I’ve Been with Men, ‘Inception’ Star Tom Hardy Reveals

Chris Nolan’s most recent film, “Inception,” is this year’s biggest and best received release so far. The film is so good that it will also launch the career of an actor who, though famous in the UK for his work and talent, is little known over the pond: Tom Hardy of “RocknRolla,” “Bronson,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Layer Cake.” As such, it’s no wonder why interest in Hardy’s personal life is peaking.

Asked by Now! Magazine (story via Daily Mail) whether he’d ever been in a relationship with a man, Tom, who is currently engaged to Charlotte Riley, makes a rather surprising admission: of course he has, after all, it’s an actor’s job to experiment. Right now, though, Tom is with Charlotte only but there will always be a part of him that will not fit in with the rest, he goes on to say by means of explanation for his re-orientation.

“As a boy? Of course I have. I’m an actor for [expletive]’s sake. I’ve played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I’m in my thirties, it doesn’t do it for me. I’m done experimenting but there’s plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life. A lot of gay men get my thing for shoes. I have definite feminine qualities and a lot of gay men are incredibly masculine,” the actor says.

The way people perceive him is always a source of amazement for him, Tom explains. There is a certain gap between how he appears to be and how he’s like in reality, which is perhaps why he always feels like he doesn’t belong. “A lot of people say I seem masculine, but I don’t feel it. I feel intrinsically feminine. I’d love to be one of the boys but I always felt a bit on the outside. Maybe my masculine qualities come from overcompensating because I’m not one of the boys,” Hardy goes on to explain.

For those who’ve never seen or heard of Tom Hardy before of “Inception,” suffice it to say that he’s quite a familiar face with British and European critics. Before playing Handsome Bob in Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla,” he reaped only positive reviews for his take on Heathcliff in BBC’s “Wuthering Heights” and Charles Bronson in the critically acclaimed “Bronson.”

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