Photo Source: Blake Gardner
Fortunately, O'Connor found just that with Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, two actors who deliver knockout performances in "Warrior." When the film was shot, more than two years ago, Edgerton had yet to be seen in a pair of Australian crime dramas, "Animal Kingdom" and "The Square"—the latter of which he co-wrote. And audiences had yet to see Hardy's bravura performance in "Bronson," in which he is virtually unrecognizable, or in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster "Inception."
As "Warrior" rolls out, the two actors find their profiles continuing to rise. Edgerton will soon be seen in the remake of "The Thing," opposite Jennifer Garner in "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," and as Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." And as anyone with an Internet connection knows, Hardy landed the coveted role of the villain Bane in the upcoming Batman flick "The Dark Knight Rises." But first he will be seen in this year's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "The Wettest County in the World."
In "Warrior," Tommy Conlon (Hardy) hasn't seen his brother, Brendan (Edgerton), in 14 years, since Tommy left with their mother to escape their abusive, alcoholic father, Paddy (Nick Nolte in a stunning performance). Brendan is now a teacher, married to Tess (Jennifer Morrison), and is forced back into the ring by their dire financial situation. Tommy is a Marine harboring a secret, who forges a tentative truce with Paddy, who begins training him for a winner-take-all battle royal. Though they may clash onscreen, Edgerton and Hardy get along beautifully in real life, joking and hugging and teasing each other in a most brotherly fashion during their interview with Back Stage.
Back Stage: You were both relatively unknown when you shot this film two years ago; how did you go about landing the roles?
Tom Hardy: I had a lengthy process of begging. I knew if I auditioned for it, there was no way I would get it. "Bronson" hadn't come out yet, but I'd let myself go after that—I was a mess. I was flabby around the neck and pale; I couldn't throw a kick or a punch. I hadn't trained for a year, and I was doing "Wuthering Heights" with my fiancée, Charlotte [Riley]. I was playing the young, 17-year-old Heathcliff, and my ass was wider than my shoulders.
Joel Edgerton: So you were trying to get the job without actually seeing Gavin?
Hardy: I'd talked to Gavin on the phone about process and how I could get there and transform myself. A lot of my audition process was me saying, "Trust me! Just trust me!" And Gavin really did trust me. He invited me out to come talk to him, and I flew out and stayed with him for a week.
Edgerton: He wouldn't leave.
Hardy: Well, I had a place I could have stayed, but he invited me to stay with him. It was late at night when I got in, and I thought, "I'm just going to go straight to his house and show him I'm serious, I mean it, I want this part."
Back Stage: What did you do during that time together?
Hardy: We'd talk about character, about Nick Nolte; I'd just follow him around. But Lionsgate wanted me to test; they wanted to see me in a Krav Maga class. I kept saying, "I'm not in physical shape, but we're going to need months of training anyway. There's no way you're going to see me as a fighter now." My athletic ability was like Pee-wee Herman's. So Lionsgate said, "We're not interested in this kid. There's no way."
Back Stage: But Gavin was interested.
Hardy: Yes, Gavin fought and fought and fought for me, bless him.
Edgerton: I showed up at Gavin's house as well, but I didn't stay. I was actually in the middle of rehearsing a movie—it was an Australian movie shooting in Calcutta but rehearsing in L.A. It was on our lunch break. The director wasn't happy, because I said I would be back in an hour and I think it was four hours later I came back. I was a little different from Tom because I had a history of martial arts; I had a black belt as a kid, and I've played a lot of sports. Then he called me in India to offer me the part. They wanted to send some people to me to put me through the Krav Maga class, too, and I also kept telling him to trust me. Then I snuck away and tried to lift as many weights as possible.
Back Stage: Were you prepared for how grueling the roles would be physically?
Edgerton: I have a mate who does jujitsu, and we got together and after one session I thought, "F**k." This was just before Christmas, and we started shooting in March. But we got to Pittsburgh two months early and were made to work out from 7 to 5 every day.
Hardy: The process was very different for this movie than most I've done. Gavin has a very specific approach and method that is all his own.
Edgerton: Which is kind of a 24-hours-a-day, open-door policy. It just doesn't stop. Which is one of the reasons I think the movie works so well. He's not someone who clocks in and out, 9 to 5. He's immersed in the movie, talking about the movie, getting you to talk about the movie, watching fights after work—it goes on all the time. It's probably still going on.
