charlidos

Tom Hardy interviewed about where he’s travelled, where he wants to travel and where he likes to hang out. This guy needs and deserves a lazy holiday, that’s for sure! From The Telegraph’s Ultratravel magazine, Spring 2013:

How many holidays do you take a year?
If I’m lucky, one - for 10 days as a family - plus the odd weekend here and there. Before I got so busy, we went camping a lot, or on package holidays.

What do you do now?
We have a place in St-Rémy, in Provence, where we go for long weekends, It’s very romantic. We also love Como in Lombardy, northern Italy.

Any other favourites?
Avignon, Béziers, Nîmes, Sommières and Arles in the South of France, and Sarlat in the Dordogne.

Which parts of the world do you know best?
As a child, I grew up going to the South of France, to Burgh Island (off South Devon), Plymouth, Yorkshire and Florida with my parents. Now, most of my travels are work-orientated, so I get to look around the cities or countries we are filming in.

Your favourite city for a weekend away?
London, which is at its best around Christmas time and in summer. It has great people and great restaurants, and there’s so much to see and do.

Favourite spots in the capital?
For breakfast, I love the Monmouth coffee shop; for clothes, Alfred Dunhil in Jermyn Street. If we fancy a night in town, it has to be the Soho Hotel.

And for nightlife?
The Groucho Club, followed by the Karaoke Box in Soho and then Maroush II, the all-night kebab shop in Beauchamps Place, or Pala Kebab House in south-west London. They make a mean doner with chilli sauce, and the owner, Serge, used to look out for me growing up in that community. It’s a real hub for intelligence and information.

Favourite restaurants abroad?
When I’m in Los Angeles or New York, Joe’s Pizza.

Where would you like to go next?
Somewhere hot where the air is fresh and smells of pine, with good food, where I can spend lazy days by the pool or next to a cool river with a book. I need to chill, really, and take stock. A nice long swim in a lake would be fantastic, too.

The most glamorous room you’ve stayed in?
I went to Villa D’Este on Lake Como once, which for me was totally wow, and glam. Alfred Hitchcock used to spend his summers there.

And the most luxurious?
We once went to Lily Beach Resort in the Maldives, which was a first for us as a couple. We’re not used to being pampered like that. It’s a beautiful tropical-island hotel, with a suite on stilts in the lagoon, scuba diving and snorkelling, hot sun, sand you can pour like water from your palm, coral lagoons and massages every day by Balinese ladies who spoiled us rotten.

The most decadent perk?
A butler called Ishlal who droves us to and from breakfast, lunch and dinner on a little golf cart like the Popemobile and served us candlelit meals on the beach at night. We watched turtles, fed fish, rays and sharks with bread rolls from the pier. It really was out-of-this-world luxurious.

And your next trip?
Center Parcs with my son Louis!

What makes a perfect day on holiday?
A lie in. Plenty of sun, fun with loved ones, and a good book. Not touching the phone and not thinking about work at all would be a dream, but it’s almost impossible these days. Doing something new and special also gets my vote.

Do you like adventure holidays?
My work often involves adventure; films such as Dark Knight and Mad Max all have a personal adventure built in. And to prepare for a role, I’ll often learn how to use certain weapons and vehicles. Last year, I went on several trips to research issues on animal poaching. So, on holiday, adventure is not really what I need!

Have you been on safari?
We took Louis to Erindi game reserve, in Namibia, on a weekend off during the filming of Mad Max. We saw rhinos, crocodiles, elephants and cheetahs, among other things. It was amazing, watching giraffes licking salt by the waterhole one night. And the sight of Louis changing the tyre with Tim the ranger was pretty memorable.

What do you make of Africa?
I love it - from Morocco in North Africa to Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique and even Congo. It’s not just the abundant wildlife that thrills me. The skies the sunsets and the variety of people and music are incredible.

What’s the roughest you’ve travelled?
Backpacking and tents, I suppose, taking trains and staying in YMCAs as a student. It’s only recently that I’ve done anything really intrepid. When I do, I go with serious teams such as Olly Suzi Expeditions and Pligrims Group, who make sure I’m safe in some of the toughest spots.

The most remote place you’ve been?
Poli Charkhi prison in Kabul, which was just weird.

Do you travel light?
That’s always the idea. I say to myself, “I’m just going to take shorts, a toothbrush and a book.” And then it’s “Oh, and those jeans, and these T-shirts… oh, and those shirts and sneakers, too.”

Any specific make of luggage?
A Help for Heroes holdall, a big strong bag I can fit all my kit in - and which supports a great cause.

The best ariline in the world?
It used to be Virgin. But now I think all the people I work with agree that it’s British Airways. Air France has a great First Class cabin, too.

