Tom Hardy hails from the Christian Bale and Jared Leto school of acting, fully immersing himself into every character that he plays, often undergoing some serious body transformations in the process. In fact, much like the other two acclaimed thespians, there are probably a huge amount of people that have no idea what Hardy’s natural speaking voice even sounds like, given how rarely he uses it on film.
Whether it’s bulking up for Bronson, Warrior or The Dark Knight Rises, burying himself under prosthetics in Capone or fully embodying his man of the wilderness in The Revenant, you can always rely on the Mad Max: Fury Road star to deliver a solid performance, no matter how good or bad the movie he appears in turns out to be.
Several of Hardy’s biggest box office successes have all come with Christopher Nolan at the helm, and Dunkirk is the highest-grossing World War II movie ever made after it pulled in $525 million at the box office to dislodge Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan from the top spot, while it also went on to land eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, scooping three prizes in the technical categories.
Tom Hardy doesn’t play a major role in it, but it’s a hugely important one nonetheless, with his pilot Farrier largely driving one of the film’s three narrative strands. The unusual structure of Dunkirk only increased the levels of immersion, with one plot thread each following the battle from land, sea and air, and it’s clearly continuing to have an impact on viewers. The war epic is currently one of the most-watched titles on Hulu this week, which is an impressive feat for a tension-fuelled prestige picture that was released over three and a half years ago.