Why Tom Hardy is a Modern-Day Combination of Mifune and Oldman

So today, we wish a happy 38th birthday to Tom Hardy, perhaps one of the most popular and in this case, very much deservedly so, actors in the world. Many years of stellar screen work and 5 of true stardom have brought much exposure and attention to this very unique brand of movie star: not your conventional leading man, with elements of a character actor thrown into a mix of incredible screen presence, and ever higher stakes of risks he takes role by role, constantly re-inventing himself while always retaining that essence of Hardiness to him. But what's it all about?

Constant media scrutiny still can't quite pinpoint what exactly it is that makes Tom tick. He is a consistently amiable presence in interviews, and not exactly private about his life offscreen (as his game approach to his recent Myspace finds have shown). He doesn't immediately scream 'enigmatic', considering many of his roles are of the rather loud, bombastic sort, and yet it's always never quite clear how he makes it all come together. Those weird accents and voices he employs, those mannered gestures, the physical transformations, the constant intensity he parlays into so many different ways...technically speaking each role he takes is a potential failure due to how many different oddities he throws into each performance. Who is Tom Hardy? One can't really discern just by studying his technique alone, as that in itself is already as scattershot as they come; it'd take, I decided, a head-to-head comparison with some other actors in order to discern what makes Tom Hardy, Tom Hardy, from his filmography, as eclectic as they come.

I was mooting awhile about this point for a while. Marlon Brando? While the two do share some similar trademark intensities with Method acting approach, and there are certain scenes in Hardy's excellent work in 'The Drop' that marvellously echo Brando in 'On the Waterfront'. Hardy's Bob is a quiet, none too bright bartender who does evoke Terry Malloy's lonely soul and gentleness, with an undercurrent of intensity. It's a marvellous performance, but I do feel the comparisons stop there as apart from this performance, I feel like their career paths have yet to overlap in the same way as the two actors I'm about to mention.

The screen presence and intensities of a leading-man Mifune...

Watching Akira Kurosawa's fantastic 'High and Low' last night was what brought to light this particular head-to-head comparison for me. The film centers around a shoe factory tycoon, played by Mifune, who has to make a decision between sending extortion money to save his driver's infant son (who was mistaken for his own), and in consequence causing financial ruin for himself; or refusing to pay the money and leaving the boy to the untender mercies of the unhinged kidnapper (a marvellous Tsutomu Yamazaki). I'll get more into the film in another full blog post (yes it's that good, possibly my favourite Kurosawa although I do love Yojimbo, and Ikiru a great deal), but anyway, one thing I was very taken aback by whilst watching Mifune hit the various character beats of anger, frustration, sadness and sympathy was how uncannily I was reminded (or vice versa) of Hardy's performance in 'Locke' last year. In that film, Hardy's Ivan Locke too is at a crossroads in life, the difference being that he's already on his way along one of them. Locke's life-changing decision is to abandon his work and loving family, both of which he prizes and deeply cares for, in order to be at the birth of his child, conceived from a one-night stand with a co-worker. The film is essentially a one-man show, filming Hardy from the chest up for the entirety of the film, and he makes the most of it, giving a searing portrayal of a man conflicted not only by the decision hanging over his head, but by his own personal demons, as well as the personal conviction with particular values that spring from these demons.

What I find fascinating about both films and performances is that they're both technically very directorial-heavy films, and yet neither Mifune nor Hardy ever let themselves be overshadowed by it. The first half of 'High and Low' is an incredible showcase for Mifune, but what I love most about it is that while he gets plenty of opportunity to convey the inner turmoil, and the volatile exterior of his outbursts, he never gets greedy, never tries to take over a scene by himself.  Mifune's approach here is not to downplay his usual style, instead it's to make use of it in an altogether different manner. Whereas in some films it was employed for showboating and scene-stealing (and if I may add, entirely justified in doing so), here it's more to add to Kurosawa's overall direction, to which Mifune mends his portrayal accordingly as he matches the intensity and tenderness of Gondo in with the characters he's interacting with, and where he stands on his decision. He never feels the need to actively dominate the scene as he knows his screen presence alone does the job already; a sentiment I feel perfectly sums up Hardy's approach in 'Locke', too. He resists the urge to try and ACT every scene, and make Locke's situation perhaps over-reverberate with too much melodrama and anguish. Instead makes allowances for smaller moments where he silently receives a verbal beatdown for his boss, his gentler interactions with his children, his regrets over the affair, and that incredible moment at the end where he just sits--no mannerisms, no gesticulations, just sitting and stillness, and it just takes your breath away.

