Tom Hardy: The Most Interesting Actor in the World

Tom Hardy is one of the biggest, most well known actors in the world today. He has also had one of the weirdest careers of any actor that I can remember and that’s why I did some research and decided to write this piece. We will look at his movie career and then break down his roles into a few categories to get a good look at his role types so far.

Tom Hardy has been in some massive movie hits with films like Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max, and Dunkirk, just to name a few. In these films he has played some of the most well known and memorable characters in recent movie history. The wide array of characters he has played has spanned multiple genres, from rom-coms to war films to musicals to dramas, the man has done it all. He never plays the same character twice and has had one of the most interesting careers I can remember in recent history. Let’s take a look at his career to start off (I looked at his bigger roles, if I included everything we would be here for hours):

Looking through Hardy’s IMDB page the first thing that popped out at me was that he appeared in a few episodes of Band of Brothers and in the film Black Hawk Down in 2001. In 2006, he was a major role in the BBC TV movie adaptation of Sweeney Todd until he broke into Hollywood when he appeared in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film, Inception. After his role in Inception, Hardy really rips through Hollywood and becomes the star we know today. In 2011, he had a part in Tinker Tailor Solider Spy and got a leading role in Warrior. 2012 was a monster year for Hardy, he starred alongside Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon in This Means War, he worked with Shia LaBeouf in Lawless, and closed out the year starring as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. In 2013, he appeared in the movie Locke, in this movie he is the only character that is ever seen on screen. Hardy worked with the legendary James Gandolfini in The Drop in 2014 and then did three more films in 2015: Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend where Hardy played both main roles, and finally The Revenant. In 2017, he worked with Nolan again in Dunkirk and his most recent film is Venom. Hardy has also had two major TV roles, Peaky Blinders from 2014-2017 and Taboo in 2017.

Let’s take a closer look at the genre’s Hardy has done throughout his career (based off of IMDB):

1. Action: Minotaur (2006), Flood (2007), Sucker Punch (2008), RocknRolla (2008), Bronson (2008), Thick as Thieves (2009), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Revenant (2015), Dunkirk (2017), Venom (2018) , War Party (announced)

2. Rom-Com: This Means War (2012)

3. Musical: Sweeney Todd (2006), London Road (2015)

4. Sci-Fi: Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

5. Drama: Warrior (2011), Locke (2013)

   a. War: Black Hawk Down (2001), Deserter (2002),

   b. Crime: The Reckoning (2002), Layer Cake (2004), The Killing Gene (2007), Lawless (2012), The Drop (2014), Child 44 (2015), Peaky Blinders (2014)

   c. Romance: Dot the I (2003)

   d. Biography: Marie Antoinette (2006), Legend (2015), Fonzo (post-production)

   e. Mystery: Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (2011), Drama (2017)

6. Horror: LD 50 Lethal Dose (2003)

7. Thriller: EMR (2004)

8. Comedy: Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006)

Is Tom Hardy the most interesting actor in Hollywood right now? The diversity of his roles leads me to say yes. In one movie the guy played two brothers, in another movie he played a bootlegger with a crazy accent in Depression-Era Virginia, and in another he was the only person on screen for an hour and a half. Most interesting? Possibly. One thing I do know is the man loves wearing masks.