Actor Tom Hardy often portrays characters that are dangerous, cold, and calculating.
That makes him the perfect choice to play Venom, the slimy antihero at the center of
Marvel's Spider-Man spinoff.
"We are Venom."
Hardy seems to have the ability to physically transform himself for any role.
Here's a rundown of his most remarkable transformations over the years, all of which helped him get
the physique necessary to play Venom.
Dropping weight for Stuart
Tom Hardy is far from a natural athlete.
He's admitted to feeling "small and skinny and vulnerable" as a child, and was intimidated
by the gym because of all the testosterone.
His first dedicated physical transformation began with the 2007 biopic, Stuart: A Life
Backwards.
Hardy lost a whole lot of weight to portray Stuart Shorter, a homeless heroin addict with
muscular dystrophy.
He lost almost 30 pounds for the role, but took a relatively healthy approach to his
body transformation.
Hardy worked with a personal trainer, ran several miles a day, and kept a diet rich
in protein… including eating as as much spinach and greens as he wanted.
Fortunately for his sanity, the training and diet regimen only lasted five or six weeks.
Bulking up for Bronson
When he began training for the lead role in Bronson, Hardy needed to pack on serious weight.
He told I Love Film:
"I probably weighed about 11 stone with, like, drenched, with stones in my pocket.”
To play the notoriously violent criminal, Hardy only had five weeks to bulk up.
Using a bare-bones workout routine, Hardy managed to miraculously put on seven pounds
a week.
His trainer, ex-Marine Patrick "Pnut"Monroe, added lots of variation to his workouts, making
every rep difficult in one way or another.
"We had to develop a solitary physique; the kind of physique you would develop if you
only had four walls and a floor."
Upping intensity for Warrior
For his next film Warrior, Tom Hardy demonstrated impressive discipline while preparing for
his role as a Marine turned MMA fighter.
Hardy packed on slabs of lean muscle to convincingly portray a professional athlete, and his daily
training regimen was tough.
He even lifted weights with his teeth to build neck muscles… you heard that right.
"It was like two hours two hours boxing, two hours kickboxing, two hours of Muay Thai,
then two hours choreography a day, and then two hours lifting, every day."
The actor ate five or six high-protein meals per day, and wound up 29 pounds heavier than
when he trained for Bronson.
Beefing up for Bane
To play the masked villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, Hardy needed to appear larger
than life, which he achieved by packing on even more size.
Prior to shooting, Hardy appeared on Chatty Man and opened up about the physical demands
of the role:
"I'm gonna have to get up to about thirteen and a half, fourteen stone… and I'm twelve
and a bit now, so I've got three months to do that."
"How'd you bulk up?!"
"Fat.
A lot of fat."
Packing on 30 pounds brought Hardy's weight up considerably: He was almost 200 pounds
by the time filming began.
But as he told Jonathan Ross, that still wasn't enough to intimidate Christian Bale on the
first day of shooting:
"And I looked at him and he was looking at me like, 'Oh yeah, I'm Batman.'"
Losing mass for Max
In order to play the title character in Mad Max: Fury Road, Hardy had to lose thirty pounds…
the same amount of weight he gained to play Bane.
He told Collider he wanted to look like "a hungry wolf.
Or like when you put a cat in the bath."
Hardy reached his goal in a surprising way: by smoking cigarettes and eating only one
meal per day.
Once the weight was dropped, the next step was three or four months of fight training.
Hardy didn't exactly have time to rest when cameras were rolling, either.
He told Men's Fitness:
"It's a very physical shoot from the beginning, from the training right through to the six
months of shooting on the ground."
Finding his inner Venom
By the time Venom started filming in October 2017, Hardy was already a master at transforming
his body.
He got ripped for the role by applying tools he'd accumulated over years of hard work,
with no quick fix or magic ingredient.
He required guidance from professional MMA fighter Nathan Jones and personal trainer
Mark Mene, and trained in a combination of boxing, MMA, and kickboxing.
"He's a good student -- receptive, open to learning."
Judging from a sparring video Jones posted on Instagram, Hardy adapted to the challenge
quickly.
"Listen, I'm just setting the plan.
Tommy's doing the work."
Hardy's got a lot to live up to, given Venom's reputation.
But considering the actor's ability to fully commit to a role, there should be no doubts.
Peter Parker, look out.