Tom Hardy (25 page)

The first
Mad Max
film had been released in 1979 and starred a young Mel Gibson in the lead role. It was directed by George Miller (who in fact went on to direct the two sequels to
Mad Max
in the eighties). The film was set in a dystopian future Australia where law and order have broken
down. Max is a policeman whose wife and child are murdered by a vicious motorcycle gang and the enraged Max tracks down the gang’s members, killing them all. At the time, Mel Gibson was an unknown and the films were responsible for launching his career. In 1981,
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
came out and was followed in 1985 by
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
The series attained cult status and the films have been recognised as having a profound influence on
post-apocalyptic
films made subsequently.

The fourth instalment had been a long time in the offing. Miller had been in possession of a script he was satisfied with for over a decade but filming had stalled in 2001 because of global security issues and economic turmoil. Whilst drumming his fingers waiting to start work on
Mad Max 4,
Miller veered off on an unexpected course and directed the animated musical feature about penguins,
Happy Feet
and its successor
Happy Feet 2
. All the while, though, the director was honing his next
Max
film and paving the way for when shooting did eventually begin. ‘All the time, I worked really hard to get the screenplay right and really prepared the film very well,’ he commented.

With his cast assembled, Miller had originally hoped to start shooting in the second half of 2010 but he was stopped in his tracks by something over which he had no control: the weather. The Australian outback at Broken Hill (a location sometimes referred to as ‘the end of civilisation’ in Australia), with its harsh wasteland-like appearance was the perfect backdrop for the apocalyptic landscape of
Mad Max
. This part of the country, however, had been subject to unexpectedly high levels of rainfall, which meant the scenery had changed beyond
recognition. ‘We were all set to shoot in the Australian desert and then unprecedented rain came and what was the wasteland – completely flat, red earth – is now a flower garden … we sort of lost the wasteland,’ said Miller. While the rainfall was good news for Australia, it was bad news for the progress of the film and a major rethink was needed.

The solution to the problem was located many miles from Australia, and it transpired that shooting would now take place in the south-west African nation of Namibia. Exactly where in Namibia, though, still remains a closely guarded secret. Although the production had moved, Tom was at pains to point out that the crew would still be the Australian one and that Max would still be an Australian film. ‘Australia will still make money from it,’ he said.

Leaving Australia certainly didn’t mean leaving behind some of the most important stars of the film: its vehicles. Miller confessed in an interview that 150 vehicles had been especially constructed for the film – most of which, of course, would be destroyed during the course of shooting. The vehicles, designed by Ford Australia’s Research Centre, were shipped from Australia to South Africa and then transported overland to Namibia at the start of 2012.

It also transpired that the film was going to be a physically demanding one for the actors and would involve a lot of stunts. To this end, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy were undergoing exacting training. Speaking to ABC News, Miller said: ‘The reason the movie is so big is that it’s got just a huge number of stunts, and we’re trying to do stuff that I believe people haven’t done before.’ A comment bound to get movie fans excited!

Over the months prior to the commencement of shooting, snippets of information about the film came to light. It was to be set just a short time after the conclusion of
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
It also transpired that Charlize Theron’s character was to be a one-armed warrior. Plus of course more news about who else was to appear in the film started to leak out. British actor Nicholas Hoult (
About a Boy, Skins
) had secured himself a part and there was to be a group of women in the film called ‘Five Wives’, who Max must protect from the baddies. Amongst the names reputedly playing the wives are: Zoe Kravitz, Teresa Palmer, Adelaide Clemens and Riley Keough (the grand-daughter of Elvis Presley).

What has also become apparent is that, for at least some of the film, Max will be sporting a great deal of facial hair. During the early months of 2012, Tom Hardy had been spotted out and about in the UK, attending events and premieres looking decidedly hirsute. TV viewers who watched the
Jonathan Ross Chat Show
in March 2012 would have noted the new addition to his face. Tom has confessed that the beard is part of his preparation for
Mad Max
. ‘The beard is to make me look handsome. Really, it’s because I’m about to play Mad Max in the new film and we start the shoot by showing him in his wild days. It’s going to be really big and bushy – what I have now is only the start.’

