Tom Hardy Clueless about Bane before ‘Dark Knight Rises’

Actor Tom Hardy has admitted that he knew nothing about his character, the treacherous villain Bane, prior to signing on to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

“[Nolan] wouldn’t tell me anything else about the character, except that he was a very bad guy,” Hardy said.

Nolan had previously worked with Hardy on 2010’s blockbuster Inception, and he had to barely persuade Hardy to take the part.

“I said, ‘Tom, there’s good news and bad news,’” Nolan said. “‘The good news is I’ve got a great character for you. The bad news is you’re going to cover your face. People are only going to see your eyes. You’re going to have to express depths of evil just through your voice, your eyes, and your physicality.’ And I knew he’d be up for that, and he was. He loved it.”

Hardy had no trouble almost automatically replying, “Yes.”

“You want me to come and work with you, travel around the world, have a stunt team and all the weapons I could possibly want to play with, and all I have to do is wear a mask?” he asked.

When Nolan told Hardy that was basically the role, the actor said, “I’m in!”

That actually wasn’t all involved in the role. Hardy had to eat and workout to add 30 lbs. to his usually svelte frame.

Nolan definitely sugarcoated the role, especially when it came to wearing Bane’s mask.

“It was gripping Tom’s head like a vice…” said TDKR costume designer Lindy Hemming. “The fact that he tolerated it, let alone acted with it, was astounding.”

The mask designers had another famed dark character in mind when they created the 3D monstrosity that covered Hardy’s face.

“[Bane is] something you’ve never seen before. It’s a little bit of Darth Vader, a little bit of this, little bit of that,” Nolan said. “It’s very unique, and that’s what you get with great actors like Tom Hardy. He’s not just going to go through the motions, he’s going to try and craft a character that really makes sense for him. He has really gone in through the roots of the character and approached the evil.”

This article was originally published on AllMediaNY.com