Tom Hardy calls the film industry’s modern action-hero roles ‘boring’

The 'Taboo' star and creator is not a fan of the characters' lack of personality

Tom Hardy has called action-hero roles in modern films “boring”.

The actor, who co-created and stars in new BBC period drama Taboo, said movie stars used to be able to show personality in the characters, and cited the differences between Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in the ’80s and Chris Hemsworth’s recent take on Thor.

“One was allowed to express personal characteristics,” he told The Sunday Times. “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.

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“And it becomes not committed to any sense of the gubbins of reality,” he added. “I don’t recognise this man.”

He also described the characters as the “homogenised sort of eight-pack, tanned, straight-teeth, physicalised, action-hero leading male”, as What’s On TV reports.

Hardy’s new show, Taboo, began last night (January 7). Ridley Scott serves as executive producer on the drama, while Steven Knight, who Hardy has worked with on Locke and Peaky Blinders, wrote the script. Hardy created the programme with his father, Chips.

Last week, he explained why he appears nearly-naked in the series. Though the actor is seen wearing a loin cloth in one of the show’s trailers, he has now revealed that he actually wanted to go further.

“You’re lucky there was a loin cloth because I didn’t want one,” he told the BBC. “It’s not a period drama until someone gets naked and covers themselves in blood. At least you’re showing willing.”

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He added: “I was in Tilbury, in the moat, in the docks, with nothing on. We were trying to eke out drama from any opportunity and none of that makes the cut.”

Set in the 19th nineteenth century, Hardy stars as an adventurer who returns to Britain from Africa with 14 stolen diamonds, seeking vengeance for the death of his father.

“It’s got heart, a lot of attention to detail. It opens like a jewellery box and it’s got that Gothic horror feel to it. I hope you enjoy it,” Hardy said of the drama.

 

 

 

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