THOUGHTS ON TOM HARDY

When things become a sucess, I don't know, I feel like I missed them, I blink, and all of a sudden they're a huge success.  Like the TV show "Modern Family."  I decided I'd give it a chance because I love Ed O'Neil from "Married...with Children," and of course the pilot killed.  By the end of the first season people were declaring it one of the best sitcoms ever, it had enormous Emmy buzz...and I just feel like I missed the moment where "Modern Family" became this massive success.  I love the show though, it's one of the few new things on TV I watch nowadays.  That's why I feel accomplished when I'm able to see a superstar being born in Tom Hardy when I watched "The Dark Knight Rises" last week.  "Inception" already made him a breakout star back in 2010, but his performance as Bane really cemented his celebrity status.  I don't even like that word "celebrity," it cemented his status as a gifted, multi-talented actor.

In "The Dark Knight Rises" some might argue that anyone could portray Bane, in the sense that any actor could just look angry with his eyes.  But Hardy goes beyond it; there's no CGI on him, he's actually that ripped.  The preparation for this part must have been insanely rigorous.  The only connection between his character in "Warrior" and Bane is that they both looked like they stocked up on steroids.  In "Warrior" Tom Hardy plays Tommy, who comes back to milk the guilt of his alcoholic father into training him for a mixed martial-arts tournament.  There is a scene near the end where Tommy and Paddy (Nick Nolte in his Oscar-nominated role)  are in a casino, and it's just brutal.  Tommy turns a little into Bane at the moment and he just obliterates Paddy's hope of reconciliation, ending the scene throwing casino change at him; it's heartbreaking.

At the moment I probably knew Hardy was going to be the next best thing, but individually he wasn't a box-office draw, "Warrior" barely made its money back, which I thought was outrageous.  He harnessed so much anger in that picture, expressing none of it through talking, and all of it through kicking and punching men.  I'll be 100% honest and tell you that on my first viewing of "Inception" I was so close to dozing off I physically had to pinch myself to stay awake.  I just didn't appreciate the film that much when it was in theaters, and Hardy's performance certainly didn't stand out to me.  It wasn't until I re-watched it a year later did I fully grasp it, and really that's with all of Nolan's films, they're the fine wine of cinema in that they get better with every year.

He's already gotten his obligatory rom-com out of the way with early 2012's "This Means War," which no one remembers.  In his defense, Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen and Sam Worthington all turned it down, so I'd like to think he just did the film as a favor to Reese Witherspoon.  And when your director's name is McG, the finished product can't come out that great.

I haven't seen what many people think was his ticket to being Bane, which was "Bronson," where he plays a violent British prisoner, and while that does look good based on the trailer, Nolan says he actually won the role when Nolan saw his performance as Handsome Bob in "RocknRolla."  He played a gay gangster alongside Gerard Butler.  If that range doesn't qualify for Bane, I'm not sure what does.  I can't wait to see what Hardy produces next (he's set to be the next Mad Max), but I think I can safely represent the rest of the world when I say we'll be satisfied with it.