Tom Hardy found Venom's voice… by imitating his dog!

A very different job than playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, he explains.

Tom Hardy kicks off with great fanfare the promotion of Venom: The Last Dance. While its preview has just taken place in New York, in the company of director Kelly Marcel and actors Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Peggy Lu, the star of the trilogy explains in an interview with Jake's Take how he found the voice of his superhero, for the first opus released in 2018. Half laughing, he explains that he was inspired by his dog!

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Tom Hardy has never hidden his love for doggies, playing multiple roles with a pet (notably for When night comesin 2014), bringing her dogs to various premieres or posing alongside them to share excellent photos on her social networks. Here, he reveals that he sometimes enjoys imitating them, imagining a voice for them as if they were speaking to him. Mix this funny habit with hip-hop references and a desire to give Venom a side “primal”and this is how the 47-year-old actor found the voice of the famous symbiote!

“In fact, I found Venom's voice before the first film, because it's the one I used for my dog: when I imitate him, as if he were talking to me. Yes , I do that sometimes at home, it's a variation of that, mixed with Busta Rhymes, Method Man, a little Richard Burton or Stosh. (a character from Sesame Streeteditor’s note). All that mixed together, it gives something grandiose (“bombastic”in English). Which fits well with a primal creature. A dog always has hope, and I believe that with Venom it's the same, he never gets discouraged. It goes into mode: 'Why would that be a bad idea, huh? Why don't we do this or that thing?' And then something horrible comes out, you see?

His voice makes sense when we understand its essence, where it comes from. I'm a big fan of hip hop, and so listening to Busta Rhymes, I thought that was the kind of sound that would suit this character well, that it would accentuate his exaggerated side. I was thinking of A Tribe Called Quest or Dragon. And I thought it sounded absolutely perfect. Bane, on the other hand, is another story…”

Known for his risk-taking in terms of accents or hoarse voices, even if it means no longer being completely understandable, Tom Hardy then explains that the choice of the very particular way of speaking for Batman's adversary in The Dark Knight Rises comes from an idea of ​​his, not from director Christopher Nolan. And that it was born from deep discussions even before filming.

“For Bane, we had several options at the start. And problems to resolve (even before accepting the role, editor’s note). One of the main things was that we were going to introduce a new villain after the Joker, who had been played with so much depth (by Heath Ledger). To be accepted as a new opponent after him, it was risky, this challenge had to be taken up. It was something non-negotiable. Chris Nolan is a mastermindhe had a very specific idea of ​​what he wanted to do with this saga, and so all these reflections allowed me to ask myself what I wanted to do with his voice. Do I play it generically? Like a classic villain: a cold, dark tone, without color, not at all fun, but that I can create and control easily? Or do I focus on his Latin side? Bane has Latin origins, so I started looking for similarities with existing voices. I listened to Roma, people who had the same origins, and I discovered Bartley Gorman, aka “King of the Gypsies”a fighter, a boxing champion. He had such a rich accent, mixed with lots of things that he had picked up here and there during his travels.

I had to play this anthem for Chris, and I told him about it. I told him that we might be mocked if we took that direction, that it might be ridiculous, but that it was at the same time interesting and that it could also work. Because his voice must complement his physique: he's a gorilla, he's primal, dangerous and scary, and at the same time, he likes to hear the sound of his voice, he listens to himself speaking. We could add color there.

It must also sound tortured and poetic. There is a certain poetry, and a solitude, in his voice. When creating it, we had to think about multiple elements, so that it would create a certain dynamic and the audience could relate to it in a certain way. Whether they laughed about it or accepted it, it was better than proposing something flat, average, and having people leave the room saying to themselves: 'Yeah.' From our point of view, we had no choice. And Chris agreed to go with that, so…”

The Dark Knight Rises is at (re)watch on Première MaxAnd Venom 3 will be released in theaters on October 30. Here is its trailer:

Venom 3: first reactions applaud The Last Dance