Tom Hardy

by James Haydock

  The fact that Tom didn’t attend the ceremony caused a bit of a stir in the press. The Metro newspaper claimed that the reason for the no-show was due to the actor ‘dealing with the breakdown of his relationship with his TV actress fiancée Charlotte Riley.’ Apparently, BAFTA officials had been unable to locate Tom prior to the awards and had been informed merely that he had ‘personal commitments’ which precluded him from attending. No one from either Tom or Riley’s camp was able to comment on the story, but Tom put matters to rights when he resurfaced to appear on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man show on 21 February. It was clear the stories about his relationship problems had been the fabrication of journalists, hungry for a story on the new star. Carr actually had the award to present to Tom and the actor expressed how chuffed he was that it was an accolade from the public. He went on to explain that the reason he’d not been at the ceremony was because he’d had only one weekend off in his shooting schedule and so had to choose between attending the awards or seeing his family – so it was understandable that he would want to prioritise time with his loved ones, especially his son. He joked that he and his family had watched the event on television and had become slightly anxious when it was announced that he was the winner.

  Having won the award and with some fantastic new roles to get his teeth into – including Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and Max in Mad Max – Tom was well and truly deserving of his rising star status. Even with Hollywood stardom now a reality, Tom was not one to forget the less high-profile acting projects that were still so precious to him.

  When actors start to hit the big time and take home substantial pay cheques, many of them express the desire to exploit their greater earning power by taking time off and indulging in smaller budget passion projects. Tom has made no secret of his wish to do this, time permitting. ‘The American field is the place that I want to play on. The long-term effect is that smaller, independent films can be funded by greater exposure so I can go back to theatre or independent film.’ Over the course of 2010 and 2011, he found himself in the position of being able to both perform on the stage again and to act in a short film.

  The short film in which Tom played a part was Sergeant Slaughter, My Big Brother, directed by renowned photographer Greg Williams. Ben Macleod played Keith, the younger brother of Tom’s character Dan, an on-the-edge, violent young man who has decided to leave home and join the French Foreign Legion. Keith has his own issues in the form of a local bully who is picking on him. The short film, just over 12 minutes long, examines the nature of the relationship between the two brothers at this point in their lives.

  The film was shown at various short film festivals around the USA, including the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the Sarasota Film Festival and the New York Digital Film Festival. Tom was great in the film (inhabiting his favourite territory of borderline psychotic characters), but what surprised some who saw the film – and has delighted dedicated Tom Hardy fans who might have the patience to seek out the short film online – was the full frontal nudity. In the second scene of the film, Keith walks into his brother’s bedroom where Dan is sitting, making clay models, wearing only a beret and hunting knife tied to his shin. He doesn’t stay seated for long, though and we are soon given an eyeful of Tom in the altogether. And it’s not for just a few seconds, either. A very brave performance – his Drama Centre tutors should feel proud of how he’d succeeded in breaking down the fourth wall!

  As Tom’s profile has grown and he’s been lucky enough to secure bigger and better roles, he’s made no secret of how delighted he’s been to be afforded the opportunity to work alongside some of his acting heroes. One actor who Tom holds in especially high regard is the supremely talented Philip Seymour Hoffman. In February 2010, Tom was cast in his US stage debut, The Long Red Road, at Chicago’s Goodman Theater. The play was to be directed by Seymour Hoffman (and was coincidentally his Chicago directorial debut) and had been written by a playwright with whom Tom had found a great affinity earlier in his career, Brett C Leonard.

  Brett C Leonard and Tom had first met several years earlier at the reading of Leonard’s play Roger and Vanessa at the Royal Academy of Arts. They had made a connection and Tom had subsequently staged a production of Roger and Vanessa at the Latchmere pub, where his Shotgun theatre company had been in residence at the time. ‘Brett and I spent a lot of time together and forged a really strong bond,’ Tom commented when reflecting on that period of his life. The seeds of a friendship were sown and the pair were keen to create a situation where they could work together again.

