Hes created a series of performances that have taken advantage of his intensity, his brutish physique and his way around a multi-syllable sentence and now, Tom Hardy has somehow created a role for himself that feels more Tom Hardy than almost anything else hes done. InTaboo, the new FX series the actor co-created with father Chips Hardy andPeaky Blindersshowrunner Steven Knight, he plays gruff protagonist James Delaney, an early 19th-century explorer who returns home to London to find out hes inherited land sought after by the East India Company. Long presumed dead and blessed (cursed?) with some extraordinary talents procured in his far-flung travels, he has a brutal past one that materializes in dreams and/or memories as ghost-like figures tied to the slave trade and other peeking-out-of-the-closet skeletons. Feel like watching Hardy fight both proto-corporate fatcats and personal demons? This is the pulp/prestige-TV show for you.
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At the end of Taboos first episode, the board of stuffy white men at the East India Company meets with Delaney, hoping to take this valuable land inherited to him. They try to persuade him with flattery, threats and money, at which point Delaney hisses, Are you deaf? He then eviscerates them with a line that is possibly the most Tom Hardy line ever muttered: I do know the evil that you do because I was once a part of it. He delivers that declaration with a chilling, raspy whisper; his left eyed, scarred, twitches ever so slightly as it fixes its glare on Sir Stuart Strange (Jonathan Pryce), the head of the East India Company. He sounds eerily calm. He might get up and walk out of the room. Or he might pounce and rip out one of the mens throats.
This, folks, is what peak Tom Hardy looks like. His boorish characters are a departure from his real-life persona, chronicled through interviews, his well-documented love for dogs, and his endearingly embarrassing Instagram account, all which color the actor as a loveable, goofy weirdo a canon-worthy Internet Boyfriend.
But on screen, hebroods harderthan anyone in the business. His filmography ranges from arty and critically-acclaimed (Bronson,Locke) to blockbuster-y (Mad Max: Fury Road), Oscar bait-y (The Revenant) and Christopher Nolan-y (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, the upcomingDunkirk), with a few in between that are just plain silly (This Means War,Legend). Each of his roles tend to rely on his ability to reveal different shades of darkness. The question is really just: Which flavor are you going to get when you plunk down your cash? Weve charted out the Four Main Peak Tom Hardy Types.
Over-the-Top Psycho
The 39-year-old actor was a late-bloomer compared to his peers by the time he had his breakout part in 2008, courtesy of Nicolas Winding Refns Bronson. Hardy bulked up, went bald and became fully psychotic to play Charles Bronson, colloquially known as the most violent prisoner in Britain. Spewing the C-word, pissing on peoples heads, beating up just about everyone in his way how could you ignore him? He is terrifying, magnetic and creepy beyond belief; within 10 minutes, you sensed you were in the presence of a performer who could completely give himself to such a physically demanding role. The more you watched his celebrity convicts dramatic monologues about prison life delivered in theatrical sides, occasionally while wearing partial 1920s flapper makeup the more of a glimpse you got of Bronsons batshit mentality. The man went there in a big way.
That role would help pave the way for his big-time Hollywood breakout, as the somehow-even-more-muscular Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). If a supporting part in Christopher Nolans Inception (2012) as a dapper mercenary made studio executives take notice whos the guy with the Cary Grant accent and the curdled-Colonialist sense of adventure? it was the marble-mouthed Batman villain who gave him a high multiplex-audience Q rating. Oh, you think darkness is your ally?, Bane mumble-intones. But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didnt see the light until I was already a man by then it was nothing to me but blinding. Its a frightening delivery that paints his bad guys backstory as someone who had been robbed of his chance at a life of light thus rendering his grand-gesture acts of terrorism believable. He does not just hijack a flight; he hires a team to rip the plane apart, ejecting himself and a hostage out of a hole where the tail was. Its supervillainy as a performance-art piece.
In an interview with The New York Times, Hardy admitted why he tends to go for the uglier roles:
I think as a youngster, when I started acting, there was a pressure to be or look a certain way a six-pack, straight teeth, tan. Thats just not going to be a constant that I could ever maintain. Im a bit wonky. Even if I had a pretty face, I couldnt capitalize on that. Thats not where my heart is.
Most recently, Hardy revisited the role of the psycho in double (!) by playing real-life criminal twins the Kray brothers in Legend. His Reggie Kray is suave, romantic, smart as a whip; its his crazier twin, Ronnie Kray a gangster who employs the kind of unreasonably brutal methods and spit-shouting that would make Bronson grin beneath his circus-strongman mustache that feels like old-school Hardy in his off-the-leash comfort zone. Come for the sight of Tom in a slim-cut suit; stay for the sight of him acting like he needs a straight-jacket ASAP.