An oldie: Tom Hardy interviewed in Marie Claire, 2003. Scanned by me!

Tom Hardy - the sexiest supervillain in the universe

Supervillian? He doesn’t look scary. The London-born 25-year old is space-age badboy, Shinzon, in the latest Star Trek flick. “I’m an evil clone who used to be a slave. Now I’m the ass-kicking emperor of a sinister race that wants to take over the universe. Which is nice!”

Guess there’s not much point asking if you’re like that in real life?

“No, never actually been a slave. Or an emperor. The funniest thing was that I got to fly my own spaceship and I haven’t even got a driving licence!”

And the Star Trek crew aren’t the only famous faces he’s worked with - Tom Hanks in the acclaimed TV series Band of Brothers, and Ewan McGregor in Black Hawk Down. 

“I wish I could say that I don’t turn into a gibbering idiot when I meet these people,” laughs Tom. “But I do. My legs turn to jelly, I start sweating and I’m thinking, ‘Bloody ‘ell, it’s Tom Hanks.’ Some day, this feels like a completely surreal way to make a living!”

You and Ewan also share an agent.

“She’s my guardian angel. In this job, you need someone to look after you.”

So, what’s it like to be labelled Brit cinema’s Next Big Thing?

“You can’t believe all you read, can you? Every six months, there’s some new name. All I can do is keep my head down and keep working.”

Well, you don’t seem to be having too much trouble. You’ve also got The Reckoning (with Willem Dafoe), Dot The I (with Gabriel Garcia Bernal) and LD:50 (with Mel B) out in 2003. 

“I can’t complain. Although it does mean I’m away from my wife a bit too much. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, innit - your family.”

Kids on the horizon, then?

“Definitely, I’ve been married four years, so we’ve talked about kids loads. But at the moment, work seems to be taking over. I’d hate to miss them growing up.”

A lovely interview with the ever charming and loveable Charlotte Riley - talking about her love of vintage, tea and Tom. :)

Charlotte Riley is ‘absolutely parched’. It’s 8.30 on a frosty morning and she’s not sure she can talk, let alone think, until she has had ‘a few slurps of tea’. While other actresses on the verge of becoming Hollywood A-list – she is the female lead in major new American drama World Without End and Tom Cruise’s co-star in the much-anticipated movie All You Need is Kill – might reveal more glamorous tastes (champagne, Christian Louboutin shoes or toy chihuahuas), Charlotte remains endearingly in touch with her Northern roots and cites ‘tea guzzling’ as her number-one passion. When I mention my own addiction to Yorkshire Gold her eyes light up, she raises her hand towards mine and shouts, ‘Yorkshire Gold! High five for that.’

In her lovely, lilting County Durham accent she then proceeds to tell me about her absolute favourite tea – Ringtons – and how her ‘dad makes it so strong that the blooming spoon can almost stand up on its own’. Tea has even got romantic connotations for 31-year-old Charlotte – her first encounter with her fiancé Tom Hardy occurred over a cup of it in 2008 when they were cast as Cathy and Heathcliff in the ITV production of Wuthering Heights. Tom was an established and acclaimed (if a little wild) actor, while Charlotte was an unknown straight from drama school. But when they met she decided that ‘since they were going to fall madly in love with each other’ on screen she would pluck up the courage to ask him to go for a cup of tea. (Sharing a brew, she explains, is the only way to really get to know anyone.)

‘It wasn’t love at first cup,’ she says. ‘In fact, I was a bit unnerved when he suddenly switched into the persona of Charles Bronson [Britain’s most dangerous prisoner, who Tom had previously played in the film Bronson]. After a few cups of tea I realised it was something he did mainly to make people laugh,’ she recalls. (He now also relapses into Bane, the evil character he played in last summer’s Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises.)

The couple became engaged in 2010, and it’s easy to see why Tom, 35, has said he is a ‘lucky man’ to have Charlotte in his life. Funny, clever and endearingly old-fashioned, she is also clearly unfazed by film industry predictions that a clutch of brilliant roles in forthcoming productions will propel her to Hollywood stardom. 

There is no denying Charlotte’s talent. She can switch in an instant from her natural brogue to cockney or cut-glass posh and has mastered a faultless American accent in the forthcoming film Grand Street, in which she stars as Camilla, a former film executive who spends a life-changing 24 hours with a writer whose work she had rejected a year previously.

Although some of Charlotte’s first memories are of performing puppet shows ‘behind Mum and Dad’s sofa’ she took a long time to make up her mind to become an actress. The third child of Michael, an engineer, and Margaret, a nurse and bereavement counsellor, Charlotte is a decade younger than her siblings Joanne and Simon. Raised in a village near Stockton-on-Tees, she went to the prestigious Teesside High School before moving on to Durham University to study English language and linguistics.

