Tom Hardy’s Most Incomprehensible Accents
Recently, Tom Hardy was voted the hardest actor to understand and we can’t disagree with that. He’s often been compared to Marlon Brando, whose method acting was dubbed “mumbling” back in the day.
Hardy is unforgettable in every role, from “Venom” to “The Dark Knight Rises,” but, you might want to watch anything he’s in with closed-captioning on. Especially because his characters are often masked, which makes things even more difficult.
Here are the movies where we had the most trouble figuring out what, exactly, his character was trying to say.
Capone (2020)
Hardy plays the famous gangster in his later years, when he may or may not have dementia: The feds and even his own son thinks it’s all an act. But is his drooling and nearly choking to death on carrots an act as well? Capone sometimes speaks Italian, but his most common vocal utterance throughout the movie is a dissatisfied “ehhhhh.”
The Revenant (2015)
Alejandro G Iñárritu’s brutal tale, where fur traders grapple with the elements, crazed bears and each other, finally earned Leonardo DiCaprio a Best Actor Oscar. It’s also (so far) the only Oscar nomination for Hardy, who is brilliant as always, but also we have no idea what his character John Fitzgerald is saying 80% of the time. Except maybe when he addresses Leo’s character with a hostile, “I’m talking to you.”
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Bane’s very unusual vocal delivery was as impressive as his physique and his diabolical plans for Gotham. But from behind that mask, even Christian Bale couldn’t understand what Hardy was saying. As Bale said in a recent interview, the two actors would hold up one finger when the other was done speaking to signal it was their turn to act. Christopher Nolan’s confounding sound mixes don’t help either.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
There’s a lot going on in Ridley Scott’s 2001 military action movie, which is based on a real-life incident in Somalia: There’s shooting, explosions, extremely loud helicopters and it’s hard to make out any of the dialogue, including Hardy in his first feature film role.
Bronson (2008)
Verbal comprehension is not big on the list of ambitions for this bigger-than-life career criminal, who prefers to speak with his fists. When offered the opportunity, he expresses his anger through drawing, but mostly, he likes to yell.
Dunkirk (2017)
Another Nolan film, another mask for Hardy. This time, he’s a World War II pilot who has his oxygen mask strapped on for most of his flight time. And his flight time in the movie is relevant, because he runs out of fuel in trying to protect the British soldiers on the beach.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
As speech-hindering masks go, the one slapped on Max Rockatansky in “Fury Road” still allows the character to speak, if only through gritted teeth. Fortunately, he’s soon freed, but he’s not a very speech-heavy guy. The line we remember the most from the Oscar-winning George Miller movie is when Max points at an apparently caged woman and shakes his head, saying, “That’s bait.”
Venom (2018)
Eddie Brock is actually fairly easy to understand, but he does have peak moments of incoherency, such as the restaurant scene where he feverishly grabs food and spits it out before climbing into the lobster tank and biting into one unlucky crustacean. The actor also provides the voice of symbiote Venom, which was inspired by rappers Redman and Busta Rhymes.
While we’re at it, bravo to Hardy for the inspired delivery of the line when he realizes that Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) also has a space parasite. “Oh, he has one up his a– too,” Eddie winces as Riot roars at him.
Honorable mention to Hardy’s roles in “Peaky Blinders,” “Taboo” and “Lawless.”
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