Tom Hardy Talks About Fame, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and Internet Comments

In an easygoing interview with Vulture, Inception star Tom Hardy spoke about everything from his upcoming role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises to his thoughts on how China will eventually take over our economy. It's a fascinating read, and I'd encourage you to head over and check out the full interview. But for those who are either too lazy or don't have time to do that, here are some brief highlights from their conversation.

On TDKR:

To me, it’s about the characters, it’s about the film, it’s about the process of making stunning visuals and a huge, epic movie. It doesn’t matter if my head was covered in a black plastic bag and I was bouncing around in a space hopper: That's the villain of Chris Nolan's Batman!

On his fame, and what might happen after TDKR comes out:

I hope that every engagement is just as amicable as it normally is. Maybe it's a little ambitious of me to presume that no matter how big the film is, that I can always go down to the shop to buy a pint of milk. I don’t think that anything should really be allowed to interfere with that, and it would be silly of me not to make the effort to go down to the shop to buy a pint of milk because I thought I was too big or too famous to do that. And it's certainly not a lesson that I want to give to my son! Fame and stuff like that is all very cool, but at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. Although what I do is incredibly surreal and fun and amazing and I’m really grateful for it, I don’t believe my own press release, do you know what I mean?

And in my favorite bit, the interviewer asked him if he ever read what people write about him online:

Yeah, 'cause in my head, I’m still not famous. It's like, "Hey, I'm on this site!" Or [to my fiancée], "Look at what we were wearing last night! And everyone says you look great." And then someone will say, "Tom Hardy is a cunt because … " What? WHAT?

And then do you reply anonymously?

Yes, sometimes! Wouldn't you? Sometimes no one’s defending my corner! And then what you find — I've done it before — is that it’s a forest fire that you can’t put out. It's like [when commenters say], "Is he gay? Isn't he gay?" Does it matter? Does it actually?

I love how Hardy seems like a totally laid back guy, the very opposite of many of the characters he's played on screen so far. Hearing him talk like that makes me want to see him in a sort of breezy, Clooney-esque role one of these days, so perhaps after Mad Max comes along (fingers crossed) and his Al Capone biopic is done, he'll move into something a bit lighter. (I didn't see This Means War, but you know what I mean.)

What is your favorite Tom Hardy role so far? (Bane doesn't count.)