With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Origen (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. But the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut in the mini-series Hermanos de sangre (2001). After being cast in the World War II drama, Hardy left his studies at the prestigious Drama Centre in London and was subsequently cast in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk derribado(2001) and as the villain Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
Tom was born on September 15, 1977 in Hammersmith, London; his mother, Elizabeth Anne (Barrett), is an artist and painter, and his father, Edward Hardy, is a writer. He is of English and Irish descent. Hardy was brought up in East Sheen, London, and first studied at Reed's School. His education continued at Tower House School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London. After winning a modeling competition at age 21, he had a brief contract with the agency Models One.
Tom spent his teens and early twenties battling delinquency, alcoholism and drug addiction; after completing his work on Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), he sought treatment and has also admitted that his battles with addiction ended his 5-year marriage.
Returning to work in 2003, Hardy was awarded the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award for his theatre performances in the productions of "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Blood". In 2003 Tom also co-starred in the play "The Modernists" with Paul Popplewell, Jesse Spencer and Orlando Wells.
During the next five years, Hardy worked consistently in film, television and theatre, playing parts as varied as Robert Dudley in the BBC's La reina virgen (2005), Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (2007) and starring in "The Man of Mode" at the National Theatre. On the silver screen, he appeared in the crime thriller Crimen organizado (2004) with Daniel Craig, Sofia Coppola's María Antonieta (2006), and the romp Scenes of a Sexual Nature(2006).
In 2006, Hardy created "Shotgun", an underground theatre company along with director Robert Delamere, and directed a play, penned by his father for the company, called "Blue on Blue". In 2007, Hardy received a best actor BAFTA nomination for his touching performance as Stuart Shorter in the BBC adaptation of Alexander Masters' bestselling biography Stuart: Una vida al revés (2007). Hardy, hailed for his transformative character acting, was lauded for his emotionally and physically convincing portrayal in the ill-fated and warmhearted tale of Shorter, a homeless and occasionally violent man suffering from addiction and muscular dystrophy.
The following year, he appeared as gay hoodlum Handsome Bob in the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla (2008), but it would be his next transformation that would prove his extensive range and stun critics. In the film Bronson (2008), Hardy played the notorious Charles Bronson (given name, Michael Peterson), the "most violent prisoner in Britain". Bald, bulked-up, and outfitted with Bronson's signature strongman mustache, Hardy is unrecognizable and gives a harrowing performance that is physically fearless and psychologically unsettling. Director Nicolas Winding Refn breaks down the fourth wall with Hardy retelling his tales directly to viewers as well as performing them outright before an audience of his own imagining. The performance mixes terrifying brutality, vaudevillian showmanship, wry humor, and an alarming amount of commitment, and won Hardy a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. The performance got Hollywood's attention and, in 2009, Hardy was named one of Variety's "10 Actors to Watch". That year, he continued to garner praise for his starring role in The Take (2009), a four-part adaptation of Martina Cole's bestselling crime novel, as well as for his performance as Heathcliff in a version of Wuthering Heights (2009).
Recent work includes the aforementioned breakthrough appearance in Origen (2010) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. The movie was released in July 2010 and became one of top 25 highest grossing films of all time.
Other films include Warrior (2011), opposite Joel Edgerton, the story of two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime from director Gavin O'Connor, and Esto es la guerra(2012), directed by McG and co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. Tom also starred in the heralded Cold War thriller, El topo (2011) with Colin Firth and Gary Oldman.
Hardy rejoined Christopher Nolan for El caballero oscuro: La leyenda renace (2012); he played the villain role of Bane opposite Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman. Hardy's menacing physique and his character's scrambled, hard-to-distinguish voice became a major discussion point as the film was released.
Outside of performing, Hardy is the patron for the charity "Flack", which is an organization to aid the recovery of the homeless in Cambridge. And, in 2010, Hardy was named an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, which helps disadvantaged youth. On the recent stage, he starred in the Brett C. Leonard play "The Long Red Road" in early 2010. Written for Hardy and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the play was staged at Chicago's Goodman Theater.
