Tom Hardy talks Dunkirk, rom-coms & says more Mad Max is “in the books”

Tom Hardy is at that point in his career when he can do virtually anything he wants to do. Wants to be Winston Churchill? Fine! How about the whale in a Moby Dick movie? Not a problem. But the actor will always do interesting projects, and he recently spoke with The Wrap about some of his upcoming works, one of them being the anticipated Christopher Nolan movie, DUNKIRK. He plays a pilot in the movie, and he spoke about the movie, and the often solemn nature of filming long scenes in a cockpit:

It’s a very profound story. What’s lovely about it is that it’s a classic film, it’s so epic in the storytelling, and Chris [Nolan] has gone back to an old school film from the 1940s, 1950s and retold it. Just being there, you can see the effort in this huge orchestration. I was just in my own play – I had limited exposure to cast and crew. And there was also a lot of pressure, in the same way. I grew up in the generation of their granddads talking about the war. Everyone was colored by that experience — Dunkirk was a big turning point in the war.

The movie(s) that may be more important to fanboys, though, are any and all future MAD MAX movies that could be on the way. FURY ROAD reinvigorated the series in explosive fashion, earning numerous Oscar noms, including Best Picture, walking away with six trophies. Hardy is obviously down to make more, and is confident they’re on the way:

Yeah, I believe so! I don’t know when that starts, but I believe that’s in the books. There’s a couple of those floating around. I’m waiting for the call to come. It was so good, man!

He also has his new show out, TABOO, which he worked on with Ridley Scott and Steven Knight. He spoke to his character James Delany saying:

Delaney is probably one of the most tortured characters I’ve played because for me, he’s connected to everyone in the piece in a very personal way. It wasn’t just about playing James Delaney but also about really immersing myself in everyone else.

Hardy has his crop of top performances at his feet now, but one black mark on his record is the rom-com opus, THIS MEANS WAR, with Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon. The movie failed on several levels, and seemed like the last time Hardy would ever step into the genre…or so we thought, until Hardy turned the tables on us by talking about returning to the format:

Yeah, of course I would, I would love that!

But for a noble reason…

My kids can’t watch anything I’ve been in. I can’t let them watch ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ Don’t get me wrong — they are just too young. They can’t watch ‘Mad Max!’ My son would have nightmares. We watched Star Wars recently and we watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Though I can’t say I’m itching to see Hardy in any kind of rom-com, everything else he’s doing has me anxious like a kid who hasn’t been given his Ritalin. DUNKIRK looks like an engaging war drama, and who in this world doesn’t want more MAD MAX? I have yet to watch TABOO, but the trailers have looked absolutely nuts, so I’ll be sure to give it a whirl here soon. I mean, any role that is his “most tortured” has to be amazing, right?

TABOO airs Tuesdays on FX.