‘I think there’s less reason to work’: Tom Hardy reveals how his priorities changed during the Covid-19 lockdown as he focuses on raising his kids
Tom Hardy has admitted he feels there is ‘less reason to work’ nowadays as he is older and his main priority is raising his children.
The actor, 43, is father to son Louis, 13, with ex Rachel Speed while he is also dad to a daughter, five, and a son named Forrest, two, with wife Charlotte Riley.
Speaking to Esquire UK, Tom told work has taken a back seat since he reevaluated things during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Priorities: Tom Hardy has admitted he feels there is ‘less reason to work’ nowadays as he is older and his main priority is raising his children
He said: ‘I think there’s less reason to work, ultimately, because the life-drive is to be with the kids and to be fit and healthy and eat well and stuff.
‘If you’ve got a roof over your head and a bed underneath you and food in the fridge, how much is enough? Because it’s not a dress rehearsal, life, is it? It’s going out live. This is one-time.’
Elaborating on what he learned during lockdown, Tom added: ‘I had an opportunity to observe the world and my own behaviours and how I lived my life and what’s important and what isn’t. I spent a lot of time fighting the concept of ‘grown-up’.
‘I think all the baddies and all those sorts of ‘grrrr’ characters that I’ve played, I’m not that. The whole acting thing has been kind of peacock-ish, counter to what I am.
Family: The actor, 43, is father to son Louis, 13, with ex Rachel Speed while he is also dad to a daughter, five, and a son named Forrest, two, with wife Charlotte Riley.
‘What’s most indelible on my memory are things that are shocking or scary so it’s very easy to mimic them. It’s actually much harder to mimic things that are soft and nice and intimate if you don’t grow up in that way.
‘Now I’m getting older these things are becoming less scary. So it’s not caring so much what people think.’
Asked how he spent lockdown, Tom said: ‘Fifteen-minute workouts in the garden, home- schooling and making sourdough. I still have the leaven! You have to feed that every day. That’s a commitment.
‘I’ve actually managed to back it up so I’ve got two. Just in case someone drops one on the floor or the jar explodes and it’s like, “That’s a year-and-a-half’s work!”
‘I was thinking I might open up a sourdough café. Coffee and sourdough and jiu-jitsu and AA meetings. You can bring your dog.’
Tom said: ‘I think there’s less reason to work, ultimately, because the life-drive is to be with the kids and to be fit and healthy and eat well and stuff’
Tom also joked people might see him star in some ‘horrendous romcoms’ as he discussed whether his reflections in lockdown might change the roles he chooses.
He said: ‘These are engine-room years. The children and death-tax years. While you’ve still got arms and a functioning body then you go, you grind. Till the kids leave home.
‘Then maybe my wages will be significantly lower, but acting will probably still be there for me. And I can still play parts. So who knows? You might see me do some horrendous romcoms. And never see me again. Hee!
‘Because I’ve made my decision, you’ll go: “Oh, he made a choice. You ain’t seeing him again. He’s f*****g gone. He’s worked out what’s important. And he’s off.”‘
He added: ‘I’m not so worried to disappear now. When I was a youngster you had to be heard, otherwise you’d be invisible. Once you’ve established yourself you can stop making that much noise. Because you’re here now, what are you going to do?
He added: ‘If you’ve got a roof over your head and a bed underneath you and food in the fridge, how much is enough? Because it’s not a dress rehearsal, life, is it? It’s going out live. This is one-time’
‘And what is enough? What do you need? What do my family need? So that is very relevant. I think everybody needs a little bit of their own thing that they do. I like jiu-jitsu and sourdough. That fulfils me.’
On his thoughts when England entered its first lockdown due to Covid-19, Tom said: ‘When everybody was starting to store toilet paper and take things off the shelves it was like, “hang on, do we need to arm ourselves? Is this the zombie apocalypse?”
‘There was a moment at the beginning where it was like, are people going to riot?’
Tom starred in the title role in Venom in 2018 and will reprise the role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage released this year.
Discussing the role, he said: ‘There were other objectives with Venom, but they were minor compared to the main objective: can I land Eddie Brock and Venom as an established Marvel superhero?
Career: Tom also joked people might see him star in some ‘horrendous romcoms’ as he discussed whether his reflections in lockdown might change the roles he chooses (pictured with wife Charlotte Riley in 2018)
‘Venom and Eddie Brock are part of a universal canon among those who know about superheroes, so I don’t want to scratch the record. I’d like to be part of that legacy and not bugger it up completely. Not bring shame on it. Ha!
‘You’ve got Black Panther, Thor, Wonder Woman, Venom; there’s not one that you go, ‘Ooh God, have you seen that? That’s f*****g terrible! Avoid the f*****g terrible one!’ Maybe people dislike it, maybe people really like it, but it’s not dismissed.’
On being a producer, as well as actor, for the sequel, he added: ‘A producer is what I’d be doing anyway if I was just acting, I’d just be arguing with the studio about it.
‘I’m thinking about the third movie as well, because I think you need to write that at the same time … A third won’t be greenlit until the second is successful, but the studio were really, really pleased with number two.’
On whether he thinks Venom and Spider-Man can at some point in the future appear in the same film, Tom said: ‘I would be remiss if I wasn’t trying to steer any kind of connectivity.
Blockbuster: Tom starred in the title role in Venom in 2018 and will reprise the role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage released this year
‘I wouldn’t be doing the job if I wasn’t awake and open to any opportunity or eventuality or be excited by that.
‘Obviously, that’s a large canyon to leap, to be bridged by one person alone, and it would take a much higher level of diplomacy and intelligence, sitting down and talking, to take on an arena such as that.
‘Should both sides be willing, and it be beneficial to both sides, I don’t see why it couldn’t be.
‘I hope and strongly, with both hands, push, eagerly, towards that potential, and would do anything to make that happen, within what’s right in business. But it would be foolish not to head towards the Olympic Games if you were running 100 metres, so yeah! I want to play on that field.’
The Autumn 2021 issue of Esquire UK is on sale from 11 August.
Interview: The Autumn 2021 issue of Esquire UK is on sale from 11 August
Source: Read Full Article