Tom Hardy gave an incredible interview to The Daily Beast this week. The DB’s format suits him, because you can actually read Hardy’s responses to questions in context, like a stream-of-consciousness rant/explanation that seems neverending but very often has a point. I would suggest reading the full Daily Beast piece here. He says some incredible things about his friendship and respect for Phillip Seymour Hoffman, how much he loves all dogs, how much he hates animal poaching and how THR got it right about The Revenant (as in, the shoot was a “living hell”). He also has more nice words for Michael Fassbender (they went to acting school together and Hardy has talked before about how much he admires Fassy). But the most amazing part was Hardy’s long-winded answer when he was asked about privacy and being asked about his sexuality in the middle of the Legend press conference at TIFF. This is his full answer, and the only edit I made was to break up the text into paragraphs:

“I think everybody is entitled to the right to privacy. There should be elegant ways to approach any topic, and there’s a time and place to approach anything and have a good, common sense conversation about anything. I do think that there’s a responsibility for people to own the way that they speak publicly. This doesn’t stop us from being human beings; some things are private. I’m under no obligation to share anything to do with my family, my children, my sexuality—that’s nobody’s business but my own.

“And I don’t see how that can have anything to do with what I do as an actor, and it’s my own business. If you knew me as a friend, then sure, we’d talk about anything. But that was a public forum, and for someone to inelegantly ask a question that seemed designed entirely to provoke a reaction, and start a topic of debate…

It’s important destigmatizing sexuality and gender inequality in the workplace, but to put a man on the spot in a room full of people designed purely for a salacious reaction? To be quite frank, it’s rude. If he’d have said that to me in the street, I’d have said the same thing back: “I’m sorry, who the f–k are you? What he had to talk about was actually interesting, but how he did it was so inelegant. And I appreciate that I could probably have more grace as a human being, but I’m just a bloke. I’m just a man. And I’m just a man doing a job. I’m not a role model for anyone, and you’re asking me something about my private life in a room full of people. I don’t want to discuss my private life with you. I don’t know you! Why would I share that with a billion people?

Also, if you felt it was so important for people to feel confident to talk about their sexuality, why would you put somebody on the spot in a room full of people and decide that was the time for them to open up about their sexual ambiguity? There’s also nothing ambiguous about my sexuality, anyway. I know who I am. But what does that have to do with you? And why am I a part of something now that, however legitimate, I haven’t offered my services for? It’s not about what he and his publication stands for, none of that is offensive, and on the contrary, it’s very admirable, and an important issue. But how I was asked was incredibly inelegant, and I just thought it was disrespectful and counterproductive to what he stands for.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I understand what he’s saying, especially about “if destigmatizing sexuality is important, why make a big deal about it in the middle of a press conference?” And going back to the original story, sure, you can say that the reporter was “inelegant” or “rude.” The reporter definitely asked the wrong question the wrong way, because as the Daily Beast has just shown, Tom “I’m Just a Bloke” Hardy will talk your ear off about privacy, sexuality and more providing you simply ask the right question in the right way.

Photos courtesy of WENN.