Sex symbol? I’ve got pencil arms and dad flab, insists Taboo star Tom Hardy
HIS toned physique sent pulses racing in last night’s epic new historical drama Taboo.
But Tom Hardy ridicules the notion that he is a pin-up, claiming in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have pencil arms, nurse a healthy layer of dad flab, crooked teeth and bow legs. I’ll just take the compliment and say thank you.’
Hardy plays a rogue 19th Century adventurer in Taboo. The eight-part BBC1 drama, which was produced by legendary film director Ridley Scott, is the brainchild of Hardy and his novelist father Chips. The script was written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight.
Also starring Jonathan Pryce and Oona Chaplin, it’s set in 1814, when Hardy’s adventurer hero James Keziah Delaney returns from Africa to London to inherit what’s left of his dead father’s shipping empire.
He is then caught up in a tale of conspiracy, murder and betrayal reaching right across the globe.
Hardy insists that Taboo aims to stand out from traditional costume dramas, saying: ‘We wanted to see if we could write it in the style of an undiscovered novel about the escapades of an unheard-of hero.
‘That is what we set out to do – and subvert the expectations of bonnets and ceremony for a grittier and more realistic fairy tale.’ Hardy said he was delighted to be playing what he called ‘a complete bastard’, saying his character is ‘mercurial, intuitive, shamanistic, traumatised, noble, immoral, ethical, opportunistic, brazen, primal, mercenary, calculating and brilliant’.
He added: ‘We wanted to create a period drama that felt like an event. We hoped to do this not only with the writing, but visually as well. Make it look beautiful by drawing on all the amazing talent from the movie world that is out there, which the Americans do so well.’
Acclaimed for his starring roles in films including Mad Max: Fury Road and the 2015 British crime thriller, Legend about the Krays, in which he played both twins, Hardy is one of the leading contenders to replace current 007 Daniel Craig as James Bond.
But asked about the possibility, Hardy, 39, who is married to 35-year-old actress Charlotte Riley, replied deftly: ‘I think if an actor answers that question, then immediately they’re out of the running, aren’t they?’ Taboo continues next Saturday at 9.15pm on BBC1.