Always anxious to perform at his very best and to do his utmost to keep fans of the original films happy, Tom’s excitement at landing such an iconic role was tinged with the nerves he so often had to combat when taking on a
high-profile
new role. He knew what he was taking on and how much pressure he would be under to live up to expectations.
‘The guy’s an Australian icon, I’m s******g myself,’ he admitted to the
Sunday Telegraph.
He added: ‘I feel bad I’m not Australian, really. But look, I’m gonna come and represent and do my best.’

He’d already given thought to his character too. As well as wanting to appear strong and lean physically, Tom described the Max he wanted to create as being like ‘a hungry wolf’. He stated: ‘This is the kind of guy who’s not well. So I have to create that reality.’ If past form was anything to go by, Max was in a safe pair of hands with Tom Hardy.

George Miller certainly seemed to think this was the case and was excited about having found a new actor to fill the role of Max. He called Tom ‘one of those special actors who comes along’ and went on to explain that Tom had even met with Mel Gibson to discuss the part. ‘Mel has been very generous in his comments and so on.’ Tom knew he had big shoes to fill, that Gibson had been the archetypal Max, so it must have been reassuring to know that he had the blessing of the older actor.

For now, the rest of the production remains, rightly, shrouded in secrecy and we will all just have to wait and see where the Fury Road leads for Tom.

When it comes to Hollywood big cheeses, you can’t really get much bigger than Harvey Weinstein. Originally known for being one of the founders of the film distribution company Miramax (eventually bought by Disney), in 2005, he founded film production company The Weinstein Company with his brother, Bob. Harvey Weinstein has been a producer on some of the biggest films of recent years including
The King’s
Speech, The Fighter and My Week with Marilyn.
He also took a huge – but very canny – gamble and invested in a black-
and-white
French film about a fading silent movie star … Meryl Streep has jokingly referred to him as ‘God’. In short, when Weinstein speaks, the movie world listens.

At the start of 2012, it was reported that the cinematic release of
The Wettest County in the World,
a film distributed by Weinstein, was being pushed back in the schedule from April to August. The reason? Weinstein was of the opinion that one of the actors in the film was about to make it very big indeed and, because of this, it would make more sense commercially to delay the film and cash in on the forthcoming celebrity. ‘We have a star in Tom Hardy who’s completely anonymous right now,’ said Weinstein when quizzed about the revised date for the film’s opening. He went on to qualify this by stating that
Batman – The Dark
Knight Rises would bring Tom to the attention of the world: ‘He’s going to be a huge movie star by August,’ he added. That’s quite an accolade coming from one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

The Wettest County in the World
has now been given the title Lawless and is based on a 2008 book by Matt Bondurant. Bondurant’s novel has its origins in the true story of his grandfather and two great uncles, Prohibition-era bootleggers who took the law into their own hands. The screenplay for the film was written by Nick Cave and John Hillcoat (
The Road
) is its director.

While many actors were variously linked to the film, there was one who remained a constant from the start – Shia LaBeouf, the young actor who had recently found fame
playing the lead (human) role in the
Transformers
films and also starring alongside Michael Douglas and Carey Mulligan in
Wall Street 2 – Money Never Sleeps
. Names that had circled around the project included Ryan Gosling and Scarlett Johansson, but the remainder of the cast was at last confirmed. Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke were to play the three Bondurant brothers and the rest of the cast included Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Jason Clarke and Guy Pearce. Although the film was made independently, it was one of the hottest properties at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and Weinstein snapped up the distribution rights for it for a reported $5 million, after a bidding war between Weinstein, CBS Films and Relativity Media. Tom was delighted to be starring alongside Gary Oldman again and the rest of the cast represented some strong young acting talent. Evidently, the working relationship between

Tom and LaBeouf, though, was not a harmonious one. LaBeouf is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve and often rails against what would be considered the norm for a Hollywood star. Like Tom, he’s had a few brushes with the law but has also made a few tactless comments about his films and his co-stars to the press. According to LaBeouf, he took umbrage when, during shooting, his co-stars Tom and Jason Clarke began to talk about their expensive cars. This riled LeBeouf who, despite now being rich himself, doesn’t wear his wealth comfortably. Their conversation angered him and Tom and LaBeouf came to physical blows. Though Tom is tough, it seems that LaBeouf is tougher and, following the spat, LaBeouf declared that Tom ‘never did that roughhouse stuff with me again’.

