Tom Hardy’s 7 Most Extreme Body Transformations

One of Hardy’s most extreme movie role body transformations came as Bane—one of the 25 most badass movie villains of all time—in the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. After the more cerebral Joker in The Dark Knight, Nolan wanted to bring in a muscular badass—and Hardy knocked it out of the park. Hardy told the New York Daily News in 2012 he gained 30lbs of muscle for the role—and if you take one look at him in costume, it really shows. Hardy’s trainer had the actor working out in physically taxing short sessions four times per day, using strength training and bodyweight exercises to gain muscle.

Hardy got extremely cut for this MMA-focused film, transforming himself into something resembling an actual fighter despite having no previous experience in the sport. Even though Hardy didn’t put on as much weight for this film as he did for transformations to play Bane and Bronson, he still had to pack on some muscle. J.J. Perry, one of the stunt coordinators on the film, said Hardy came into training at 162lbs and bulked up to around 185 to play the character.

In this behind-the-scenes video from the home release, Hardy and co-star Joel Edgerton described the extensive training and fight preparation they did for the film. At one point during production, Hardy did a daily routine that consisted of two hours of boxing, two hours of kickboxing, two hours of lifting weights, and two hours of fight choreography. The two actors were kept on a strict diet that included 5-6 meals per day, mostly chicken and broccoli. Both suffered serious injuries, too: Hardy said he tore a ligament in his right hand, broke a foot, and cracked his ribs during filming.

Hardy had one of the biggest physical challenges of his career while playing Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road alongside absolute badass Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. Hardy spent months preparing for the grueling shoot, which took place over six months in Africa and Australia. For the bulk of Fury Road, Hardy is on the move, either attached to the front of a car as a prisoner, or behind the wheel evading bad guys like the gigantic Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones).

In a Collider interview ahead of filming, Hardy said: “I’m meant to drop 30lbs, so smoking and one meal a day is my training at the moment. I’m going to start fighting soon. The harder stuff, as we get close to the line. I’ll probably get three or four months of fight training out there. Seven days a week. All that kind of horrible shit.”

After the shoot, Hardy told Men’s Fitness UK: “It was a very physical shoot. We were always moving, either driving or on a rig. All of us had to maintain a certain level of physical fitness.”

Hardy tried to get the look of a “brawny bare-knuckle brawler” to play Michael Gordon Peterson, aka Charles Bronson—the “most dangerous prisoner in Britain,” as Hardy put it in this video interview about the film. Hardy spent time visiting jail and speaking with the real Bronson, who spent most of his adult life in prison. Hardy only had five weeks to physically prepare for the role, and ended up gaining around 40lbs.

“It was a race against the clock: We didn’t have any time to waste, so I started eating and my arse very quickly got very fat,” Hardy said in an interview with Ask Men about the film. “For Bronson, I put on about 7lbs a week—with no steroids. In the end I’d put on about two and a half stone by eating chicken and rice, which was my staple diet throughout the day. Then I’d have a pizza, Häagen-Dazs, and Coca-Cola: So not good stuff, but I had to put weight on. I needed to put a layer of fat on my body, because Bronson when he was younger was a big guy, a brawler. My diet was lenient as we weren’t going for the Bruce Lee look, and we weren’t looking for the cut.

“My approach was to do a lot of repetitions in order to send messages to my muscles. This helps them start to grow in a way that you can’t make them in the gym. To achieve dense muscle, you need a specific kind of training,” Hardy said in the interview. “Also, to ‘become’ Charlie Bronson I had to quickly put a lot of weight quickly on my forearms, chest, and neck. By the time I’d finished, my legs looked like those of a stork in comparison to the top half of my body.”

Tom Hardy reunited with his Inception buddy Leonardo DiCaprio in this historical drama about fur trappers out in America’s uncharted West in 1823. Hardy learned how to load and shoot a period-era rifle and spent most of production in the Canadian wilderness in freezing cold temperatures. Hardy’s almost unrecognizable with his shaggy beard and dirt-caked face, and his intense performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. See more of Hardy in this behind-the-scenes video of him discussing the movie.

Hardy did double duty in this film about the Kray Twins, Ronald “Ronnie” Kray and Reginald “Reggie” Kray, English gangsters who were notorious organized crime leaders in mid-century London. Hardy underwent extensive boxing training for the film, as both brothers had boxing experience. Hardy trained with Manny Pacquiao’s coach, Freddie Roach, and basically turned himself into a real-life boxer. Roach was so impressed with Hardy, he said in an interview with The Mirror that Hardy could have stepped into the ring if he wanted to leave acting behind.

This one isn’t a movie role, but Hardy still went all-out like usual to prepare for this 1814-set period drama about maritime trade, diamonds, and revenge. Hardy co-created the series with his father and his Locke and Peaky Blinders collaborator Steven Knight, meaning he has quite the stake in the project. Hardy gets a full-body set of tattoos painted on his body (alongside his own large tats on his arms) to play James Delaney, the believed-to-be-dead son of a shipping company owner. Take a look at the trailer and see how Hardy bulked up.