Tom Hardy explains why he snapped at journalist asking about sexuality
Tom Hardy has explained why he shut down an LGBT news reporter, who asked about sexuality during a Q&A session for his new film Legend.
Hardy plays notorious gangsters the Kray Twins in Legend – and 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, the actor snapped at a reporter from an LGBT publication in Canada last week 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?” – before moving on to the next question.
The journalist, who writes for an LGBT publication and was specifically invited to the Q&A, later questioned his treatment, writing: “As Canada’s gay and lesbian news source, it’s our responsibility to examine sexuality and the ways in which it’s portrayed on screen.”
However, Tom Hardy has hit back, insisting that the question was “inelegant” and “really annoyed” him.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “That really, really annoyed me… it was just the inelegance of being asked in a room full of people.
“Now I’m happy to have a conversation, a discussion, at a reasonable time about anything. I’m confident in my own sexuality, and I’m also confident in my own being and talking about any issue you want to talk about it. But there is a time and a place for that.”
“Why point me out, assuming that I’m gay because I’m ambiguous about it, which I’m very clear if you look into what I’ve said in the past.”
He added: “I found it very humiliating for somebody to decide that on his dime and his time, to openly and inelegantly pursue a line of questioning which I could only sense at the moment — which was quite awkward — that it was zeroing in on a reaction from me that would become a topic of discussion that had nothing to do really, really to do with what was there.”
The actor added that he did feel bad for the reporter, adding: “Bless him, he’s young… but at the same time, it left me feeling like I have to do something about that. And it’s like why? Whose business is it anyway and isn’t that the point?””
When previously asked about the Kray twins’ sexuality, Hardy said he didn’t even consider the issue while making the film.
