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spent six months in the Namibian desert
shooting the wildly anticipated blockbuster
Mad Max: Fury Road
.
Three decades after director George
Miller first brought the post-apocalyptic
franchise to life, Hardy has taken over
the role that put a young Mel
Gibson on the map. Hardy
becomes Max Rockatansky,
crossing a bleak desert
wasteland, trying to survive,
and fighting enemies armed
with spectacularly scary
vehicles. Any actor would
be clamouring for the role,
but Hardy had his personal
reasons behind vying for
A
fter a rocky start, which included
drinking at 13, being expelled from
school and developing substance
addiction problems, Tom Hardy was first
nudged into the world of showbiz at age 19,
when he won a modelling competition and
secured himself a contract.
He studied at the Drama Centre in
London, before ambitiously cutting
his studies short in favour of a part in
HBO's mini-series
Band of Brothers
. A
retrospective Hardy admits that he has had
a “naughty” past – and was even arrested
for car theft and gun possession. But
after checking into rehab in 2003, Hardy
gradually secured himself larger parts, and
over the years has gained critical acclaim
for his work in films like
Bronson
,
Inception
,
Lawless
and
Locke
.
Today, at 37, Hardy has adjusted to the
Hollywood lifestyle, but it’s still not something
he takes for granted. “I'm lucky to be where I
am now after messing up things when I first
arrived in Hollywood,” he says. “It took me a
while to earn back people's respect and find
good roles again. I still feel like I'm a character
actor who's getting the shot at playing lead
roles, which is great.”
In fact, this ‘character actor’ now has a
franchise to call his own. While he lives in
London with his fiancée, actress Charlotte
Riley, and has a three-year-old son, Louis,
from a previous relationship, he recently
Hardy and CharlizeTheron in
Mad Max: Fury Road
Bronson
British actor Tom Hardy is known
for his brawn, his looks, and his
ever accelerating ascent into the
Hollywood elite.
When I saw the first
Mad Max
, I remember
feeling the same way
that I felt when I
began listening to Jimi
Hendrix records
Inception
the lead. "When I saw the first
Mad Max
,
I remember feeling the same way that I
felt when I began listening to Jimi Hendrix
records," he recalls. "There was too much to
understand, and the sounds and images were
very disturbing to me, but now I love them
madly."
The childhood links don’t end there: “When
I was 17, I was given a dog named Mad Max,
although I wasn't that fond of the name
because the dog was so friendly! Then 17
years later, my dog died and I got the call that
I'm going to playing Mad Max... That was kind
of eerie.”
Max’s canine namesake was a friendly pup,
but the film’s protagonist is certainly not.
Hardy found getting to grips with his character
an intense experience, though explains he’s
often drawn to characters who frighten
him. “I like to play people who are
opposite or very different from
who I am, whoever that is!”
he laughs. “I find it much
simpler to interpret people
who make me wonder
what it's like to be in
their skin, maybe to
be tougher than I
am.”
Mad Max may be
quite the tough cookie,
but this actor is made of
hard stuff himself.
With director George Miller
13
CINEMA
INTERVIEW