Morally Fraught Everyman
Yes, he can play subtle just as well as psychotic. On the heels of Bane, Hardy stepped into the shoes (and car) of Ivan Locke in 2013s Locke, directed by future Taboo co-creator Steven Knight. In this single location film, the actor proved he could accomplish a lot even when given oh-so-little except for a brief preamble, the entire film takes place during a 80-minute drive, in which his construction foreman juggles work drama while toggling between Bluetooth calls between his mistress (who is about to give birth to his child) and his wife. Most actors would feel the need to overact given the constraints of the premise; Hardy goes for a sort of weary realism that underplays the capital-D Drama scenes. Even an imaginary conversation with his late father doesnt read as an Oscar-reel clip. Listen to how quiet he stays:
The next year, Hardy appeared in The Drop, in which he again plays the everyman type a non-hipster Brooklyn bartender named Bob, who goes to church religiously, adopts a pitbull pup and leads a rather mundane life sort of. The tavern he tends at is owned by his cousin, played by James Gandolfini (his final role) and also happens to be a drop for criminal money exchanges. Bob is not as simple as he initially comes off, of course; hes a man who wants to do good, but also happens to have an alarming past that suggests hes not nearly in over his head as viewers think. After the films climax, Hardy sits in a car, contemplating his life, with this morally fraught narration: Theres some sins that you commit that you cant come back from no matter how hard you try. Its like the devil is waiting for your body to quit because he knows he already owns your soul. And then, I think, maybe you know theres no devil. You die. And God he says: Nah. Nah, you cant come in. You have to leave and go away. You have to be alone forever.'
Weathered Survivor
Hardy has mastered the been-through-some-shit hero the way Taboos Delaney is haunted by his past and can often be found murmuring things in a Native American dialect fits right in with this particular speed. In the MMA drama Warrior (2011), the actor goes the full thousand-yard-stare route, as the hoodie-wearing, mumbling ex-Marine Tommy Conlon, who throws a punch here and there and takes swigs of alcohol from a paper bag. Hes clearly the black-sheep brother of this clan so of course hes going to ends up facing his schoolteacher sibling Brendan (Joel Edgerton) in the ring. Hes rugged and enraged, warring with the good and bad within him due to years of hardened life. This is another one of those extremely Tom Hardy-ish roles that not only mixes antithetical characteristics and Devil v. Angel internal conflicts, but also gets our man in a bulked up, physical space (its almost feels like youre watching his training workouts for The Dark Knight Rises at times). He gets knocked down. But he gets up again.
So yes, hell take a beating or three, or walk 20 miles in the snow after he got his throat slit (the 2012 bootlegging drama Lawless), or, when push comes to shove, wander for days in the untamed tundra with an Oscar-winner hot on his trail. His trapper character in The Revenant (2015) is no Bane or Bronson; hes just a selfish survivor who ends up on Leonardo DiCaprios hit list after he leaves the man to die after a savage bear attack. The bastard is just about as rugged as they come, and its not hard to recall this Oscar-winning story of a man hellbent on revenge when thinking about Hardys Taboo antihero another man familiar with the wild, the primal and the evil that men do in the name of survival.
Misunderstood Hero
A fact: Tom Hardy would never go for a straight hero role. If hes going to take on, say, the lead in the reboot of a popular Eighties franchise, hes going play it strong, silent and psychically shattered. Its especially amusing that Hardys mask in Mad Max: Fury Road resembles the one he wore as his Dark Knight villain they almost feel like two sides of the same scarred-up coin. Remember: This is the star of a major summer blockbuster with brand-name recognition, and hes barely given any dialogue. Hes still the good guy, but hes almost a sidekick to Charlize Therons Furiosa, the one-armed avenging angel who will rescue the harem held hostage by the postapocalyptic Trump-lite known as Immortan Joe. Given a chance for A-list neo-John Wayne status, Hardy will play in the shadow (and dust) of the women in the film. Most stars would demand a memorable, go-for-broke exit. His Max quietly nods at his female counterpart, whos lofted high on a perch as thousands cheer, and fades into the crowd.
And now, in Taboo, Hardy wades through an even bigger moral mess. James Delaney is often called savage; he may have lingering incestuous desires and almost certainly has a cannibalistic past. Hardy has mentioned that the character was influenced by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist, Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Hannibal Lecter, Jack the Ripper and a splash of Pride and Prejudices Mr. Darcy and somehow, he makes the mash-up feel like a no-brainer once you see a few episodes. He also mentions that he was interested in observing people of Taboos time period who wanted to change, despite having become products of their society and upbringing. By doing so, he has managed to tap into a little bit of every aforementioned Peak Hardy trope. Its too early to tell, but by creating James Delaney, he may have given himself the ultimate Tom Hardy anti-hero.
Click to listen to Neil Finns Song of the Lonely Mountain
