Tom Hardy’s mixed feelings about method-man Michael Fassbender: “I’d love to go up against him”
He doesn’t immediately come to mind when you think of big Hollywood names, but Tom Hardy has been a part of some of the biggest movie moments of the past decade and a half. In 2015 alone, he starred in The Revenant, Legend, and Mad Max: Fury Road. His collaborations with Christopher Nolan include Dunkirk, Inception, and the role of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. There’s also the ‘Venom’ series, which made a buttload of money, but are also amongst some of the worst blockbusters of the 21st Century. Swings and roundabouts, eh?
The son of a novelist and playwright father, Hardy was always destined to be an entertainer, and he started his journey at the Drama Centre London. The school has generated some gigantic names, including Simon Callow, Colin Firth, and Dame Penelope Wilton. There’s also the case of Michael Fassbender, who studied at the Drama Centre around the same time as Hardy.
Speaking to the Daily Actor, Hardy recalled going to school with Fassbender and how he felt about the future Oscar nominee. “Mikey Fassbender, he was in the third year, and he was, like, the shit,” he said. “He was in this wheelchair, ’cause his character is in a wheelchair. We had, like, half an hour for lunch, a half an hour to feed the whole school. We had this little canteen, Barbara’s canteen, and Mikey would be holding up the whole queue ’cause he wouldn’t get out of his fucking wheelchair. That’s the kind of school I went to. ‘Mikey, man, just stand the fuck up and order your lunch so we can go back to school, so we don’t get thrown out at the end of the week.’ And he’d be like, ‘Fuck you!’ It was awesome. I’ve got mad respect for him. I’d love to go up against him on stage.”
Method acting can be a controversial topic. Some actors swear by it, while others find it a complete waste of time. It has generated some amazing performances over the years—Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, and more—but when it goes too far, it can ruin an actor’s professional and personal reputation.
Hardy might not have crossed paths with his problematic idol at school, but they would work together shortly after graduating. Fassbender had a supporting role in the highly acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers as Technical Sergeant Pat Christenson, appearing in nine of the 10 episodes. Hardy landed a role in two episodes of the series, playing Private John Janovec. It’s unclear whether or not Fassbender held anyone up in the canteen during this time.
He might have rubbed shoulders with a fellow future star there, but Hardy didn’t have the best time studying at the Drama Centre. “Have you seen that movie Whiplash?” he put to his interviewer. “I went to a school like that… the guy that trained me, they based Hannibal Lecter on him. His pursuit was just to fucking destroy us.” The school was closed down in 2022, following an unfavourable review of its ability to provide academic development.
While Hardy has often been compared to Marlon Brando, a noted method actor, he doesn’t consider himself one. Fassbender has certainly dialled back some of his Method practices since school, but it’s interesting how two great actors who came up together can take such radically different approaches to their craft.