Hardy will next be seen as the iconic Mad Max in George Miller's reboot of his Mad Max franchise, Mad Max: Furia en la carretera (2015). He has an outlaw biker story among other projects in development. In 2010, Hardy became engaged to fellow English actress, Charlotte Riley, whom he starred with in The Take (2009) and Wuthering Heights (2009), and is raising a young son, Louis, with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed. - IMDb Mini Biography By: bemorecynical2001
Spouse
Charlotte Riley (4 July 2014 - present)
Sarah Ward (1999 - 2004) (divorced)
Trade Mark
Deep, raspy voice
Muscular physique
Extreme changes of physical appearance
Full lips and blue-green eyes
Trivia
He joined Drama Centre London in September 1998 and was taken out early to work on Hermanos de sangre (2001). One of his classmates at drama school was Michael Fassbender, both appeared in Band of Brothers and Hardy stated that Fassbender was the best actor in the school.
He loves to drink coffee, Coke, fizzy water, fruit drinks, Red Bull and tea.
Had a dog named Max that was given to him when he was a teenager, he passed away in 2011. The dog's name was an honor to Mad Max: Salvajes de autopista (1979). Years later, Hardy played the title character in Mad Max: Furia en la carretera (2015).
He was nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2003 in a Society of London Theatre Affliate for his performance in "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings", performed at the Hampstead Theatre.
He was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in "Blood" and "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" performed at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs and Hampstead Theatre. The same year he had a successful run, co-starring in "The Modernists" with Paul Popplewell, Jesse Spencer and Orlando Wells.
Trained under Sir Anthony Hopkins' former mentor at the London Drama Centre.
His father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, was the first firefighter in the family to attend a university.
Shares an agent with Ewan McGregor: Lindy King.
Won "The Big Breakfast's Find Me a Supermodel" competition at age 21 in 1998 (and with it a brief contract with Models One).
Became a father for the 1st time at age 30 when his [now ex] girlfriend Rachael Speedgave birth to their son Louis Thomas Hardy on April 8, 2008.
Has written two television series with Kelly Marcel, both of which have sold to production companies.
One of Variety magazine's Top Ten Actors to watch (2009).
Auditioned for the role of Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's adaptation of Orgullo y prejuicio(2005) and nearly won the role but inevitably lost to Matthew Macfadyen.
Engaged to his Wuthering Heights (2009) co-star Charlotte Riley (2010).
He battled alcoholism and a crack cocaine addiction in his early-to mid-twenties, but has been sober since 2003.
Has worked with Chris Pine in the action comedy Esto es la guerra (2012). Both stars appeared in the very popular Star Trek series. Tom appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis(2002) and Chris starred in Star Trek (2009).
Is the only actor to play a villain in a Star Trek film and a Batman film.
Ranked #17 on Empire Online list of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in 2013.
His performance in Bronson (2008) and Matthias Schoenaerts' performance in Bullhead(2011), were Steven Ogg's inspirations to play Trevor Phillips in Grand Theft Auto V(2013). Steven Ogg revealed his inspirations at the New York Comic-Con in October 2013. Hardy and Schoenaerts starred together in La entrega (2014), a film directed by Michaël R. Roskam, the same director of "Bullhead".
He assumed that Christopher Nolan cast him as Bane in El caballero oscuro: La leyenda renace (2012) because of his performance in Bronson (2008). He later found out that Nolan thought he would be a good fit based of his performance in RocknRolla (2008) and had not even seen Bronson.
Was cast as Rick Flag in Suicide Squad (2016), but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Revenant (2015). Joel Kinnaman (his co-star in El niño 44 (2015)), replaced him.
Good friends with Benedict Cumberbatch. They starred together in Stuart: Una vida al revés (2007) and El topo (2011).
Has appeared in two films with Jason Clarke: Sin ley (2012) and El niño 44 (2015).
He loves Jiu Jitsu and Capoeira.
Dropped out of Black Mass (2015) and was replaced by Joel Edgerton, his co-star in Warrior (2011).
Was cast in Takashi Miike's English-language debut, "The Outsider", a film about Yakuza, but he dropped out, Miike dropped out of the project as well.
Has appeared in four films with his idol Gary Oldman: El topo (2011), Sin ley (2012), El caballero oscuro: La leyenda renace (2012) and El niño 44 (2015).
Has co-starred in two films with his friend Noomi Rapace: La entrega (2014) and El niño 44 (2015). They play each other's love interest in both films.
Leonardo DiCaprio convinced him to read the script of The Revenant (2015) and take the role of John Fitzgerald. They became friends after starring together in Origen (2010).
