Tom Hardy’s been in New York this week promoting Locke. The film is receiving really great reviews, rating at 90% currently on Rotten Tomatoes. In support of Locke, they’ve set up some selective press for Hardy, including an interview with ESQUIRE which I finally got around to reading today. I loved it so much I read it twice.

In the piece, Christopher Nolan – yes, Christopher Nolan – calls Hardy “one of the greatest”. And a lot of people have been saying this about Tom Hardy: that he’s among the finest actors among the finest actors working right now. But he’s the one who happens to not be a Movie Star. As the writer asserts in the article, most people don’t actually know Tom Hardy. The internet does. But, as we’ve seen in many other cases, “internet famous”, as Sarah calls it, is not Johnny Depp or Tom Cruise famous. There are many reasons then why Hardy is not a Movie Star. One of them, according to Esquire, is DANGER.

The Danger, ironically, is what might actually make him a Movie Star though.

And the entire interview is like this. He’s open. He rambles. He’s brutally honest. He hates himself. He’s totally confident. He understands his work. He’s terrified of failure. Contradiction after contradiction, tangent after tangent.

"The trouble with Hollywood is that they want you to do something, they want you to be something, and then they think you are who they wanted you to be." – Tom Hardy

Who is Tom Hardy?

Well, here in this article at least he’s the guy who was mentored by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman told him that he was doing sh-t that not even he could do.

He’s the guy who received a phone call from Steven Spielberg after he’d seen Locke. Spielberg had no idea how Hardy pulled off the performance.

He’s the guy who supposedly did not get along with Charlize Theron on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road and denies it but then goes off on some kind of tangent about fear and being a trickster and that reminded me the Tom Hardy who was the guy who didn’t get along with Shia LaBeouf on Lawless: 

"I think she's f-cking awesome. I think she's incredible. I think she's one of the most talented actresses of our generation. But it's very interesting, the concept of what danger is, and this has nothing to do with Charlize Theron or Mad Max, actually, but this has to do with life in general. There is a flicker of energy that can come from certain people, whether it's fear-based or whether it's contrived, which can unsettle a room. And if somebody mismanages that, or if a trickster is in the driving seat of that particular asset and has no business being there in said room, well…but I am no more threat than a puppy. People are frightened by passion and heart. I'm terrified of it. And by decision making, especially if it's not their own. There are many sides to a coin as well. Reputation can work for you and against you, but I'd rather have one than not have one. But at the same time, it better be the fucking right one. It has to be authentic. It will have my signature on it. If I punch somebody in the face, they will know it. If I haven't, someone knows as well."

The entire article is like this – one of the most UN-boring celebrity profiles I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever. And I don’t know why but I keep thinking about Robert Downey Jr.

So it’s worth your time, totally, even if it doesn’t make Tom Hardy any clearer. But for one thing – Charlotte Riley IS his wife. It was mentioned in the WSJ, on US Weekly by his own response, and several times here as well.

Click here to read the ESQUIRE article.