The iconic movie role Tom Hardy missed out on: “That hurt, that really hurt”
Working in a creative field requires thick skin. No matter how talented a person is or how hard they try, rejection is part and parcel of existing in an industry where every position is fiercely battled over. Tom Hardy knows that well, but there’s still one miss that he never quite recovered from.
Hardy has had more than his fair share of success, though. His filmography is one that plenty of other actors probably look at with green-faced envy. His breakout role alone was enough to announce his arrival, as his debut feature film saw him working with Ridley Scott on Black Hawk Down. Since then, he’s worked with names like Sofia Coppola, Christopher Nolan and more, taking on plenty of iconic characters like Charles Bronson, Al Capone and the Kray twins.
He’s surely more than happy with the way his career has shaped up, but that still doesn’t stop the sting of missing out on a role he really wanted or a genre he desperately wanted to make his break in.
A pattern emerges throughout his acting credits: Hardy is most commonly cast as a violent hard man, playing plenty of gangsters and fighters in his time. But he’s rarely the romantic lead. According to his own admission, the actor would have liked to have changed that fact as he briefly tried to make moves into the world of romcoms or even period dramas.
The most painful rejection came from Pride & Prejudice, as Hardy auditioned for the role of Mr Darcy in the 2005 film adaptation of the Jane Austin classic. “That hurt, that really hurt,” Hardy said of the process after he’d put his all into finally appearing like the ultimate leading man heartthrob.
“I’d worn a blue shirt and jeans and a blue blazer and been doing my best Hugh Grant impression,” he said of his audition as he tried to break out of his tough-guy type cast and prove that he was capable of playing the literary love interest. But even after his best efforts, it wasn’t enough. “I was back to playing the wonky skewiff-teeth kid with the bow legs,” he said, still scorned by the rejection.
In an attempt to make him feel better about it, Universal Studios boss Stacey Snider broke the news to him in the gentlest way. She told him, “Every woman in the world has an impression of who Darcy is, and you’re just not it.”
Apparently, Matthew Macfadyen was it, as he bagged the role instead of Hardy. Macfadyen has played a fair amount of period characters in his time in projects like Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina and Ripper, so he clearly must just have exactly the type of look needed for an old-timey figure.
On the other hand, Hardy solidified his on-screen persona as he continued making action films and gritty dramas.