A member of the Durham Revue, she not only performed in their productions but also began to co-write sketches with her friend Tiffany Wood. After graduation they went on to write and perform the play Shaking Cecilia, which landed them a playwriting award at the 2004 Sunday Times National Student Drama Festival. Charlotte, undecided about her future, then spent a period teaching drama to young adults and children with disabilities, an experience that – combined with a workshop in clowning that she attended – finally made up her mind, aged 24, to pursue acting and take up a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Charlotte is dismissive of her beauty and seems totally lacking in vanity, and when I mention that she looks a little like a young Julia Roberts she blushes and exclaims, ‘Shut up!’

Tom and Charlotte live together near Richmond Park in Southwest London – not far from where he grew up – and despite the demands of their careers they have a rule that they must see each other every two weeks. This year their working schedules have allowed them to spend around six ‘blissful’ months together at home. Two years after their engagement, their failure to ‘name the day’ has prompted press rumours that they are no longer engaged (Tom claiming Charlotte was a ‘hard woman to pin down’ and Charlotte rumoured to have said that she was in no hurry to marry). 

Over our second cup of tea I feel brave enough to ask if they are still planning to marry. ‘Definitely,’ she says, holding out her hand to reveal a diamond engagement ring that she removes to give me a closer look. It’s a delicate and exquisite ring from the 1940s – chosen by Tom because of her passion for that decade.

Charlotte’s wardrobe is almost entirely vintage (though not exclusively 40s) and today she is wearing a jacket of her mother’s from the early 60s that she found in the family loft. ‘I am rubbish at high-street shopping. Tom dragged me shopping the other day because otherwise I would never go, but I couldn’t get inspired by anything. But put me in a vintage shop and I am like a child with sweeties. I find it a million times easier to find a vintage dress than trawl the shops for a pair of jeans, so I am either dressed in really nice vintage or I am in a pair of tracksuit bottoms looking like a scruffbag,’ she says.

But Charlotte’s love of all things vintage is much more than a fashion statement. She adores swing dancing and, inspired by the Andrews Sisters, she and a few of her girlfriends have formed a 40s-style singing group called The Flirtinis. The group – when Charlotte’s working schedule permits – sometimes appear as backing singers for The Jive Aces, who were semifinalists on this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. 

On the surface, Charlotte and Tom might seem something of an unlikely couple, but in fact they have learnt to embrace each other’s passions. 

Tom has grown to like the sounds of the 40s and Charlotte has come to appreciate his love of gangsta rap. Tom has also taken on Charlotte’s preferred and somewhat antique form of communication, rejecting email, Skype or texting for the lost art of letter writing. ‘I’ve always been a keen letter writer and so Tom and I write to each other most days when we are apart – or at least every other day,’ she says with a smile.

Meanwhile, Tom has helped Charlotte overcome her lifelong fear of dogs (she was badly bitten when she was two) by bringing a rescue puppy into the house. ‘He adores dogs and when he was filming Lawless in Atlanta he found this abandoned puppy on a freeway. He adopted him, got all the necessary vaccinations done and brought him home. He’s called Woody and I am totally in love with him – he has now grown into this huge beautiful dog that Tom’s little boy Louis rides like a horse,’ she says.

Charlotte is a devoted stepmother to Tom’s son from his relationship with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed. ‘Louis is four and the most incredible, intelligent, creative little human being I have ever met – he is amazing. I feel very honoured to be his stepmum,’ she says. Would she like children of her own with Tom? ‘Hell, yes, I want babies, lots of them. Definitely, absolutely definitely.’

Charlotte is thrilled by her flourishing acting career (she cannot talk about All You Need is Kill, currently being shot on location in England, although she does say that Tom Cruise is an ‘incredibly nice man’), but she still loves writing and has several ‘projects in the pipeline’ (one with Tiffany Wood, who remains a close friend). Ridiculously energetic, she also fits painting into her frantic schedule, and she and Tom have recently become patrons of Bowel Cancer UK (something she is ‘absolutely committed’ to but, for personal reasons, doesn’t want to talk about as ‘it’s a sensitive subject for me at the moment’). 

Today, the most exciting prospect for Charlotte – when filming finishes this afternoon – is getting on a train to County Durham to see her parents. ‘One of the things I miss most about home is my mum’s cooking and tonight she’s making me her lasagne. But the first thing I’ll do when I get home – and believe me I can’t wait – is have a strong cup of Ringtons tea.’ 

(Source: Daily Mail)

Charlotte Riley on her life with Tom Hardy (this interview must have been done several months ago since Tom shaved most of that beard off in July - before he even started filming Mad Max…). (Thanks to fabuloustomhardy for the link!)

