Tom Hardy has played more than one notable action role in his career, but the English actor one-upped his exploits as Venom, Bane, or even Mad Max by clinching two jiu-jitsu gold medals in his home country.
While most movie stars get in prime shape for the roles in Marvel films or any other blockbusters, Hardy flaunted his martial arts skills on his Instagram account (@tomhardy) after participating in an event for the REORG Charity, which is focused on helping people with life-altering physical injuries, PTSD, and depression, whose open tournament was held in Wolverhampton this past weekend. The 44-year-old Hardy, standing at 5'9” (1.75m), already has a past in mixed martial arts, as one of his most acclaimed performances came in 2011's octagon drama Warrior.
In fact, Hardy's relationship with the REORG charity began when he started training for that very role. Since then he’s become an ambassador for the foundation, which serves the Royal Marines Jiu-Jitsu Association. Judging from Hardy's Instagram posts posing with MMA pro Lone'er Kavanagh, the competition was also in peak form, although the best highlights of his fights can be found in Jiu-Jitsu Geoff's TikTok account (@geoffpavey), who claims the actor won all his matches by submission, jokingly calling him “a killer.”
Despite not being part of the Mad Max spin-off prequel, Furiosa, Hardy has plenty of reason for staying in tip-top shape. Just a couple of months ago he shared an image of the Venom 3 script, which suggest he’s already well into the film’s pre-production before it starts shooting. Outside of that, Hardy's next upcoming role is in the Netflix action movie Havoc, so again, he can’t really to afford let go of his training.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage ushered in Top Gun: Maverick and similar blockbusters films’ return to highly profitable theatrical releases in the post-pandemic era, even if it did very little to put Sony's Spider-Man Universe on a better course to match the success of the MCU. Regardless of critics blasting the Venom sequel for many of the same shortcomings as the first movie, the film, unlike Morbius, garnered plenty of moviegoer support to guarantee Hardy gets to finish his trilogy as Eddie Brock.
Perhaps the biggest thing to look forward to in Venom 3 is whether Hardy will finally act as a Spider-Man villain, especially now that the multiverse concept is on the loose for both Sony and Marvel Studios.
Venom is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Tom Hardy | Instagram