Tom Hardy’s Krays film Legend smashes box office records
A film starring Tom Hardy as notorious gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray has broken box office records.
Hardy plays both brothers in Legend, a newly-released biopic of the East End’s most infamous criminals during the 1950s and 60s.
The sexuality of both twins has long been speculated upon. As addressed in the film, Ronnie was famed for parading his younger male lovers in public, and spoke on various occasions of being gay or bisexual.
However, there has since been speculation that in fact both twins had romances with men, and they are often noted as part of LGBT history.
After years of involvement in armed robberies, arson, extortion, assaults and even murder, the twins were finally arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1969.
The film has broken several box office records – taking £5,180,000 in its first weekend of release.
The news makes it the highest-grossing opening weekend for an over-18 film, as well as the highest-grossing September opening for a UK film.
However, it has not been without controversy.
Tom Hardy snapped at a reporter from an LGBT publication in Canada yesterday when asked about sexuality.
The reporter asked: “In the film, your character Ronnie is very open about his sexuality… but given interviews you’ve done in the past, your own sexuality seems a bit more ambiguous. Do you find it hard for celebrities to talk to media about their sexuality?”
Hardy responded: “What on earth are you on about?”
The reporter tried to clarify his point, but Hardy snapped: “Are you asking me about my sexuality? Why?”
He then thanked them and moved on to the next question.
When asked about the Kray twins’ sexuality recently, the actor said he didn’t even consider the pair’s sexualities while making the film.