Much in the same way Mifune's brilliant performance, understated as it is, lingers on even in the second half of 'High and Low' where his character is somewhat sidelined (I was surprised by how little screentime overall he had) for the police procedural section of the film,which is brilliant too I may add and carried wonderfully by some Kurosawa regulars, having given Gondo an almost godly sense of being by just how transcendently Mifune carried the character with his screen presence, Hardy's performance in 'Locke' manages to make an average man in an average car, in a situation that could happen to anyone, into a near-transcendent being. It's not just a domineering onscreen presence that propelled Mifune, and propels Hardy, above their contemporaries. It's the way they so effortlessly harness it into not being a facet of their acting, but seemingly a facet of their characters' being. It extends to their silent men of few words (Hardy's 'Mad Max', a mumbling, mannered, quirky yet unquestionably badass Man With Little to Say, but Much Ass to Kick, and Mifune's Man With No Name in 'Yojimbo', a quiet hound-like beast of a man with a hidden penchant for mischief and justice), and their louder performances (Mifune's strikingly intense Kikuchiyo in 'Seven Samurai', or as the thief in 'Rashoman', compared with Hardy in the likes of 'Bronson' where he is completely unhinged, deranged, and boy is he fun to watch).

...and the chameleonic tendencies of Gary Oldman.

Even without the photographic evidence above, I'm sure there's some sort of weekly covenant between these two buddies, where they discuss how to one-up the other with their next body-building, vocal-morphing exercise (with perhaps Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale as semi-regular attendees, and Daniel Day-Lewis as the fellow dozing off in the back only to ever so often burst into 'I DRIIIIINK YOOOOUURR MILKSHAKE'). Anyway, these two have actually worked together twice, in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and 'Child 44', and what's interesting to note about these two films is that, regardless of their contrasting quality (in short: 'Tinker Tailor' is a very effective spy thriller, 'Child 44' is a very lacklustre one), the two have a similar dynamic of mentor-to-protégée in both, Oldman being the quieter guiding force as both George Smiley and General Nesterov, Hardy the more explosive younger man (Ricki Tarr and Leo Deminov). I mention this because despite the relationship between the two actors' characters in the two films being similar in more ways than one, they manage to create an entirely different sort of tone for both films by their chameleonic abilities. In 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' Oldman makes Smiley a soft-spoken yet incredibly incisive and dominating figure of cool intellect, while Hardy portrays a soft sentimental streak of romantic weakness down Tarr's bad-boy act to make it believable that he'd be under Smiley's command. In 'Child 44', Hardy, perhaps knowing how bad the film was going to be, milks his Russian accent for all its worth and makes his Deminov into a slowly seething, raging boiling pot of anger waiting to burst into retribution, while Oldman, in a supporting role, entirely disappears into the (admittedly) paper-thin role he has, and makes his mentor more supportive than domineering.

I hate to start off by mentioning these two films as they're hardly the pinnacle of either's career, insofar as their chameleonic capabilities are concerned. Both actors possess the incredible talent to transcend the very boundaries of acting by how brilliantly they disappear into their characters. Take, for example, Gary Oldman as a black pimp in 'True Romance':

A Hell's Kitchen loose cannon in 'State of Grace':

The loosest of all loose cannons in 'Leon':

James Gordon:

And in addition Dracula, his Shakespearean-cum-Stoppard turn in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead', Sirius Black, countless villains...I mean, Man of a Thousand Faces doesn't quite suffice to describ2e Mr Oldman's ability to morph into so many different guises. And Hardy's well on his way to becoming the next Chameleonic Oldman-esque thespian, if his current output's anything to go by. His very physical style of performance is just so reminiscent of a 1990's Oldman in it's own unique way, it's absolutely exhilarating.

Face almost completely obscured from view as Bane in 'The Dark Knight Rises': like Oldman in 'Hannibal' he lets the voice do most of the work, to incredible effect,

Need I say more about Bronson?

And of course the upcoming 'Legend' where he's going to play for two as the Kray twins. I can't wait to see it.

The fact that Hardy called Oldman 'hands down the greatest actor who ever lived' is not only an incredibly awesome show of respect from one great actor to another, but also a binding thread between two chameleons who are well on their way to becoming legends--or in Hardy's case, a Legend.

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