Back Stage: Neither of you are from the United States, yet you're playing these very American characters. Did the accent concern you? Have you played American before?
Edgerton: I have, several times. The first time was when I was 17.
Hardy: My first job was "Band of Brothers," and my American accent was terrible. I was struggling with it. Then I did "Black Hawk Down"—it was better then. And I've done some work with the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York where I've played American. So I've done American accents before, but you never know what they're going to land like, do you? You will be judged. And quickly. So I'm aware that I will be judged on this one, and I reckon some people will hate it and some people will be convinced. We were struggling for authenticity as actors, and we're playing these blue-collar, working-class Americans on the breadline; you've got to get that stuff down. Joel's Australian, I'm from London—we're a long way from home.
Edgerton: We also kept the accent fairly general.
Hardy: We didn't have the specific Pittsburgh accent. That was ruled out early just in case we couldn't handle it. [Laughs.] We sort of took the path of least resistance, and they gave us just an East Coast accent.
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton in "Warrior." (Courtesy of Lionsgate)
Back Stage: You play brothers in the film; did you find you had chemistry right away, or did you not worry about it, since the brothers are estranged?
Hardy: I fell in love with Joel as soon as I saw him. The funny thing is, we don't really have any scenes where we need to show that chemistry. Hopefully, in a future movie we can do something that shows we like each other.
Edgerton: It's interesting—you sometimes have to perform the opposite of the way a relationship naturally forms. But Gavin likes to get people there as soon as possible to start working together, almost to a selfish degree. So Jennifer and Frank [Grillo, who plays Brendan's trainer] came early; we all spent a lot of time together.
Hardy: Yeah, it was lonely being Tommy; Tommy had no friends.
Back Stage: You had Nick Nolte.
Hardy: Yeah, but Nick's wild. [Laughs.] And my character doesn't like Nick's character, so we can't really hang out. I remember Gavin gave me some homework, which was like 40 questions I was supposed to answer: What's your favorite color, what music was playing when you were born? And I just left them outside my door because Tommy wouldn't answer those questions. Tommy wasn't a very happy kid.
Edgerton: I got that questionnaire, too. I just found it the other day.
Hardy: Of course he filled his out—Brendan would answer the questions.
Edgerton: Brendan would fill out the questions, and then he'd grade himself and give himself an A.
Hardy: I didn't answer the questions and got told off for it, for being disrespectful.
Back Stage: You've both been doing solid work for years, but in the past two years your profiles have really been raised. Did something change in your careers that led you to this place?
Hardy: A lot of things combined and time, really. Just chipping away—it was like the overnight success that took 11 years. I'm lucky it took 11 years—that's relatively fast.
Back Stage: Are you glad it's happening now, rather than in your early 20s?
Hardy: Yes, because I'm a character actor, so the opportunities that are open to me are to play leads and characters now, and I'm very grateful for that. The trick now is to not deluge the market. To not decide that now that I'm in the shop, I want one of those and I want to play that and do that. I can't do everything, because in three years' time, there would be too much of me.
Edgerton: Right, you don't want people to burn out. For me, I think it was a lot of stuff at once. The guy that cast me in "The Thing" admitted to me that he had this little notebook that he carries around and writes down things that he hears. He read a review for "Streetcar"—he didn't even see it—and wrote my name down. Everything kind of swings around and about. A bit of it was "Animal Kingdom." A bit of it was "Warrior" and the fact it kind of sat in the cellar for so long and then people started hearing about it. I think part of it is the Internet, the way people start buzzing around, and suddenly you're mysterious and exciting to them, even though they don't know you.
Hardy: It's a fire that spreads quickly.
Edgerton: I read about my career getting better on the Internet.
Hardy: You're a slow burn, you know what I mean? I read something about you the other day that was really nice; it was referring to another Australian actor, and it basically said, "It's about time that everyone knows what Australia has always known: Joel Edgerton is the rich man's version of this guy." I was like, "Yeah! Right on!" It's funny, the amount of years we've been working doing this, and you're suddenly the flavor of the month, and then you're hated on. That will all come, won't it?
Edgerton: That's the next phase.
Hardy: And it has nothing to do with the work whatsoever. So how does one navigate the other side of what we do? It's so much fun being on set and doing the work, but you say the wrong thing on the other side, and you may not get to do anymore.
