"Fame and stuff like that is all very cool, but at the end of the day, we're all human beings. Although what I do is incredibly surreal and fun and amazing and I'm really grateful for it, I don't believe my own press release, do you know what I mean?"
Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy CBE (born 15 September 1977 in Hammersmith) is an English actor.
Best known as Eames in Inception, Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road, and for radically changing his body when needed for his roles. And for some reason, taking roles where the lower half of his face is covered. He has portrayed Eddie Brock/Venom in Venom and reprised the role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Hardy is married to English actress Charlotte Riley, by whom he has two children. He has a third child from a previous relationship.
Not to be confused with Thomas Hardy
Selected roles of Tom Hardy:
- Black Hawk Down (2001) as Twombly
- Band of Brothers (2001) as Private John Janovec
- Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) as Shinzon
- Layer Cake (2004) as Clarkie
- Marie Antoinette (2006) as Raumont
- The Virgin Queen (2005) as Robert Dudley
- Minotaur (2006) as Theo
- Oliver Twist (2007 mini-series) as Bill Sikes
- The Killing Gene (2007) as Pierre Jackson
- Rock N Rolla (2008) as Handsome Bob
- Wuthering Heights (2008) as Heathcliff
- Bronson (2008) as Charles Bronson / Michael Peterson
- The Take (2009) as Freddie Jackson
- Inception (2010) as Eames
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) as Ricki Tarr
- Warrior (2011) as Tommy Conlon
- This Means War (2012) as Tuck
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Bane
- Lawless (2012) as Forrest Bondurant
- Peaky Blinders (2014 — 2017) as Alfie Solomons
- Locke (2014) as Ivan Locke
- The Drop (2015) as Bob Saginowski
- Child 44 (2015) as Leo Demidov
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as "Mad" Max Rockatansky
- Legend (2015) as Ronald & Reginald Kray
- The Revenant (2015) as John Fitzgerald
- Taboo (2017 — present) as James Keziah Delaneynote
- Dunkirk (2017) as Farrier
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) as First Order Stormtrooper (uncredited)
- Sony's Spider-Man Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Eddie Brock / Venom
- Venom (2018)
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021; also given a story credit)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021; uncredited cameo in The Stinger)
- Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
- Capone (2020) as Al Capone
- The Bikeriders (2023) as Johnny
Tom Hardy and his works provide examples of:
- Approval of God: Hugh Jackman has stated Hardy to be his choice to take over the part of Wolverine, which probably won't happen now that he's playing Venom.
- The Big Guy: He began taking roles requiring muscular physiques after Bronson. In an interview for that film, he admitted that playing a muscular character who beats people up would probably be good for his career. Hence making Hardy suitable for roles like Bane,
who is a big guy. - Career Resurrection: He's been a hot property again since Inception. Then he got huge after his acclaimed performances in movies such as The Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Cool Mask: It's something of a running joke among fans that each successive big Hollywood movie Hardy makes finds a different way of covering up part of his face (See The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, Dunkirk, Venom (2018), and so on.)
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Hardy got enormous for Bronson, then used that experience to land other muscle-bound roles in Warrior and The Dark Knight Rises.
- He actually had to bulk up for Bronson twice. The first time he gained the weight, production was delayed and he had to lose all of it (and then some) for his role as a drug addict in Stuart: A Life Backwards. After that film was completed, he put all of his Bronson weight back on in just five weeks.
- Also has a tendency to have his head shaved for films such as Star Trek: Nemesis, Bronson and The Dark Knight Rises.
- He also trained extensively in martial arts for a few roles such as Warrior and ended up liking it so much he became a real Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, even winning a few contests.
- Fake American: He's British, but has an "aw-shucks American accent" as Eddie Brock. However, his accent tends to slip in the film, so the end result is that he speaks with a rather bizarre accent. He also plays American characters in other films on a fairly regular basis.
- Fingore: His pinky finger is permanently bent after he severed a tendon with a kitchen knife as a child.
- Irony as She Is Cast: As noted, he often plays The Big Guy, but he's joked himself about the fact he's actually rather unimpressive, height-wise, being roughly about 5'9 by his own estimation. He was notably shorter than Christian Bale when playing opposite him as Bane, requiring careful camera tricks to hide this fact.
- Method Acting: He prepared for the role of a psychopathic hyper-violent criminal and serial hostage-taker by visiting him in his cell and befriending him. He also told Bronson his mustache looked gay
. - Old Shame:
- You're unlikely to hear him discussing Star Trek: Nemesis any time soon. With good reason, sadly — the failure of that film, coupled with fan ire against him for things that weren't really his fault, drove him to drink and to the brink of suicide, since what was to be his big break became a near Star-Derailing Role.
- He's on record stating that filming This Means War (2012) was a miserable experience for him, and that he has no plans to ever star in another romantic comedy.
- Averted with his now infamous old MySpace photos. When they were brought up in an interview, he stated he wasn't ashamed of them in the slightest.
- Promoted Fanboy: He was a huge Batman fan growing up and stated he had trouble doing fight scenes as it felt like he was beating up his childhood hero. He has also worked three times with Gary Oldman, whom he considers his hero and his main inspiration for becoming an actor.
- Romance on the Set: Met his wife Charlotte Riley on the set of Wuthering Heights, although they didn't actually start dating until about two years later.
- Star-Derailing Role: Star Trek: Nemesis was intended to be his breakthrough role but it's poor critical and commercial reception seriously hurt his career for the next few years and led him to mostly do smaller roles and had such a bad emotional impact on him he struggled with addiction and suicidal feelings for years after.
- Star-Making Role: His role as the titular character in Bronson gained him some notice as an actor, but his role as Eames in Inception solidified that recognition.
- Written by Cast Member: Has a "story by" credit on Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
