Tom Hardy’s 10 Most Impressive Performances

Is there a better leading man working in Hollywood right now that can match Tom Hardy for his ability to transform and for the sheer screen presence he brings? Only truly breaking through to the mainstream in the last few years, having worked tirelessly since his Band of Brothers debut in 2001, Hardy has of late emerged as one of his generation's best - if not its very best. There are few performers of such range of whom it could be said they can play anything, but Hardy is unquestionably one such performer. In his short but illustrious career, the actor has played a Welsh construction worker, a gigantic super-villain, a gentle Brooklyn hoodlum, a thickly-accented Russian secret agent, a post-apocalyptic warrior, and a pretty boy dream thief, with all of those coming in the space of just five years. As Brian Helgeland's Krays biopic Legend - starring Hardy in dual roles - approaches cinemas in the US, what better time to celebrate the best of what Tom Hardy has delivered so far? Here, then are the actor's 10 best performances to date. 10) Mad Max: Fury Road Not that he was exactly an unknown before, but 2015 was the year Tom Hardy really broke out. That was down in large part to Mad Max: Fury Road, starring the actor in his first lead in a blockbuster, and featuring his fresh take on an already well-established character: Max Rockatansky, whom Hardy - like Mel Gibson before him - interprets as a taciturn antihero ready for war. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but Hardy's performance as Max proves what a presence this man is: even with a scant few lines of dialogue, he commands the screen. Fury Road isn't about any one actor standing out above the rest; it's about entertainment and the director's overall vision. That said, Hardy achieves something rare in Fury Road: he creates an icon out of a character that on the page is written as basically personality-free. 9) Warrior Having up to that point largely played Englishmen, Warrior represents a turning point for Hardy. Bulked-up, moody, and speaking with a New York twang, this was the first film of his that got people making Brando comparisons. And though this was premature - Hardy's best work was still ahead of him - it's still clear to see why the connection was made. Few modern actors do simmering intensity and gruff, complex masculinity quite like Hardy, and Warrior represents the prototype for many of the tortured macho figures he has played since. The film, directed by Gavin O'Connor, is predictable, and can be pretty blunt and artless at times, but Hardy is achingly real. His reconciliation scene with on-screen father Nick Nolte is pure Oscar-baiting cinema, but the two actors make it work, with Hardy in particular so affecting that he could wring tears even out of MMA fans. 8) Lawless Lawless, John Hillcoat's tale of moonshine-peddlers facing off against the law in 1930s Virginia, is - for better or worse - the film that convinced Shia LaBeouf to take up method acting. His reason? Watching Tom Hardy at work. And as LaBeouf's character's bruiser brother Forrest Bondurant, it's obvious why Hardy would convince another actor to follow suit in search of the same results. Forrest Bondurant, with his bear-like frame, woolly cardigans, propensity for violence, and loving commitment to the local barmaid, is a mass of a contradictions that only very few would have been able to bring together harmoniously. He's a family man that cares unconditionally for those he loves, and beats almost to the point of death those he doesn't. Growling through his dialogue in one of his more convincing attempts at a foreign accent, Hardy plays Forrest Bondurant like a gentle giant reluctantly using crime and violence to take care of his loved ones. 7) Inception If there's one film to pick out as an example of why Tom Hardy would make a great James Bond, it's Inception. Christopher Nolan's dreamland opus is big, hulking cinema, but the director ensures none of the actors get lost under the weight of it all. It's star Leonardo DiCaprio's film really, but - in a role that brought him some much-needed mainstream attention - Hardy is a veritable scene-stealer. As the 'forger,' Eames, Hardy adopts a roguish Englishman act (one who paradoxically dresses like a wheeler dealer and sounds like a public schoolboy). Eames comes across like an out-for-himself, opportunistic loner type and regular criminal playing at being James Bond. And Hardy makes it all look effortless, like Eames is the easiest job he ever decided to take. Free of his usual intensity and rigorous method preparation, it's simultaneously both Hardy's most casually comedic and inclusively fun role. 6) Legend Taking on a dual role for Legend was, Hardy has admitted, fueled in part by his own desire to challenge himself as an actor. It's a gamble that pays off, too: as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray, Hardy stretches himself to give two of the performances of the year, and casually propels himself into the dual role hall of fame. Individually, Hardy's two performances would be impressive enough, with Reggie Kray a composed matinee idol figure prone to both heart-felt sensitivity and enormous cruelty, and Ronnie Kray a detached, mentally ill oddball with an appetite for chaos and blood. Taken together, however, these two turns become all the more impressive: side-by-side, Reggie and Ron pose as evidence of how diverse Tom Hardy can be as an actor. He'd be primed for a Best Actor Oscar nom were the film around him not so average. 