Tom Hardy names his “absolute complete and utter hero”
After making an early foray into the world of modelling, it quickly became clear that Tom Hardy was more than just a handsome face. In fact, the following years have proven that Hardy also possessed a deep talent for acting and his has shown his prowess in a series of captivating performances throughout his career.
A film debut arrived in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down before Hardy announced himself as one of the biggest English acting stars of his generation. Elsewhere, the London-born actor has given striking efforts in the likes of Bronson, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant and The Dark Knight Rises.
But like any actor, Hardy himself has his personal heroes, the fellow stars who made him want to act in the first place. Having been in the industry for over two decades now, it’s likely that Hardy has inspired many younger actors, but when it comes to his own inspirations, there are few stars who have captured his admiration quite like Gary Oldman.
“Gary Oldman is my absolute, complete and utter hero,” Hardy had once admitted in an interview with ShortList. “He’s the fucking man. I look at him, and I want to be like that for my generation.” Oldman is indeed known and loved as one of the greatest British actors of all time and has been championed for his many stultifying movie roles.
From his wider recognition breakthroughs in JKF and Bram Stoker’s Dracula to his eternally memorable roles in the likes of Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element and Harry Potter, Oldman has always garnered the respect of his fellow actors, most notably Hardy, who explained, “I want to have that same quality. He’s incredible. And there is a definite ‘hang on a minute’ [moment], but I’ve got past the star-struck part now.”
The star-struck quality in Hardy first arrived when the pair worked together on Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 Cold War spy thriller movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy when Hardy finally got to work with his hero. “To work with him,” Hardy had once noted, “for him to look me in the eye and talk to me and acknowledge me like I exist was, you know – because I’m not starstruck with people, but Gary… he took the wind right out of me.“
The ShortList interview was not the first time that Hardy had spoken of Oldman, whom he also shared The Dark Knight Rises with, being his “hero”. In fact, Hardy had once explained that when he was at drama school, many of his classmates had done impressions of the actor in State of Grace and Leon, but he would “Sit there really quiet and think, ‘No, you don’t know, I’m more of a Gary Oldman fan than you are.’”
The actor added: “They’d do an impression of him, and I’d think, ‘Sacrilege’.” Evidently, there is a deep passion that runs within Hardy for the man who he had once admitted to “stealing everything” from, which is fair enough, considering the wild impact that Oldman has made on the cinematic medium.
Hardy, too, has managed to establish himself as a prominent actor, emulating even just a glimmer of what Oldman has. So, in having Oldman as his hero, Hardy has been able to reach up to his greatness and hope to match it in even a small manner, which he undoubtedly has so far.
