British star Christian Bale and Tom Hardy were central figures in Christopher Nolan’s final film in The Dark Knight trilogy. While Bale continued his impressive performance as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, the hulking Hardy joined the franchise as the intimidating antagonist Bane. Together, their chemistry as hero and villain elevated the film even more.
While Hardy has always been a fan of Bale’s work as an actor, he admitted that he once misjudged the Oscar winner’s physical presence on the sets of The Batman Rises. Recalling an incident on set, the Venom star revealed how Bale proved him totally wrong.
Tom Hardy Was Taken Aback By Christian Bale’s Towering Aura
Apart from impressing with his acting chops, Tom Hardy is known primarily for his muscled physique which is an integral component of his stardom. Having done a fair share of action-packed roles in his career, Hardy felt a bit superior to his co-star and Oscar winner Christian Bale on the sets of The Dark Knight Rises.
While the Mad Max: Fury Road actor is a self-confessed admirer of Bale’s acting talent, he was skeptical about the Batman star’s physique which he believed was not a patch on his own after seeing Bale bare-bodied on set . His opinions though, were summarily dismissed by The American Psycho star who shocked him with his aura in the Batman suit, which Hardy again assumed would be very different. In an interview with Mirror, The Revenant actor recalled,
“When I first met him at the screen test I put my outfit on and I got to the trailer and saw him sitting there without a T-shirt on and I saw what his arms were like and I thought, ‘I am going to walk this.’ I was expecting the old Batman in grey pants. Then this huge looming figure turned up at 10ft tall with huge pointy ears and he looked at me and said, ‘Hi. I am Batman.’ And that scared me.”
As it turned out, Bale and Hardy’s seamless working relationship allowed them to feed off each other’s strengths in The Dark Knight Rises, making their superhero-supervillain collaboration a memorable one.
Tom Hardy Did Not Do Justice To His Warrior Audition
Throughout his career, Tom Hardy has chosen to tread risky ground when it comes to picking roles and characters. With an intensity that is matched by his physical presence, Hardy has been successful as an action star while also receiving critical acclaim for his performances. But the actor has not always impressed with his efforts, especially in auditions.
In Warrior, the Venom star took on the challenging role of a mixed martial arts fighter. Although he had a background in the field, Hardy failed to impress his director Gavin O’Connor in his audition for the role. The filmmaker confessed that while he had never heard of the Bane actor before, it was through his casting agent that he decided to give Hardy a chance to audition. Speaking of the starting troubles the British star faced, O’Connor told GQ,
“And then we put him on tape, and he still wasn’t remotely close to what he does in the movie, in the audition, he just had a really hard time with the dialect, and the character, you know, he was really struggling with, it was early, you know?”
Despite his audition struggles, the Warrior director confessed that he saw a spark in the actor and was confident that Hardy was the right choice for the role. True to his instinct, The Revenant star aced the character to perfection.