Tom concurred with this version of events when he was inevitably asked about the incident. ‘I got knocked out by Shia LaBeouf, actually… behind the scenes. He knocked me out sparko. Out cold. He’s a bad, bad boy. He’s a scary dude,’ he said to
Den of Geek
website. Director John Hillcoat had a rather different take on the young actor, saying, ‘Shia was always the first on set, and he treated the crew with incredible respect.’

Fortunately, not everyone on the film shared LaBoeuf’s opinion of Tom. Jessica Chastain, who plays a love interest to Tom’s character, Forrest Bondurant, seemed to thoroughly enjoy working with him. ‘I play this gun moll from Chicago who meets these three brothers and has a romance with Tom’s character … The thing about Tom Hardy is he is more brilliant than he is hot. It’s crazy. He’s actually a better actor than he is hot – and he is hot!’ she stated. Not many would disagree with that statement.

At last, after years of hard graft, Tom had finally been pinpointed as one of Hollywood’s bright new talents. Now it is just a case of waiting to see if this star goes stratospheric.

S
o what lies in store for Tom Hardy, the hottest new talent on the block? Great things – and, after years of laying the foundations, that's no less than he deserves.

There is, of course, always going to be hearsay and misinformation about his involvement in new movie projects. In June 2011 the media seemed convinced that he would have a part in a new film remake of the seventies television series
The Professionals
– but no sooner had the stories popped up than they disappeared again, and no mention has been made since. In April 2012, it was rumoured that Mickey Rourke was relinquishing his role in a biopic of the life of Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas and that Tom would be stepping into the breach – but Rourke maintains he is still set to star in the film.

In the summer of 2011, stories were circulating that Tom was linked to an exciting major new role – and this time the
gossip had its basis in truth. It transpired that Tom was to play none other than legendary mobster Al Capone in
Cicero
, a film about Capone's rise to power. It also seemed likely that the Capone project might not just be one film but perhaps a trilogy and would be directed by David Yates, who had directed four of the later films in the
Harry Potter
series.

Tom, of course, got straight down to business with research and preparation for the role. One journalist who interviewed him at the time remarked that he even turned up to meet him while chomping on a cigar! He immersed himself further by raiding the Warner Bros archive of gangster movies to soak up a bit of their style and atmosphere. ‘I've been working with Warner Bros, watching their gangster films – the ones with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. It's interesting to get them, and a bit of Capone, into the bloodstream,' he told Baz Bamigboye of the
Daily Mail.

The prospect of Tom playing Capone will whet the appetite of many a movie fan – the bad-boy actor par excellence transforming into one of the most legendary tough guys of all time. Exciting stuff. Those edgy good looks, wonky teeth and mischievous eyes are certainly coming into their own now. Tom recently said to Australia's
Sunday Telegraph
that he has a desire to get back to the kind of cinema made in the 1970s, where film stars weren't necessarily conventional pretty boys. ‘This is the type of acting I want to get back to, and there's nothing around these days, no actors around that inspire me.'

The relationship between Warner Bros and Tom Hardy took a new turn in April 2012 when it was announced that, just a year after he took on the role of Bane for them in
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
, he had signed a first-look
deal with the studio. Effectively, this means that Warner Bros have first refusal on any project Tom wishes to develop and one such project is already coming to fruition. Tom is to star in and co-produce an as-yet-untitled outlaw biker movie (his fellow producers are to be Art and John Linson of Linson Entertainment). The story will apparently centre on an injured Vietnam veteran who comes back to San Francisco at the height of civil unrest and ‘emerges to become the leader of California's most violent outlaw biker club'.

Tom has also expressed a desire to one day play James Bond – but with the proviso that Chris Nolan sits in the director's chair. He might be out of luck there, as Daniel Craig has stated how much he enjoys the role and that he's not ready to give it up quite yet.

Tom has now firmly established himself as a leading Hollywood name – but how has this changed his life? He claims his introduction to the big time will not affect him, he's still Tommy Hardy from East Sheen. ‘I've been doing this job for 12 years. Nothing has changed in the way that I approach my work. I'm not going to not walk to and from my shop to go and get milk, or take the Tube, or drive around town with the rag down and the music up, because I'm still as lairy as I ever was and I'd continue to be so anyway, whether I was working or not working… I'm ultimately quite boring, I do my job.'

Fingers crossed he continues to do just that and bring pleasure to his fans for many more years. He deserves his success – and we deserve the chance to watch the most impressive acting talent of a generation doing what he does so well.