Do you struggle to see each other if you’re on different continents?

We have a very strict rule that we see each other every two weeks. We’ve been lucky. The job I just did was very exhausting, so I took a long period of time off to spend time with my family and Tom, and he had some time off before. He’s doing Mad Max now, so we had six months together. We’ve been quite blessed really and we make it work.

Did you see him wearing the scary Bane mask for The Dark Knight Rises because he looks kind of frightening, doesn’t he?

Yes I did. Yeah.

How was that?

It was wicked. It was really cool. It’s interesting living with a person that’s bald and five times the size he normally is. I said to him last night, ‘When am I just going to have a normal boyfriend where you’re not either bald and huge?’ He had a beard for like six months for Mad Max and he’s just shaved it all off. Hurrahhhhh! I was like, ‘Oh my God, you have a face! Amazing! There you are, the person that I fell in love with.’

Are there any plans to work together?

Oh, I’m sure there will be, somewhere along the line when we are like 70. No, I’m joking. Yes, definitely. How could you not want to? We work very well together creatively.

Have you got any projects in mind?

No, not yet. But we will do I’m sure.

Any plans to get married?

Yes, I’m sure it will happen at some point soon.

(Source: tvchoicemagazine.co.uk)

A lovely interview with Tom Hardy from a Polish paper - translated by me and google. (As always, please do help correct any mistakes!)

What are the dog tags around your neck?

It’s a symbol of the organization Help for Heroes which works with Combat Stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Marines. They help people who come back from war mentally scarred, alone, scarred by traumatic memories. I feel guilty that I’m not one of them. I try to at least not turn my back on them.

You recently played strong characters: a boxer and ex-soldier in Warrior, and now in Lawless a brutal man who in the 30s operates an illegal distillery. Also coming back are Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Is the cinema changing the formula of masculinity?

The golden age of metro-sexuality finished at the end of our prosperity. Times are tough, once again strength counts, responsibility, the ability to rise from the fall. You have to appreciate the ideals of the forgotten artistic cinema mainly telling of loss and loneliness. Which, moreover, doesn’t necessarily mean the promotion of macho culture. My character in Lawless is a tough type. He handles his enemies with a hard fist, not fleeing from atrocities. But at the same time he’s a man with a golden heart, with the characteristics of an ideal mother who provides something close to a rough tenderness, concern, care. He puts caution before reckless actions, because courage always goes hand in hand with fear, with wisdom and patience. Maybe someone will say on his grave: “He was a good guy.” Not romantic perhaps? But to me it’s beautiful.

Lawless is a story of the times of prohibition, the mafia gang wars. You have no a sense that it’s already been done?

I’m fascinated by old gangster movies, they have the same elegance as a rough old whiskey. But I don’t want to imitate anything. Jazzmen go back to Mozart and Rachmaninoff and interpret their music in their own way. We were interested in how the 30s would be reflected in the present, like a mirror. Cinema is a continuous recycling of ideas, conventions, styles. I don’t know if we were able to be at par with the ideal, but I do know that Lawless is a bold and brave film. Which is increasingly difficult in a time when Hollywood is mainly proposed stories about superheroes.

You shouldn’t complain. The role of Bane, Batman’s muscular enemy in The Dark Knight Rises, really helped you in your career.

I have faced the legend, I had the chance to work with the best professionals in the industry. Anyway, you accept that Chris Nolan’s film is nothing like the ordinary movie adventure. It has a lot of bitterness, and my Bane is very contemporary. He proves how little it takes to fell any social structure. This is not a simple and schematic antihero.

You prefer to play contemporary characters as in Warrior, dressed in the costume of the past as in Lawless or fantasy as in The Dark Knight Rises?

It doesn’t matter. In every role my imagination is running at full speed. An actor must have the instinct of a police lie detector and the sensitivity of a child. I sometimes feel like I don’t have any skin. The world is constantly attacking me and stimulating me. I watch people’s behavior, but also their tics and obsessions. Stealing the small gestures which I then use when filming. I’m always running a private investigation, trying to understand my character. It doesn’t matter if I’m in a social drama, or in science fiction.

Don’t you feel safer in any genre?

No. You can fuck it all up in any movie. As filmmakers we are trying to fake it in order to seem credible. We tell a noble lie, and it is never safe. Some viewers believe part of the the hand waving, some can’t find the time to see our work. It’s difficult, it’s just art.

Do you believe in its power?

Too much. When I see something strong in the cinema I’m like a fully charged battery. But when I am acting, I don’t let myself slack off. But do we have to be so serious? Let’s not go overboard. I’m not a sufferer, just an actor. Work on a film can also be a great pastime. And I like to enjoy life to the full.

(Source: rp.pl)