Tom Hardy has given his verdict on modern day Hollywood heroes, and his comments suggest we won’t be seeing him playing one any time soon.
The actor is currently starring in the all-new BBC drama ‘Taboo’, and during an interview to promote the show, he explained why he’d rather play the small screen character than the leading hero in a huge Hollywood film.
Speaking to The Times (£), he described the protagonists in today’s movies as “the homogenised sort of eight-pack, tanned, straight-teeth, physicalised, action-hero leading male” adding that they are “boring” to play.
“It’s the difference between Indiana Jones when Harrison Ford played him in the 1980s and Thor,” he continued. “One was allowed to express personal characteristics.
“Now you’ve got to look like you’ve just come off a vegan diet, gone to the gym, part Navy Seal, really clean-valued, clean-living, moralistic — and then you go out and save the world from an impending danger that isn’t really dangerous at all.
“And it becomes not committed to any sense of the gubbins of reality: I don’t recognise this man.”
We may be just one episode in, but Tom’s ‘Taboo’ character does not seem to share many characteristics with the heroes he speaks of.
The series is set in the early 1800s, and the premiere saw James Delaney return to England from Africa.
His homecoming wasn’t exactly triumphant though, and his own sister was seen commenting that “hell has opened up” after James’ arrival at their father’s funeral.