  The Long Red Road is a bleak play about the horrific impact of addiction within a family. Tom’s role was that of Sam, an alcoholic who uses drink as a means to obliterate a past he is unable to come to terms with. Philip Seymour Hoffman, speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, summed up the plot thus: ‘The play is the story of two brothers and two families. Sam lives in a studio apartment on a South Dakota Indian reservation, where he and his girlfriend work as teachers and he drinks heavily. His wife lives back in Kansas with their 13-year-old daughter and with Sam’s older brother. Nine years earlier, Sam was responsible for a terrible accident that left his wife severely maimed and one of their twin daughters dead.’

  Leonard had written the part with Tom in mind and it suited him down to the ground. ‘The role fits the actor… as snugly as the T-shirt Sam wears,’ wrote the Chicago Daily Herald. Tom had played addicts before and, although he is able to draw from his own experiences when portraying these characters, he has often said that he knows how important it is not to impose himself on the part he’s playing. ‘We try to bring ourselves to the play without influencing or judging it,’ he said.

  Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor with immense presence who, as well as starring in high-profile Hollywood films, is also a respected stage actor and director. Cinema audiences know him best from films such as Mission Impossible III and Red Dragon. In 1995, he joined the New York-based theatre group LAByrinth (of which Brett C Leonard is also a member), a not-for-profit company which numbers about 100 established and emerging theatre artists. It is a creative venture that encourages its members to explore their talents in all areas of the performing arts, including directing and writing. It was under the umbrella of LAByrinth that The Long Red Road was produced.

  What did Tom make of being directed by one of his acting idols? ‘On one hand, nothing could be more satisfying. But it is also difficult to deal with a guy who could do it so well himself,’ he explained. The triumvirate of Hardy, Hoffman and Leonard proved an effective union and the play was positively received by Chicago’s theatre critics. The Chicago Tribune hailed the work as ‘intensely atmospheric’ and called Leonard a ‘fascinating and authentic writer’. The Chicago Daily Herald singled out Tom as giving a ‘gritty, true performance’.

  Two important film roles were just around the corner for Tom and would consolidate his position as the rising star in the Hollywood firmament. Plus, he was about to have the chance to star alongside another of his acting heroes.

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE YEAR OF TOM HARDY

  By the time Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy hit UK cinemas in September 2011, there had been a long hiatus for fans awaiting their next glimpse of Tom Hardy in a new film role. As it turned out, this month would prove to be an embarrassment of riches as, the week following the release of Tinker also saw the opening of Warrior, a film in which Tom was to play a mixed martial arts fighter. Both films would garner a great deal of critical attention: in the former, Tom was part of a classy ensemble of British actors performing in one of the nation’s best-loved spy stories; in the other, he would be afforded more of the spotlight as he proved his mettle in a supremely transformational role. The chameleon actor was showing once again that he could slip in and out of utterly contrasting roles with apparent ease.

  The novel on which Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is based – and follows faithfully in style and spirit, though not structure – was written by John Le Carré and f
irst published in 1974. John Le Carré is the pen name of David Cornwell who, in his own words, is ‘a writer who, when I was very young, spent a few ineffectual but extremely formative years in British Intelligence’. The first three of Le Carré’s novels were written while he was still in the pay of the secret service but, in 1964, he gave up his intelligence career to become a full-time writer. His spy novels are widely considered to be some of the best of the 20th century.

  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy features George Smiley, a spy who had been introduced to readers in previous books but who, in this story, takes centre stage. The plot concerns the discovery of a mole in the upper echelons of British Intelligence and the quest to root him out. It is Smiley who is called out of retirement to take on the task. The action takes place in the 1970s and, in order to build up the full picture that leads to the discovery of the traitor, characters recall events from their pasts in a complex series of flashbacks. Although this makes for an intricate and sometimes complicated narrative, it also gives the story a rich, layered feel, reflecting the maze of information that Smiley has to navigate before he reaches the truth.

