“I am actually. But I’m not unreasonable,” he says

Mar 31, 2015 12:06 GMT  ·  By
Tom Hardy promotes “Mad Max: Fury Road” in the latest issue of Esquire
4 photos
   Tom Hardy promotes “Mad Max: Fury Road” in the latest issue of Esquire

On May 15, one of the most anticipated movies of 2015 will arrive in theaters: “Mad Max: Fury Road” comes with a delay of several months, after being stuck in production limbo for years, but it promises to be a huge success.

It will be Tom Hardy’s first big budget outing as a leading man. Fans know and love him for his work in supporting roles in blockbusters like “Inception” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” and leading roles in indies like “The Drop,” “Bronson” and “Locke.”

He’s terribly nervous about stepping out of his comfort zone, but at the same time, he’s also excited to have the world see what he’s been working on, he admits in a new interview with Esquire, whose cover he graces on the May 2015 issue.

“I have a reputation for being difficult”

Hardy is now on location in Calgary, Canada, where he’s shooting for “The Revenant,” which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by the Oscar-winning Alejandro G. Inarritu. He admits that he might have never taken the part if it weren’t for DiCaprio, with whom he worked on “Inception” and who called him to ask him to give the project a chance.

Hardy, it would seem, “shamelessly [doesn’t] read scripts,” and he initially passed on this one because he had other stuff lined up. He’s happy “Leo” intervened and got him to read the script and thus allow himself to be won over by the story.

Tom Hardy is a difficult man and a difficult actor to work with, he admits himself. A couple of years ago, when the first signs of trouble on “Mad Max” leaked out to the press, rumor had it that he and co-star Charlize Theron could barely see eye to eye.

He initially denied these reports, calling them “disappointing,” but he’s a bit more honest about it in this interview.

“I have a reputation for being difficult,” he says. “And I am. I am actually. But I'm not unreasonable. It used to be that if somebody hurt me I'd lash out a bit, in order to get them to stop. It ultimately comes from fear. If I cause enough of a mess, then people will never ask me again to do something I don't want to do. But that sort of backfires after a while so you don't want to do that. You grow up.”

Obviously, that’s not an admission of trouble with Theron, but it’s the closest thing to one we’ll ever going to get.

On the bright side, it sounds like he’s owned up to his shortcomings and learned from his mistakes, so probably things with Charlize are better now. This is good news, because he is signed to 3 more “Mad Max” films, which he will start working on if “Fury Road” fares well at the box office.

“The Revenant” sounds very interesting too

Embedded below are the newest promos for “Fury Road.” Hardy tells Esquire that he barely has 20 lines in the entire movie, which should only make it all the more appealing for his fans: after all, here is an actor who is famous for using his physicality to create characters.

“The Revenant,” which will be out later this year, also sounds very interesting: it’s based on a semi-fictional novel by Michael Punke, telling the story of a fur trapper robbed and left for dead by 2 men, after he’s been attacked by a bear.

The man, played by DiCaprio, survives the attack and the robbery, and manages to find his way back to the civilization, determined to have his revenge on the two villains who nearly had him killed. Hardy plays one of them, which means he and DiCaprio will be going up against each other on the big screen.

Now that’s a confrontation movie buffs must be dying to see.

Tom Hardy for Esquire, May 2015 (4 Images)

Tom Hardy promotes “Mad Max: Fury Road” in the latest issue of Esquire
Tom Hardy is Esquire cover guy for the May 2015 editionTom Hardy in Calgary, Canada, where he's shooting for “The Revenant”
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