Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace were eager to work together for a long time and now that they have they can’t seem to get enough of each other.
Not only will the acclaimed acting duo be seen in the brand new crime-drama The Drop which premières this weekend they also went straight into filming a forthcoming Soviet-era thriller called Child 44 immediately afterward.
“We tried to find a project for two years before this came along” says Rapace in a hotel room during the Toronto International Film Fest. “We were approached by a director on another thing so we kind of met over that. Neither of us did it in the end but we started to talk and I think we connected very strongly right away.”
The pair have much in common. After all both have swiftly jumped to the top of their agent’s Hollywood client list in spite of the fact they came from indie backgrounds. The Swedish-born Rapace found global success by starring as Lisbeth Salander in the original version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Hardy on the other hand worked for years in British television before catching the eyes of critics as a rugged prisoner in the indie hit Bronson. The pair’s similitude doesn’t end there however.
“What we have in common is that we approach every character in its very own way. There’s no formula there’s no recipe that will always work” says Rapace. “Most actors it’s difficult to let go of your vanity and to try not to look good. For me it’s very liberating because in a scene when we’re working in that bubble I know it’s not about looking a certain way it’s about finding some kind of truth.”
In the case of The Drop that definitely meant trying “not to look good.” Written by bestselling novelist Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) the film focuses on a deadbeat bartender who finds himself caught up with Chechen mobsters when the pub where he works becomes a laundering operation for gambling funds. As the naive New Yorker who gets mixed into the mayhem Hardy had to adopt a thick Brooklyn brogue.
“It can be a way in” says Hardy of his character’s voice. “I try to change every character so there’s a distinguished little difference between everything that I’ve played for two reasons: I love to try to transform and… I think it’s always good to keep shifting to offer more with the work.”
Transformative is a key word in Hardy’s vocabulary. The actor has disappeared into a variety of roles that involve everything from playing a Depression-era Southerner in 2012’s Lawless to the masked villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises — each part earning the actor a new set of admirers.
“I’m not sure you are aware that you change a lot depending on who you’re performing who you’re playing at the moment” says Rapace turning the question to Hardy himself. “It was interesting for me to see that you were working in one way on The Drop and then we went into Child 44 and it was a completely different personality that came out.”
It’s a comment that doesn’t bother Hardy — a thespian known for pushing the limits of a character — even off-camera. In fact while Rapace may embrace Hardy’s eccentric reputation it reportedly freaked Charlize Theron out so much while shooting the upcoming film Mad Max: Fury Road that she wanted him kept away from her.
“There’s two types of acting in my head — there’s representational and presentation” says Hardy. “It’s all legitimate. Some actors choose a certain type of acting. Other actors get off on authenticating their specificity by transformational work. That’s really more of a nerd thing but that’s where I’m at.”