  Le Carré remembers how, in the early drafts of the book, he tried – without success – to make the story work without the flashback structure. Realising it wasn’t working to his satisfaction, he took his manuscript into the garden and burned it. The phoenix that rose from the ashes was the book we have come to know and love and which has gone down as a classic.

  Adapting such a well-loved book for the screen was not going to be an easy task. Not only would the film have to contend with the scrutiny of fans of the novel, it would also have to stand up to comparison with the fondly remembered 1979 BBC TV series starring the late and revered Alec Guinness in the leading role. To so many viewers, Alec Guinness had been the quintessential Smiley and it would be hard to find an actor who could equal or better his performance.

  By June 2010, it became clear that the film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was more than just a rumour and would be going into production. In early reports, there were several high-profile actors linked to the movie but, as is so often the case, not all of them ended up on the final call sheet. Names who were originally attached but who, for whatever reason were never finally cast, included Ralph Fiennes, David Thewlis and Tom’s fellow former Drama Centre student, Michael Fassbender. It was Fassbender, in fact, who was slated to play Ricki Tarr, the role that would eventually be filled by Tom. Always one to appreciate that the career of an actor relies upon good fortune as well as talent, Tom made no secret of the fact that he was not the original choice for the part. ‘I got lucky to be in this film because it was Michael Fassbender’s part and he couldn’t make it, so I’m grateful for that,’ he told ITN.

  The character of Ricki Tarr is pivotal to the unfolding of the story. We meet Tarr, a disgraced field operative and former gun-runner, as he returns to Britain following an absence in Turkey (a change of location from the book, in which he returns from Hong Kong). Tarr has new information about the mole within the Secret Service (The Circus) who is passing information to the Russians. His information confirms and builds on suspicions earlier raised by the former head of The Circus, Control (in this adaptation played by John Hurt). Tarr’s information starts the chain of events which sees Smiley retrace the past in order to lead him to the traitor, one of his former colleagues.

  While the film is not an action spy thriller in the mould of James Bond or the Bourne series, Tarr is about the closest a character comes to having Bond-style adventures. He is a rogue and a ladies’ man and Hardy was interested in the way his character differed from the other secret service types in the film. Against their drab buttoned-up natures, Tarr provides (in the film at least, and thanks to Tom Hardy’s performance) a splash of colour and emotion. While Smiley is characterised by the repression of his feelings, Tarr’s are on display from the outset as he recalls his encounters with Russian defector and lover Irina. The character is a wild card, but Tom’s performance gave him some heart. Whilst admitting to never having read the book or seen the television series, Tom claimed he had formed his opinions about the story and the characters from his father, who was familiar with both. When speaking about Tarr, Tom has said he differed from other characters he had recently been playing because his vulnerabilities are on display from the outset – his performances as ‘harder’ characters had been more nuanced, with him having to find the light within the shade. Speaking to MSN, with his trademark wit he described this process as being like building ‘a case around the soft centre – a bit like a Lindt chocolate.’

  In the end, aside from Tom, the final cast list read like a who’s who of the cream of British acting. Smiley himself would be played by Gary Oldman, Bill Haydon by Colin Firth, Jim Prideaux by Mark Strong, Control by John Hurt and Peter Guillam by Benedict Cumberbatch. Kathy Burke would play Connie Sachs. The biggest challenge would be for Oldman, who would have to both differentiate his Smiley from that of Alec Guinness while at the same time paying his respects to the actor who had become so inextricably linked to the character.

  Oldman, an extremely accomplished actor but one more recently associated with his roles in rather more fantastical productions such as Harry Potter and the Batman series, acknowledged that he would be judged in the shadow of Guinness’s performance but maintained that an actor couldn’t afford to let himself be haunted by previous incarnations of a character, however acclaimed they are. ‘The ghost of Guinness was there,’ he said. ‘But you have to approach it like an actor would a classical role. If you do Hamlet, you’ve got the ghost of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton, but you can’t let that get in the way.’