Has starred in two films with his friend Vincent Cassel: El misterio de Wells (2002) and El niño 44 (2015).
Was set to star as climber George Mallory in Doug Liman's Everest, but dropped out.
Interviewed Matthias Schoenaerts, his co-star in La entrega (2014), for the May 2015 issue of Interview magazine. During the interview, Hardy expressed his desire to work with Schoenaerts again.
Had been considered for the role of John Connor in Terminator Génesis (2015), which went to Jason Clarke.
Parents are Edward "Chips" and Anne Hardy; has English and Irish ancestry.
Personal Quotes
You don't step on stage to eat, you go there to be eaten.
[acting tip on a movie or play] Whatever character you play, remember they are always doing something. They are not just talking. They are alive; going through a drama in which they will go through some sort of dramatic human experience. Keywords: Alive and Experience. It is your job to make them become so. Anything you do on stage or film has a direct relation to something you have experienced in one form or another in real life. Use your imagination to exaggerate or lessen that sensation. Then, disguise it in characterization and don't forget to make lots and lots of mistakes, and look like a complete asshole. You'll do fine.
[on his nosiness] And I like people. I like to know what you're really up to. I'm a bit of a nosey busy body. Why do they do the things they do? Why are they prepared to do the things they do to get what they want? When? Where? Who?
[on his career] I mean there I was. One moment in Wandsworth Police Station on the way to Wormwood Scrubs, looking at 14 years, to this!
[to his fans] Thanks for all the wonderful paintings and drawings and writings. I am very honoured to have your support, and love you for the energy and the inspiring work and comments that you bring to the table.
[on Shinzon, his character from Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)] The character was like the Prince and the Pauper or more like Greystoke to me. He essentially has not had the same circumstances and experiences. Picard doesn't have the same baggage that Shinzon carries. So that was more freeing. He is essentially an orphan and an abused child, who becomes an emperor. There were moves that I had to play with, that did not have anything to do with Picard. The whole film is about why they are not similar. So the relationship had a ground basis to work from.
[on his Shinzon action figure] My action figure is great! It's big and bald. It's very disturbing to look at a toy and see yourself. At the same time, it's very cool.
[When asked by Simon Gage of "Attitude" magazine in a 2008 interview, "Have you ever had sexual relations with men?"] I'm an actor, for fuck's sake. I'm an artist. I've played with anything and anyone. But I'm not into men sexually. I love the form and the physicality but the gay sex bit does nothing for me... To me, it just doesn't compute to me now that I'm in my 30s and it doesn't do it for me and I'm done experimenting.
I love people. People are lovely creatures. I'm one myself [so] I love to see people happy.
I'm from East Sheen, I went to public school where I learned Latin at the age of nine, and certain expectations were made of me to go to St Paul's, Oxbridge maybe, and all that kind of thing. And I failed systematically to meet the mark - who I am and what I should have been are two very different things.
[on working with Gary Oldman] Gary Oldman is my hero, that's it. When I went to drama school everybody used to quote him in all his films, you know El clan de los irlandeses(1990) right through to El profesional (Léon) (1994) or whatever. And I'd sit there really quietly and think "No, no, you don't know. I'm more of a Gary Oldman fan than you are." [laughs] When you do an impression of him, that's sacrilege! So to work with him, for him to look me in the eye, talk to me... acknowledge I exist! Cos I'm not star struck by people, but Gary just took the wind right out of me. I'm very lucky we had to reshoot those scenes on the couch [in El topo (2011)] because the first task that I did was just me watching him, because I was shocked to actually be working with him. Then for him to actually like me, and to work three times with him - cos we did Sin ley (2012) afterwards. I remember saying "Would you look at the script, it's really cool", and he's like "Yeah, sure". This is crazy, you know? This is a man that I've stolen everything that I've done from, like Bronson (2008) and Stuart: Una vida al revés (2007). That's me trying to emulate what Gary's done, and to work with him makes me feel like I don't have any characters of my own. [laughs]
I want to dispel that it's all about celebrity-ism, I'm fucking bored of people looking at whose shoes are interesting and what hat is interesting. Storytelling is very important to people, it comforts them, unite us, cheers us up, we can affect change with these arts. We need to be entertained to connect.
