Tom Hardy explaining how he convinced Christopher Nolan on his unique Bane voice for The Dark Knight Rises has resurfaced

Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Tom Hardy's rationale behind his unique Bane voice has resurfaced years later, and it's pretty fascinating.

Hardy's Bane is a fairly large departure from the comic book version of the Batman villain, so it's no surprise that people might still be interested in why he chose that voice specifically.

"That was actually a really cool choice that Chris made, Chris Nolan," Hardy explained in a Wired interview from 2021, which is now recirculating on Twitter. "Bane quintessentially is Latinx of origin of a character, and I am not. So I looked at the concept of Latin and found a character, a man called Bartley Gorman, who's a Romani… and a bareknuckle fighter and a boxer." Hardy then demonstrated that Gorman spoke in a voice very alike to his Bane.

"I was like, 'This is great.' I showed Chris, I said, 'Chris, we can either go down a sort of arch Darth Vader kind of route, straight, neutral-toned villain voice. Or we could try this, and this I've been thinking of, just in case, we've got to consider the roots and origins of Bane. But we could get laughed out the park with it, it might be something that we regret, but it's your choice ultimately.' [He said] 'No, I think we'll go with it.' And that was that. We played with it, made it a bit more fluid, and now people laugh at it."

The Dark Knight Rises was released back in 2012, and it's safe to say Hardy's Bane voice has become iconic in the years since. Hardy has since returned to the superhero genre for the Venom trilogy, which wrapped up last year with Venom: The Last Dance.

You can keep up to date with all the upcoming superhero movies on the way with our guide through the link, or see the year's biggest movie release dates to plan your theater trips.

Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.

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