Tom Hardy’s Life Of Drugs Is Over: ‘Mad Max’ Star Calls Himself ‘A Petite Little Bourgeois Boy’
Tom Hardy is known for his brawn. He’s played many buff roles in his long career — in Bronson, Warrior, and The Dark Knight Rises. But he’s actually not that tough at all and recently revealed his more sensitive side by talking about his past struggle with drugs.
Hardy has been sober since 2003, but the road before that was a tough one, wrote the Daily Mail. After getting in trouble at his boarding school growing up, Tom was expelled, and a downward spiral began.
This included some stints in jail for disorderly conduct and possession of a weapon, crimes which evidently progressed into the use of some serious drugs. All of this uncontrollable behavior was kept under wraps — he simply didn’t want anyone to know how far he’d gone.
“I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack,” Hardy admitted.
Things came to a head 12 years ago when, after an intense night of partying, he woke up in a pool of blood and vomit in London’s Soho district. He decided it was time to kick his out of control use of drugs.
“I was told very clearly, ‘… Go down that road, Tom, you won’t come back. That’s it … And that message stayed with me clearly for the rest of my days.”
Today, Hardy said he is “f– lucky to be alive.”
Life has been good since he’s gotten clean. He’s starring in the upcoming Mad Max reboot, which is already getting critical acclaim, and is married to fellow Brit and actress Charlotte Riley, who he calls a “very kind person,” he told Yahoo! New Zealand.
From Bronson to #TheDarkKnightRises, here are Tom Hardy's 10 must-see pre-#MadMax movies: http://t.co/dl42g2Mz4d pic.twitter.com/SpM0ywNnrF
— Cineplex (@CineplexMovies) May 14, 2015
But the fact that he’s considered Hollywood’s “hard man” is an odd distinction for him to grasp, despite his past with drugs. At the end of the day, he’s a softie and has dubbed himself a “petite little bourgeois boy from London,” People added.
This wasn’t what Hollywood wanted from him, however.
“People didn’t sit up and take any notice of me until I started putting on weight, kicking people and being aggressive! The trouble with Hollywood is that they want you to be something, then they think you’re who they wanted.”
Apparently, the original “hard man” — Mel Gibson — who made the ex-highway patrolman Max Rockatansky famous in the first film, found Tom rather boring during a recent “awkward” meeting, the London Evening Standard reported.
But this “bourgeois boy” didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m a different person to Mel, but at the end of the day it’s George’s further development of his imagination with this character, so there is no room for other interpretations. George is going to drive the way this is going and … that’s it.”
[Photo Courtesy Clemens Bilan/Getty Images]