  Smiley is described in Le Carré’s book thus: ‘Small, podgy and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth.’ He is, in appearance, unremarkable and would be the kind of person you would walk past on the street and not give a second glance – the perfect demeanour for a spy. This characteristic proved to be pivotal for Gary Oldman when it came to understanding Smiley. ‘You’re a bit like a nowhere man,’ he commented to Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail. When it came to unlocking Smiley, Oldman also had a little help from a primary source in the form of John Le Carré. The pair met and Oldman drew on the former spy for inspiration: ‘The voice is the signature of the character and really there’s a lot of David in Smiley, so I nicked his voice.’

  A lot of the news relating to the film indicated that it was going to be very much a European affair, with a large proportion of British input. The production company behind it was to be Working Title, which had scored a number of Brit hits including Bridget Jones’ Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Originally, Peter Morgan (the man responsible for the screenplay of The Queen) was rumoured to be the screenwriter but, in the end, the job went to husband and wife writing team Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor (sadly, Bridget O’Connor would pass away before the film was released.) Refreshingly – and unusually – the production was able to steer clear of any Hollywood involvement, having been financed by French company StudioCanal.

  Another European element of the team was the Danish director Tomas Alfredson. Alfredson had recently made a name for himself with the vampire horror movie Let the Right One In, which was admired by critics and loved by film fans. It was noted for its atmospheric feel and pared-down style – but was a director who was noted for his success in the horror genre the right choice for this film? Speaking to The Spectator, Alfredson noted that ‘horror’ is something that is of the mind, not necessarily in the action taking place: ‘Horror is 90 per cent inside people. The gap between reality and what’s happening in their mind – that’s what creates the horror. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a horror precisely because you do not know how far the conspiracies and lies stretch – it could be much worse than you think.’

  There is no doubt that Alfredson turned out to be the perfect choice for the film. True, his previous film had been a contrast b
ut his style of direction was spot on in creating the right kind of atmosphere for the Cold War thriller. Gary Oldman offered his thoughts on how Alfredson’s quiet, unfussy approach to filming had been key in creating the right atmosphere for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: ‘It was as if he was eavesdropping, like a peeping Tom, which is what you sort of want for a spy film,’ he commented.

  With this outstanding team in place, filming got underway. As well as being filmed in London, location filming took place in Budapest and Istanbul. For Tom Hardy fans, a glimpse of him in character on set would come to light in March 2011. Photographed leaving his trailer, the ever-familiar tattoos were on display but there was a shocking new hairdo in evidence. Tom’s usual locks had been replaced by a blond, ill-kempt seventies-style wig, which provided a clue as to how the character of Ricki Tarr was to be styled in the film. Speaking about the wig, Hardy revealed that it was modelled on Paul Hogan’s hair in Crocodile Dundee. He also said that some scenes had required re-shooting with a toned-down wig as the first one had been, in his words, ‘really fierce.’ Hilariously, he also referred to sporting the wig as having ‘a ferret’ taped to his head.

  Being a period piece, a great deal of care and attention went into the styling of all of the characters in the film. The person responsible for this important task was costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who had received acclaim for the stunning green evening dress worn by Keira Knightley in Atonement. One vital piece of wardrobe would, of course, be Smiley’s overcoat. It is described by his creator as having ‘a hint of widowhood about it’ and that ‘either the sleeves were too long or his arms too short for… when he wore his mackintosh, the cuffs all but concealed the fingers…’ The article chosen to be Smiley’s outer garment in the film was an Aquascutum raincoat, apparently inspired by a photograph of Graham Greene which Alfredson gave to Durran. Smiley’s glasses were also crucial to the character and many pairs were experimented with until it was Oldman himself who found the perfect pair in Los Angeles.