5) Bronson Though he usually takes a subtle, naturalistic approach, Hardy has on occasion shown he also likes to veer off into sheer theatricality with his performances. Currently, he is proving on TV's Peaky Blinders just how much he enjoys chewing scenery as a demented British criminal, but he's done it before to even more mesmerizing effect in Nicolas Winding Refn's crime biopic Bronson. If Inception brought him mainstream attention, Bronson was the film that had arthouse audiences sit up and take notice of Hardy. His is a turn that can only be described as 'powerhouse,' as his heavy-set, moustachioed prisoner 'Charles Bronson' rages through 90 minutes of performance art surrounded by a movie. It's an astonishing, brutal role that requires Hardy to give his all - which he promptly does, baring himself both figuratively and literally, coming across both hilarious and terrifying. 4) Stuart: A Life Backwards Featuring early 'before they were famous' turns from both Benedict Cumberbatch and Hardy, Stuart: A Life Backwards is a wonderful showcase for two hungry actors yet to hit the big-time. Though Cumberbatch is impressive too, it's Hardy who undeniably has the more tricky role, of the physically disabled, alcoholic, mentally unstable career criminal Stuart Shorter, a young Cambridge man who lived through a life of abuse and homelessness. Of course, Hardy nails the part, probably the most difficult of his career to date. The film requires Hardy to convincingly shuffle and slur, his condition worsening through various stages, but the most demanding aspect of the role is the emotional turmoil the actor must go through as the whirling dervish that is Stuart. Quietly and powerfully, Hardy manages to give some sense of what made such a violent, destructive, eccentric man the way he was, while remaining sympathetic and believable throughout. 3) The Dark Knight Rises Whatever your take is on The Dark Knight Rises, there can be no denying that Tom Hardy makes for one hell of a villain. Almost completely freed of backstory - director Christopher Nolan allegedly filmed a potted history for TDKR's big bad, then removed it in editing - Hardy's Bane is a total mystery aching with the suggestion of a troubling, warped past. It's all in the eyes and, yes, in that occasionally unintelligible voice. Trust Tom Hardy to create something so complex out of a super-villain who kills without a second thought. For all his imposing menace, his psychotic and duplicitous malice, Bane feels like a tortured soul who genuinely believes he's doing the right thing. There's no 2D villainy here - Bane is a comic book cartoon with life breathed into him by one of the most intelligent actors out there. Bane is a formidable, uncompromising beast, but one that still - amazingly - manages to elicit sympathy. 2) The Drop It's the stillness of Hardy in The Drop that makes his performance as bartender and ex-crook Bob Saginowski so special. On the page, Saginowski reads like a character Hardy has carried over from the likes of Warrior, Legend, and Lawless: a sensitive hard man raised on the mean streets. Except, Hardy doesn't play it like that at all. Instead, he makes Saginowski one of his more likeable, relatable characters (up to the third act twist, anyway). Played without a hint of the intensity Hardy's become famous for, Bob is just a simple, unassuming guy who lacks the smarts or the ambition to leave his old Brooklyn neighborhood. There's no trace of threat in him - he's just a man with a troubled past who wants to live a quiet life. Here, the Brando comparison is fully warranted: Bob Saginowski is Hardy's Terry Malloy. 10) Locke Those who've never seen Locke might wonder how a film about a man driving a car and talking down the phone about concrete could have the critical standing that it does. And while the reason for its power can't all be laid at the feet of its leading man - writer-director Steven Knight's script is incredible, like a theatre piece made into a social-realist thriller - it does feature one of the best performances of recent times, in Tom Hardy's portrayal of embattled construction worker Ivan Locke. Hardy is so good not just because of Knight's words or because production forced the actor to perform the script straight through in its entirety every night. The actor's power, and the power of Knight's film, comes from the fact that the camera is pointed at Hardy throughout without distraction, almost in recognition of the fact that this is an actor that alone is compelling enough to hold an audience's attention. And Hardy, with his mellifluous Welsh accent, implacable drive, and everyman quality, is absolutely the real deal, in his greatest acting turn to date.