(on getting sober in 2003) I went entirely off the rails and I'm lucky I didn't have some terrible accident or end up in prison or dead, because that's where I was going. Now I know my beast and I know how to manage it. It's like living with a 400 pound orangutan that wants to kill me. It's much more powerful than me, doesn't speak the same language and it runs around the darkness of my soul.
(2010, on quitting drugs and alcohol) I thought I'd have a little bit of a party, and I'd end up high and frightened, in places that scared me. In a blackout I could end up anywhere, I might wake up somewhere on the other side of London, or in another country or in bed with someone I didn't know, not knowing how I got there. Bleeding. This was on a daily basis and I was going to work, I didn't want to appear rock 'n' roll, I didn't want anyone to know I was out of control, but I couldn't hide it. Eventually, the body gives up, my body told me - I was completely kaput, I was lucky I didn't get hepatitis or AIDS.
[on working on Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)] I was terrified. Every day on that set, I was terrified, which worked for the character anyway. You can't hide that, the camera will pick it up. I was genuinely out of my depth. The whole thing was "How can I do this?". I took it very seriously, with my technique. I didn't have a single drink when I did it, for three months. Friday night, nothing! I'd never been so focused in my life! I couldn't get the job done otherwise. I was working 17-hour days. When I came back I just slept. I was just constantly at work. A lot of the Enterprise stuff was shot three months prior to me coming out. So they'd already shot half the movie before I turned up. So it was like walk in, straight in, out the frying pan, into the fire, get on with it.
I don't feel very manly. I don't feel rugged and strong and capable in real life, not how I imagine a man ought to be. So I seek it, to mimic it and maybe understand it, or maybe to draw it into my own reality. People who are scary, they terrify me, but I can imitate them. I'm not a fighter. I'm a petite little bourgeois boy from London. I don't fight, I mimic.
[on how he viewed his character in Locke (2013)] Responsibility has a cost, and there's no such thing as a perfection. So the argument of Ivan being a good guy or bad guy, in the same way, he's not perfect, well fucking welcome to the human race.
[on having to craft an hour and a half performance in just eight days of shooting on Locke(2013)] There's nothing too perfect [in his performance], his night is intrinsically fucked. The question is, how do you unfuck it, to the best of your ability, when inevitably it's not going to be the best of nights? So there's no point of affecting that with embellishments, it's shit.
[on watching himself on screen] I see myself as a piece of meat. And it's purely subjective. For me, I know that's the best I can do.
I'm a bit of a micromanager. In the early days, directors and producers would get nervous about me being in the video village. But to me it really is a tool, just a fucking tool. I need to make sure that my tone is working, that's not about vanity, it's about is it working? I'm not saving lives, mate, but a surgeon would look at footage and the video of other people doing surgery, or a formula one racer would watch a lap where someone took a corner, or a boxer would watch another boxer fight, I'd watch a screen and say, "Okay, that's bullshit, we've got to work on that." Some people do have a problem looking at that, they say, "Oh shit, that changes everything." But I'm 45 films deep now, I'm a bit old and ugly for it, I kind of get it, and I want to know how can I be more immersed in this world.
[on working on Locke (2013)] It's a shift for me, but it was a pleasure to play in the realm of containment. I can't describe it any other way, apart from there is so many layers to it. The car is a containment in some way, Locke is contained in his emotions. And each individual phone call, there are four walls to each relationship, which collapse or don't. So it was quite a mathematical performance.
[on Esto es la guerra (2012)] I didn't understand how you could do something which is so much fun and be so miserable doing it.
I'm not really a road dog. I'm a bit of a homeboy. [But] the reality is, I love what I fucking do.
[on struggling with his life increasingly being "in the public domain"] I don't like it when people say, "Well, you should have expected that when you accepted the job as an actor." When you go to drama school, no one gives you a class on fame. Just treat people how you wish to be treated. Whether I'm married or not married, people will find out. But it's also not something I'm going to offer.
I love to do things I hadn't done before.
[on Brazilian films] I've seen Última Parada 174 (2008) and Cidade dos Homens (2007). These films reminded me of a lot of the acting style of the '70s, very manly and energetic. It is a very similar energy to the French and South African productions. I like the passion for living that Brazil has, it is in Capoeira, on dance and in the people. By the way, I love Capoeira, but I'm terrible at it................................................................................................
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