‘Superlative Tom Hardy invests Luca with raw energy and suppressed desperation.’
It seemed that Tom had staunch support from the Evening Standard camp so it was perhaps unsurprising when his name was amongst the nominations for that newspaper’s theatre awards for 2003. The category in which he found himself nominated was ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ and his shortlisted rivals were Lisa Dillon for her role as Hilda in Ibsen’s The Master Builder and Amanda Drew for Eastward Ho .
The lavish awards ceremony was held at the Savoy Hotel in November 2003. The great and the good of London’s theatreland were present and the proceedings were presidedover by Rory Bremner. The award for Outstanding Newcomer was presented by Nicholas Hytner, then the newly appointed director of the National Theatre. As a prelude to presenting the award, Hytner gave a light-hearted speech in which he congratulated all three of the shortlisted nominees and quipped that he hoped they would only do enough ‘dodgy television’ to finance their loft conversions.
The award, of course, went to Tom for his performances in both In Arabia We’d All Be Kings and Blood . He admitted he was very nervous as he collected his statuette and amongst his obligatory thanks were the Hampstead Theatre and those involved in getting the production off the ground there, as well as his parents, his girlfriend, his agent, Lindy King and all his friends and family, who he referred to as his ‘support unit’. And not to be forgotten was his dog, Max, who he said would be very grumpy if he was left off the list. Finally, he expressed his gratitude to the Evening Standard , Nick De Jongh and everyone who had voted for him.
To further boost Tom’s credibility, his performance in In Arabia We’d All be Kings also garnered him a nomination at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards, again in the category of Most Promising Newcomer in an Affiliate Theatre. Sadly he didn’t win the double this time and the award went to playwright Debbie Tucker for Born Bad , also staged at the Hampstead Theatre.
It is gratifying to observe just how successfully Tom had managed to turn his life around in the space of a year. As 2003 drew to a close, he was sadly without his marriage – but there were so many positives on which he could draw as 2004 dawned. He had conquered his drug and drink addictionsand, although recovering from such dependencies are battles that are never truly won, he was in a new frame of mind and could see that his new-found sobriety was bearing fruit on the work front. He had achieved recognition for his acting and was determined to capitalise on this. It was starting to look as though Tom’s time might yet come.
CHAPTER FOUR
T HE P LAYâS T HE T HING
I t was no surprise that, towards the end of 2003, the name Tom Hardy started to appear in the obligatory end-of-year round-ups heralding British stars of the future. The Evening Standard included Tom in their list of Bright Young Things , alongside fellow actors Rosamund Pike, Sienna Miller and Orlando Bloom; and W magazine numbered him among their collection of fresh talent that was, apparently, âfilling up casting directorsâ wish lists on both sides of the Atlantic.â His new-found dedication to his craft had started to pay dividends and, thanks to the canny agent he had in Lindy King, offers of work were piling up. âIâve played a range of different screen and stage characters and itâs all because of Lindy,â he told The Stage . âIâm 100 per cent committed to her.â
In March 2004, the play Festen opened at the Almeida Theatre in Londonâs Islington. Adapted from the 1998 Danish art-house film of the same name, it deals with the traumaticsubject of sexual abuse within a family. In its filmic form, Festen had been the first work of the Dogme movement, a group of Scandinavian film-makers whose desire was to produce films in a far more pared-down style than
It seemed that Tom had staunch support from the Evening Standard camp so it was perhaps unsurprising when his name was amongst the nominations for that newspaper’s theatre awards for 2003. The category in which he found himself nominated was ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ and his shortlisted rivals were Lisa Dillon for her role as Hilda in Ibsen’s The Master Builder and Amanda Drew for Eastward Ho .
The lavish awards ceremony was held at the Savoy Hotel in November 2003. The great and the good of London’s theatreland were present and the proceedings were presidedover by Rory Bremner. The award for Outstanding Newcomer was presented by Nicholas Hytner, then the newly appointed director of the National Theatre. As a prelude to presenting the award, Hytner gave a light-hearted speech in which he congratulated all three of the shortlisted nominees and quipped that he hoped they would only do enough ‘dodgy television’ to finance their loft conversions.
The award, of course, went to Tom for his performances in both In Arabia We’d All Be Kings and Blood . He admitted he was very nervous as he collected his statuette and amongst his obligatory thanks were the Hampstead Theatre and those involved in getting the production off the ground there, as well as his parents, his girlfriend, his agent, Lindy King and all his friends and family, who he referred to as his ‘support unit’. And not to be forgotten was his dog, Max, who he said would be very grumpy if he was left off the list. Finally, he expressed his gratitude to the Evening Standard , Nick De Jongh and everyone who had voted for him.
To further boost Tom’s credibility, his performance in In Arabia We’d All be Kings also garnered him a nomination at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards, again in the category of Most Promising Newcomer in an Affiliate Theatre. Sadly he didn’t win the double this time and the award went to playwright Debbie Tucker for Born Bad , also staged at the Hampstead Theatre.
It is gratifying to observe just how successfully Tom had managed to turn his life around in the space of a year. As 2003 drew to a close, he was sadly without his marriage – but there were so many positives on which he could draw as 2004 dawned. He had conquered his drug and drink addictionsand, although recovering from such dependencies are battles that are never truly won, he was in a new frame of mind and could see that his new-found sobriety was bearing fruit on the work front. He had achieved recognition for his acting and was determined to capitalise on this. It was starting to look as though Tom’s time might yet come.
CHAPTER FOUR
T HE P LAYâS T HE T HING
I t was no surprise that, towards the end of 2003, the name Tom Hardy started to appear in the obligatory end-of-year round-ups heralding British stars of the future. The Evening Standard included Tom in their list of Bright Young Things , alongside fellow actors Rosamund Pike, Sienna Miller and Orlando Bloom; and W magazine numbered him among their collection of fresh talent that was, apparently, âfilling up casting directorsâ wish lists on both sides of the Atlantic.â His new-found dedication to his craft had started to pay dividends and, thanks to the canny agent he had in Lindy King, offers of work were piling up. âIâve played a range of different screen and stage characters and itâs all because of Lindy,â he told The Stage . âIâm 100 per cent committed to her.â
In March 2004, the play Festen opened at the Almeida Theatre in Londonâs Islington. Adapted from the 1998 Danish art-house film of the same name, it deals with the traumaticsubject of sexual abuse within a family. In its filmic form, Festen had been the first work of the Dogme movement, a group of Scandinavian film-makers whose desire was to produce films in a far more pared-down style than
Similar Books
