Why Tom Hardy hates method acting: “It sounds really wanky”
Making your film debut in a Ridley Scott movie isn’t a bad way to get started. That’s exactly what happened to Tom Hardy, whose first movie appearance was in the military drama Black Hawk Down. Since then, he’s gone on to become a huge star. He’s become a favourite of Christopher Nolan, picked up an Oscar nomination for The Revenant, and led the Venom franchise – although he’d probably like to forget that last one.
In terms of conventional training, Hardy didn’t get much of a chance to attend acting school. He was briefly enrolled at Drama Centre London, where he shared classes with Michael Fassbender, before dropping out to take a role in the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers. He was able to pick up some acting techniques at that time, although he seemed to be a bit confused over which school of thought he belonged to.
In an interview with Esquire, Hardy put his performance philosophy into his own words. “I don’t do method acting. I know it sounds really wanky but I hate the term, it’s such a load of pish. It is like training really hard for a fight, and then you get punched in the mouth and your plans go out the window. It’s a bit like that with acting – you can train, do all the methods and techniques but it doesn’t mean it will work on set.”
Some would disagree with the Legend star’s assessment of his own work. To prepare for his role as an MMA fighter in Warrior, Hardy embarked on a strict diet that mimicked those of real combat athletes and left him in a foul mood most of the time. His habit of ‘disappearing’ into characters has often left him fighting method acting accusations, but according to the Brit, what he’s doing is something else entirely.
“I think people have an instinctive amount of talent you can’t teach, and then you reinforce that with effort and training really hard,” he explained. “You have to take responsibility for your talent, not stagnate. I like watching documentaries, because you’re observing real people.”
Hardy has stated elsewhere that he tries to combine some of the elements of method with a more conventional, less ‘wanky’ approach. “There’s camouflage, and there’s the hustle,” he told AV Club. ‘Camouflage’, in his eyes, is getting into character through the use of makeup, costume, and prosthetics, whilst ‘hustle’ is putting in whatever work is necessary outside of shooting to get yourself in the mindset of the role.
Just because he doesn’t think he’s a method actor, does that exempt Hardy from the term? Some would argue that his dedication to getting in character, particularly when it comes to transforming his body, falls within the lines of the controversial practice. However, would you call Gary Oldman a method actor? Just because he is devoted to making himself look and feel different for every part? Almost certainly not.
The debate surrounding method acting has been raging on ever since it became popular. Regardless of whether or not he’s ‘technically’ part of the movement, as long as Hardy is getting the result he wants, then it doesn’t matter what other people think of him. As long as he’s not sending people dead rats in the post of refusing to get out of a wheelchair, then he should be alright.
