Tom Hardy’s shot in the dark with his character in The Dark Knight Rises turned out to be the best decision ever.
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy was a bonafide hit and continues to be hailed as a theatrical feast to this very date. Its first and last part amassed over a billion dollars at the global box office and left an indelible imprint on the audience. But when a film is propped up on a budget surpassing a couple hundred million bucks, one would assume that the director would leave little or no leeway for any major improvisations. Nolan, on the other hand, not only welcomed creative inputs but actively included those changes in his script. And that is exactly why Hardy’s Bane was executed so impeccably in the 2012 film.
This is Where Tom Hardy Picked Up Inspiration for Bane
One of Batman’s most dangerous adversaries, Bane, is a supervillain who doubles as a tactical genius with unrivaled physical strength. And Tom Hardy poured his soul into the character when he portrayed it in The Dark Knight Rises. From transforming his body into a muscled shrine to finding the perfect voice for Bane, the English actor gave it his all. Speaking of which, Hardy’s iconic Bane voice was actually inspired by a British boxer named Bartley Gorman.
After studying Gorman’s voice, who was also known as the ‘King of Gypsies,’ the Venom star knew that it would be the perfect addition to Bane’s character. And his instinct turned out to be spot on because he certainly nailed the voice in the Christian Bale-led movie.
“Bane quintessentially is Latinx in origin and I’m not. So I looked at the concept of Latin and found a man called Bartley Gorman, who’s a Romani gypsy. The king of the gypsies, in inverted commas, is a bare-knuckle fighter and a boxer. And he said [doing Bane-like voice], ‘When I get into a ring with a man, and we want to wipe you off the face of the Earth, and he wants to kill me.’ And I was like this is great. And I showed Chris. I said Chris, we can either go down a sort of arch Darth Vader route, straight just neutral tone villain voice, or we could try this.”
Even so, the Peaky Blinders star had his reservations about the accent with the uncertainty of whether or not it was a good call gnawing at him. But then he earned the director’s approval and went ahead with it which resulted in Bane becoming an epic hit post The Dark Knight‘s release.
Tom Hardy Feared His Creative Input Might End Up Backfiring
For a brief period, Hardy remained unsure about his idea, fretting the wrath of public rejection or worse, becoming the subject of derision should his vision fall flat on the audience. But Nolan was confident in the Warrior star and thanks to the liberty he provided the latter with, Bane was a phenomenal success.
“And this I’ve been thinking of just in case we’ve got to consider the roots and origins of Bane. But we could get laughed out of the part of it, it might be something that we regret, but it’s your choice ultimately. He says, no I think we’ll go with it. And that was that. And we played with it, and made it a bit more fluid, and now people love it.”
One of the most redeeming qualities of Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker is that he provides his crew with a platform to voice their opinions and is genuinely invested in their perspectives. He let Leonardo DiCaprio tweak the script of Interstellar which turned out to be a phenomenal success in hindsight. And he did the same with Hardy’s inputs because if it wouldn’t have been for the 45-year-old actor’s suggestions then Bane might not have been such a grand hit. “That was actually a really cool choice that Chris [Nolan] made,” Hardy said appreciating the award-winning director.
The Dark Knight Rises is available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: WIRED on YouTube
