Earlier this month, Sony officially released the trailer for its highly anticipated film adaptation of Marvel’s Venom. Actor Tom Hardy will play the main character Eddie Brock, a journalist who morphs into Venom.
The Academy Award nominee is probably best known for his memorable portrayal of Bane, the villain in 2012’s The DarkKnight Rises. His upcoming role as Venom seems like a natural fit for him, playing another popular comic book character. But in an interview with Esquire, Hardy revealed one of his main inspirations for Venom’s character in the film is an unlikely source — Redman.
Hardy explained that Venom’s dangerous and disturbing persona is a combination of filmmaker/actor Woody Allen, UFC star Conor McGregor and Redman’s “out of control” nature.
“Woody Allen’s tortured neurosis and all the humor that can come from that,” Hardy said. “Conor McGregor — the überviolence but not all the talking. And Redman out of control, living rent-free in his head.”
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Hardy revealed he had to keep such ideas for the Venom character away from Sony executives during the film’s creative process.
“You don’t say shit like that to the studio,” he noted.
The Funk Doc may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration for the esteemed actor, but it’s not far off from Hardy’s history as a diehard Hip Hop fan and one-time MC.
Long before his foray into acting, Hardy was an aspiring rapper named Tommy No 1, who released his own mixtape titled Falling On YourArse in 1999. And as seen in the clip below, Hardy once recited the lyrics to KRS-One’s 1994 track “Hip Hop vs. Rap” verbatim with his infant son strapped to his chest.
El-P of Run The Jewels confirmed the story of Hardy interpolating Redman’s maniacal persona into the role by tweeting an anecdote from the set of Fonzo, another film starring Hardy.
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“Now that its out there I can say this: when I met Tom Hardy on the set of Fonzo he told me he partially based Venom on Redman, thereby guaranteeing that I see Venom,” El-P wrote. “True story.”
Venom is scheduled to hit theaters on October 5.
Watch the film’s trailer below.
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