Meet Tom Hardy’s most trusted ally
Screenwriter KELLY MARCEL on the writing process of Venom: Let There Be Carnage — and a two-decade collaboration
TOM HARDY HAS a lot of tattoos. But among the many inked tributes to his family and loved ones, there is, uniquely, one dedicated to a screenwriter. “It’s a writer’s quill on the inside of his right arm,” explains Kelly Marcel, the subject of said tat. “It says ‘Skribe’, spelled with a K. It’s massive!” She laughs. “I have not got one in return. I’m gonna have to get one at some point.”
Hardy’s permanent tribute is a testament to their intensely trusting working relationship, which spans nearly 20 years. The pair first met at the Edinburgh Festival in the early 2000s; Hardy later invited Marcel to write for his “experimental theatre laboratory” based above a South London pub. Their first professional gig together came with the 2008 prison drama Bronson, which called for some last-minute rewrites. “Tommy had run into trouble with some of the scripts. It happens all the time [on set]. So I went down to Nottingham to help rework Bronson. And we just found a really great way of working with each other.”
This September sees their biggest collaboration yet, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the sequel to Hardy’s surprise
2018 anti-hero hit. Marcel is the film’s sole screenwriter this time, but the pair share a “story by” credit, a first for Hardy.
“This is new for him, to get credit,” recognises Marcel, “but it’s not new for him to be this involved. He’s absolutely 100 per cent committed to everything that he does.” Venom in particular — the alien symbiote who shares a body with journalist Eddie Brock — holds a special place in Hardy’s heart. “He’s married to Venom,” says Marcel. “He loves this character. He’s very involved in what he thinks should happen.”
A more active role in the story was a natural jump, then. Conversations about the second Venom film began around the premiere for the first one; as soon as the studio gave the green light, Hardy and Marcel immediately got to work. “He doesn’t get a pen and write,” Marcel explains. “We spent months breaking the story together on Facetime, riffing on ideas, seeing what worked, seeing what didn’t. Then I took everything we spoke about and holed up somewhere for three months quietly, knocking out a script.”
The collaboration continued on set, where Hardy wore a hidden earpiece, to hear the prerecorded Venom dialogue — but also alternative lines from Marcel, rewritten in real time. “He’ll be on set and be like, ‘Okay, this line doesn’t work. Give me five more.’ He will stay there in character, as you throw lines to him, and change the script as he’s doing it. It’s sort of unbelievable. I’ve never seen anyone be able to do that.”
Fitting, perhaps, that in the film, it’s the voice of a trusted alien symbiote that Tom Hardy hears in his head — but in real life, it’s Kelly Marcel.