The director who failed to impress Tom Hardy on day one: “I’m not really into that”
According to some people, Tom Hardy is just that muscular guy who does silly voices. While this isn’t entirely false, there is more to the Brit than mumbling. He’s an Oscar-nominated actor, picking up a nod for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his role in The Revenant. He has thrown himself headfirst into a number of high-profile, high-intensity characters and has become a massive name as a result.
Hardy’s star power has brought him to the attention of some of the most famous directors of the day. He is clearly a favourite of Christopher Nolan, having appeared in three of his movies, most notably playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. George Miller picked him to front Mad Max: Fury Road as the title character. Although given the way Hardy and Charlize Theron became enemies on set, he might wish he hadn’t.
Then there’s Guy Ritchie. Hardy first worked with the former Mr. Madonna in 2008, playing a character called ‘Handsome Bob’ in his film Rocknrolla. 17 years later, the two teamed up again for MobLand, a crime series for Paramount+. Hardy was clearly happy to work with his old friend again, but wasn’t afraid to admit that the two didn’t see eye-to-eye when they first met.
“I love Guy Ritchie when he’s on, right? I don’t like his take on ‘Oi oi, awight mate! Awight geezah!’ I’m not really into that,” Hardy told Esquire whilst promoting MobLand. “The first time I met him, I didn’t understand him. But when he articulates himself, you have to listen to him in a certain way, to tune in to what he wants. I thought he was a bit macho, a bit geezerish, but I misunderstood. He had a sort of punchiness and an energy which I thought was a bit popular and commercial when I was young. But it had an edge to it. It had something.”
Ritchie is still most commonly associated with the stereotypically British ‘gangster’ movies he made at the beginning of his career. His first film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, captured most of the essence of all his future entries in this genre: a large cast of eccentric characters, a mixture of extreme violence and silly comedy, an underground London setting, and Vinnie Jones. This formula would be repeated to great success in the likes of Snatch, Revolver, and the aforementioned Rocknrolla, although some people got very sick of his antics very quickly.
He famously fell out with Ray Winstone, denying the world a crossover that makes perfect sense on paper. Some critics have taken issue with the perceived similarities in his projects. Wenlei Ma of The Nightly called MobLand, “a stale gangster story with nothing new to offer,” specifically calling out Ritchie’s vision and wondering if somebody else might have done a better job. You’d think that after over a quarter of a century, he might have something new to offer in the gangster space, but this apparently isn’t the case.
Not everyone feels this way about Ritchie, including Tom Hardy. He might have taken a little while to warm to him, but he eventually recognised the full extent of his talent, even if other people are fed up with him.
