Tom Hardy is a household name – but it wasn’t always that way. The fresh-faced actor appeared opposite Patrick Stewart in 2002’s much-maligned Star Trek: Nemesis and, according to Stewart’s latest memoir, rubbed the Picard actor up the wrong way.
"Tom wouldn’t engage with any of us on a social level. Never said, ‘Good morning,’ never said, ‘Goodnight,’ and spent the hours he wasn’t needed on set in his trailer with his girlfriend," Stewart wrote in Making it So (H/T Collider). "He was by no means hostile – it was just challenging to establish any rapport with him."
After Hardy left the set by "simply walking out the door", Stewart had a damning – and in hindsight, hilariously wrong – assessment of the then-fledgling actor: "[I] said quietly to [Star Trek actors] Brent [Spiner] and Jonathan [Frakes], 'And there goes someone I think we shall never hear of again.'"
Stewart, though, held his hands up years later and added: "It gives me nothing but pleasure that Tom has proven me so wrong."
Hardy, who grew in stature after minor roles in Band of Brothers and Black Hawk Down, then took on the part of a Picard clone named Shinzon. Thankfully, appearing in the Star Trek flop wasn’t the end for the British actor, who shot to stardom after turns in Bronson, Warrior, Inception, and as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
Hardy is next set to appear in The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols’ indefinitely delayed new movie, alongside Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. A Venom threequel is also planned and set for release on July 12, 2024.
