Christopher Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas are the perfect director-producer duo in Hollywood. She has produced every film of his and co-runs their company Syncopy with him. The acclaimed director relies on her for managing a lot of his logistically complex film sets.
Also, reportedly, she was the one who slipped a book about the Dunkirk evacuations in front of the director. So they have been collaborating for a long time professionally. However, Nolan made a mistake when he told his wife that he wanted Tom Hardy to star as Bane in his The Dark Knight films.
Christopher Nolan And His Wife Emma Thomas’ Views On Casting Tom Hardy As Bane
Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas always had Tom Hardy in mind for the role of Bane. In fact, they were fixated on him for the character even back when Inception was getting filmed. IGN reported Emma Thomas saying:
“We already knew that Bane was the villain when we were shooting Inception. And actually, as we were shooting, we did talk about how, wow, Tom would be perfect for Bane. We talked about that pretty early on.”
But the problem that Nolan and his wife would encounter was that Hardy had already signed on to another project. So he initially couldn’t do the film. Thomas said:
“The issue that we had was that Tom was going to be doing another movie. He was committed to be in Fury Road and we knew he wasn’t available.”
So whenever the husband and wife pair would talk about Tom Hardy not being a part of the Batman film, their conversations would turn bittersweet. After all, they knew how perfect he was but couldn’t have him in the movie. But they saw a ray of sunshine because his schedule opened up. Thomas said:
“So every conversation that we (Nolan and Thomas) had about how Tom was perfect to be Bane was sort of tinged with regret because we knew he couldn’t be. So as soon as we found out that the movie had been pushed we approached him.”
Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas were clearly right about casting the Warrior star because his performance as Bane is still etched in the public memory. However, becoming Bane wasn’t easy for Hardy.
How Tom Hardy Becoming Bane Was Equal Parts Diet And Camera Tricks
Tom Hardy once revealed that his looking bigger as Bane wasn’t just a result of his dieting but also due to Christopher Nolan shooting him from certain angles to make him look bulkier. He said:
“I ate a lot and, you know, I was not much heavier than I am now, but I just ate more pizza on top of it and then they shoot from low to make you look big… I was just bald and slightly porky with pencil arms.”
The actor also revealed that he only worked on his upper body and didn’t focus on his leg workouts. So he wore multiple pairs of pants to make his legs appear bulkier. All of it worked out in the end because no one in the audience suspected a thing.
After all, even Nolan focused completely on highlighting Bane’s upper body. However, all these years later, it’s certainly interesting to think about who could have played Bane if Hardy hadn’t been able to do the film.
The Dark Knight trilogy is available on HBO Max.
Source: IGN