Edgerton: It's also good it took awhile to happen for me, because I reckon I would have fucked it up. I would have gotten a bit too overexcited about myself early on, I suspect.
Hardy: Yeah, you would have. Definitely.
Edgerton: But also because I know so much more, not about the craft of acting—I feel like I know less, sometimes. But I feel like I know more about myself, and that makes it more interesting to me; I'm in a better place to deal with it and be interested in acting for the right reasons, rather than the wrong ones.
Hardy: That just reminded me of something I heard: Every single leading man that's been worth his salt to watch was 30 years of age before they started getting recognition—apart from James Dean, maybe, who didn't do a lot before he cocked it. And I don't remember him so much as an actor, more of an image. You don't see a lot of actors who are big in their 20s continue. Leo is an enigma—he's an absolute enigma. Talking about iconic, he's probably the closest thing to old-school Humphrey Bogart territory. In 100 years' time, he'll still be remembered.
Back Stage: You called yourself a character actor, but you look like a leading man. Do you find you have to fight for the character roles?
Hardy: I'm constantly arguing with my therapist about this, about finding the right balance between a masculine archetype male lead and a thinker, a man who's sensitive and thoughtful and intelligent. That blend isn't common; it hasn't been for the last 10 years. Most of the male acting I've seen isn't character acting. The lead actors haven't had that quality; I would never get behind that man in a firefight. I just wouldn't trust him to get me out of danger. He may be sensitive and funny—
Edgerton: You might want to make love to him.
Hardy: [Laughs.] But you know what I mean? That character lead hasn't been seen since Paul Newman's time. Look at "Cool Hand Luke." That's an antihero. Would anyone want to watch "Cool Hand Luke" now? I think "Tigerland" is probably the closest thing to a "Cool Hand Luke" we've had in a long time—Colin Farrell is amazing in that. Beautiful, sexy, masculine guy. He had tongue-in-cheek humor, but you know he could knock you out. But that wasn't a mainstream film. So it's hard to find a script.
Back Stage: Make Joel write one for you.
Edgerton: Yeah, I'll write one for you.
Hardy: Then I would have to turn it down, and it would be upsetting. [Laughs.]
Edgerton: One of the reasons I was excited to play certain smaller roles in movies was because I felt like I always kind of secretly knew that I had a better part sometimes than the guy playing the lead role—because the writer writes with more of an abandon with the supporting characters. When you look at shows like "The Simpsons," it started out being about Bart and ended up being about Homer. Or "Deadwood" was about Timothy Olyphant's character, and it shifts because Al Swearengen is the more interesting character.
Hardy: The formula says you have to like the lead, and he can't do anything truly wrong. And as actors, we're going to struggle because the most interesting characters—and ultimately the films we all hark back to—are where the lead makes the glorious mistake.
Edgerton: And didn't fumble to apologize straightaway.
Hardy: And is human. Because I've never seen these guys that we see on billboards and stuff, these actors with their great six-packs and the wind blowing softly through their hair—these aren't the guys I want to get behind. These aren't the girls I want to hold at night. I don't get it. It's a processed perfection that I don't understand and I don't relate to and it's not entertainment for me. But the antihero, the guy who goes out there and tries his best, fails, fucks up, tries again, fails again, then dies. Well, it's sad, but life is like that. Anyone who said it wasn't going to be painful and difficult lied to you. So why are my scripts lying to me? Because it's entertainment, I get that.
Edgerton: But that's boring.
Hardy: And that's not "Warrior." "Warrior" doesn't give you pretty bows, and that's what I think is a blessing about this film.
For more on "Warrior," including interviews with director Gavin O'Connor and co-stars Jennifer Morrison and Nick Nolte, visit www.BackStage.com/bts.
Joel Edgarton
- Other films include "Smokin' Aces," "King Arthur," and "Ned Kelly"
- Brother is stuntman-director Nash Edgerton, who helmed "The Square"
- In 2009, he played Stanley Kowalski opposite Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois in Sydney Theatre Company's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," which also ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Tom Hardy
- Other films include "Star Trek: Nemesis," "RocknRolla," and "Layer Cake"
- Put on more than 40 pounds of muscle for his role in "Bronson"
- Won the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for outstanding newcomer for his performances in "Blood" and "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings." Was also nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Award for most promising newcomer
