Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy (birthname: Edward Thomas Hardy) is one of the most gifted and galvanizing of the wave of British actors who emerged in the early 21^st century. Hardy’s command of bringing to explosive life a wide range of characters began right away with his feature debut supporting turn in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), followed by a string of colorful appearances—nearly all of them supporting— in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002); Dot the I (2003); LD 50 Lethal Dose (2003); the Paul McGuigan-directed British-Spanish murder mystery, The Reckoning (2004), co-starring Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany; director Mathew Vaughn’s debut, Layer Cake (2004), starring Daniel Craig; director/writer/producer Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), starring Kirsten Dunst; Minotaur (2006); Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006); Flood (2007), WΔZ (2007); The Inheritance (2007); Sucker Punch (2008); and Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla (2008), starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Strong, Iris Elba, and Jeremy Piven.

Hardy’s startling breakout performance arrived as lead in co-writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn’s stark biopic prison drama, Bronson (2008), grossing ten times costs ($2.3 million) after premiering at the London Film Festival. Hardy played support to stars Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas in the poorly-received, Mimi Leder-directed heist thriller, Thick as Thieves (2009).

Tom Hardy had his first major role in a big-budget project and his first of several collaborations with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in Inception (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine, grossing a powerful $839 million globally for Warner Bros. Hardy joined renowned director Tomas Alfredson as part of the superb cast of the John le Carré adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), including Gary Oldman, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Toby Jones, and Mark Strong, premiering at the Venice film festival and earning a potent global gross of over $81 million.

Hardy co-starred with Joel Edgerton in director/co-writer/producer Gavin O’Connor’s mixed martial arts movie, Warrior (2011), with Frank Grillo and Nick Nolte, which was released by Lionsgate. Hardy co-starred in his first Hollywood rom-com, opposite Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine, in This Means War (2012), directed by McG and returning decent returns for 20^th Century Fox with $156.5 million worldwide.

Tom Hardy reunited in a big way with filmmaker Christopher Nolan as the ferocious Gotham villain, Bane, for the powerhouse Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Lewis, and Morgan Freeman, grossing a titanic $1.08 billion for Warner Bros. Hardy once again joined forces with his actor hero—Oldman—as a co-star in the crime drama, Lawless (2012), directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave, and co-starring Shia LaBeouf, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Guy Pearce, and returning $54.4 million grosses for The Weinstein Company.

Hardy delivered a dazzling solo performance, winning the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Best Actor award, for writer-director Steven Knight in the drama, Locke (2013), supported by the voice cast of Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, and Tom Holland, and delivering a profit for distributors A24 and Lionsgate after premiering in the Venice film festival. Hardy then starred in screenwriter Dennis Lehane’s screen version of his 2009 short story “Animal Rescue” The Drop (2014), with co-leads Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini (in his final film role) under Michaël R. Roskam’s direction, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival before a mild $19 million Fox Searchlight Pictures release.

Tom Hardy continued as a star of crime dramas written by a master of the form—author-screenwriter Richard Price—for Child 44 (2015), co-starring Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, and Vincent Cassel under Daniel Espinosa’s direction, but which proved to be a commercial disappointment with a poor $13 million return (against $50 million costs) for producer Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and Worldview Entertainment and distributors Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate, Entertainment One, Botonfilm and Ro Image 2000.

Tom Hardy joined up with acclaimed Australian directorial master George Miller for a brilliant reconfiguration of the title role in one of the new century’s most lauded big-budget ($155 million) movies, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), co-starring Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keats-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, and Zoe Kravitz, scoring six of ten Oscar nominations and a hefty $380.4 global gross.

Hardy was a key part of the sprawling ensemble of the Rufus Norris-directed film version of Alecky Blythe’s and Adam Cork’s British musical crime drama, London Road (2015), with Olivia Colman, Anita Dobson, and Kate Fleetwood, which was released by Picturehouse Entertainment. Hardy was star in a showcase double-role (as twins Ronald and Reginald Kray) as well as an executive producer of Legend (2015), writer-director Brian Helgeland’s screen version of John Pearson’s crime chronicle, The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, with Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, and Chazz Palminteri, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival before grossing a fair $43 million for producers Cross Creek Pictures/StudioCanal/Working Title Films/Anton Capital Entertainment and distributors StudioCanal and Universal Pictures.

Tom Hardy was a scene-stealer—and a best-supporting actor Oscar nominee—in director/co-writer/producer Alejandro González Iñárritu’s multi-Oscar-winning The Revenant (2015), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, with Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Arthur Redcloud, and Lukas Haas, grossing a knockout $533 million for 20^th Century Fox. Hardy reunited again with filmmaker Christopher Nolan as a pilot on a mission in the stunning WW2 drama, Dunkirk (2017), with Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and Mark Rylance, grossing a strong $530.4 million global gross for Warner Bros.

Hardy participated in his first Marvel Studios franchise project as lead star and executive producer of the hit Ruben Fleischer-directed Venom (2018), co-starring Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott, and grossing an exceptional $856 million worldwide. Hardy rode on this great success by portraying Eddie Brock and Venom again—and adding the credits of story co-writer and producer—with the second and third chapters, Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), directed by Andy Serkis, with new cast mates Stephen Graham and Woody Harrelson (and grossing $507 million); and director/co-writer/co-producer Kelly Marcel’s $110-million capper, Venom: The Last Dance (2024), with new cast members Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Clark Backo.

Tom Hardy vividly portrayed the notorious title role in writer-director Josh Trank’s biopic, Capone (2020), with Linda Cardellini, Jack Lowden,  Noel Fisher, Kyle MacLachlan, and Matt Dillon, and which was produced by Bron Studios/Lawrence Bender Productions/Addictive Pictures/Endeavor Content/AI Film Entertainment/Creative Wealth Media. Hardy co-starred with Jodie Comer and Austin Butler in Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders (2023), a dramatization of Danny Lyon’s photograph book about the 1960s-era Chicago motorcycle gang, Outlaws MC, with a cast including Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, and Norman Reedus, and which premiered at the Telluride film festival before SAG-AFTRA strike-delayed 2024 release by Focus Features/Universal Pictures.

Hardy returned to the dual roles as star-producer with director/writer/co-producer Gareth Evans on the action thriller, Havoc (2025), with Xelia Mendes-Jones, Forest Whitaker, and Timothy Olyphant, released by Netflix. Hardy revived his acclaimed role as Max in George Miller’s sequel, Mad Max: The Wasteland (date to be announced), the direct sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, co-written with Miller by Nick Lathouris.