Tom Hardy on Dunkirk: "I was just in my own play"
Tom Hardy gives some titbits about Christopher Nolan’s new war movie, says he’s eager to get back to Mad Max’s post-apocalyptic world and flat-out denies he's in Star Wars VIII
Tom Hardy, last seen reading stories to kids on CBeebies, is currently terrifying audiences on the small screen with his role as galavanting soldier, spy, and lawyer James Delaney in BBC series Taboo, but while on the promotional tour for that show he’s given away some interesting details about his big screen projects.
This summer he’ll be back working with Christopher Nolan, who looks to be delivering something different from his ultra-modern blockbusters like Inception and Interstellar with WWII picture Dunkirk, which depicts the bloody chaos during the evacuation of 400,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France in 1940 after German forces invaded the country.
Talking to The Wrap, Hardy tells us to expect something a bit more old-fashioned from the Memento director. “It’s a very profound story,” said the 39-year-old actor. “What’s lovely about it is that it’s a classic film, it’s so epic in the storytelling, and Chris [Nolan] has gone back to an old school film from the 1940s, 1950s and retold it. Just being there, you can see the effort in this huge orchestration.”
Hardy, however, wasn’t directly part of this huge melee. As is revealed in the trailer, he plays a fighter pilot, so was acting on his own for most of the movie. “I was just in my own play – I had limited exposure to cast and crew.” If you’ve seen and loved Locke, in which Hardy plays a structural engineer dealing with professional and personal crises from his car while driving to London, you’ll know he’s more than capable of working on his own.
He also talks about the “pressure” to do justice to the soldiers who went through the Dunkirk evacuation. “I grew up in the generation of their granddads talking about the war,” said Hardy. “Everyone was colored by that experience – Dunkirk was a big turning point in the war.”
Hardy also confirmed he’ll be back as Mad Max, he’s just waiting on the series' creator, George Miller, to give the word. “Yeah, I believe so! I don’t know when that starts, but I believe that’s in the books,” he says when The Wrap ask about the chances of another Mad Max movie. “I’m waiting for the call to come. It was so good, man!”
There have also been rumours abounding that Hardy is due to appear in Rian Johnson's yet-to-be-titled Star Wars VII. He slyly teased The Hollywood Reporter about the rumours earlier in the week:
THR: Rumor has it you're going to be a Stormtrooper in the next Star Wars movie. True?
Tom Hardy: I don't know if I can even say that. Where did you hear that?
THR: The internet.
Hardy: Ah, the internet is a glorious web of deceit and misinformation, isn't it? (Laughs.)
THR: So that's misinformation?
Hardy: It could be, couldn't it?
When it comes to dealing with rumour and possible fake news, President-elect Donald Trump could certainly learn a few things from Hardy.
Dunkirk is released in the UK 21 Jul by Warner Bros
Taboo is currently avaliable to watch on BBC 1 Saturday evenings and on iPlayer