-or-less entirely set on a single car journey, with the plot hinging on the phone calls Hardy’s character Ivan Locke makes as he drives. Practically a one-man show, Hardy’s intense psychological part was filmed over just eight days. Audiences were stunned at
his gripping portrayal.
I’ve played have been mostly violent, and I’m so
far from being violent or aggressive,” he says. “But
nobody paid any attention to me in America until
Bronson. It gave me a calling card and passage into America, where I’ve always wanted to work.”
Hardy recalls the time, almost a decade ago now, when he was turned down for the role of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. A well-known film producer told him that “Women all over the world have a picture of what Darcy is and I’m afraid you’re just not it.” Perhaps tellingly, he was successful auditioning for that other great 19th-century heartthrob, the violent and brooding Heathcliff, in a television version of Wuthering Heights. It was where he met actress Charlotte Riley, now his wife.