Tom Hardy Awkwardly Stifles Nosy Reporter In An Uncharacteristically Secretive Gesture

At a press conference for his new movie Legend that took place during this weekend’s Toronto International Film Festival, Tom Hardy surprised the audience by completely shutting down a reporter who asked him about his sexuality.

The aforementioned reporter, a man named Graeme Coleman who writes for an LGBT news source, asked the question innocently enough. He made the point that Tom had confirmed several gay flings during his younger years. From that information, Coleman could reasonably assume that Tom was comfortable discussing his own sexuality.

Another instance that shows Hardy is a confident man who is comfortable with taking on anything came just several days ago, when an 8-year-old Tom Hardy Myspace page was unearthed. The content on the page was what most would call embarrassing.

Namely, most of the photos featured Hardy making a duck face or some other silly pose and wearing nothing but men’s briefs and a trucker hat. Hardy told Sky News that he was not humiliated, as most would be if a similar page featuring them was dug up.

“I’ve got no shame about my MySpace photos, especially the one of me in my underpants which is a glorious photo of a man in his natural habitat. I might not be an Adonis, but I like to think of myself as an Adonis in that photo.”

Hardy has not made any comments about his own sexuality recently and the revealing Facebook page has been taken down, but the point is that Tom has repeatedly come off as a pretty easy-going conversationalist in the past.

Because of this, Coleman felt fine asking Hardy a question about a touchy topic like sexual orientation.

“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,” said the reporter. “Do you find celebrities find it hard to talk to media about their sexuality?”

Unfortunately for Coleman, Hardy was not as comfortable discussing the issue as the reporter had guessed. In fact, Hardy immediately snapped back at him.

“What on earth are you on about?” he asked.

The reporter cited the 2008 interview.

“But what is your question?” asked Hardy.

“I was wondering if you find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality,” the reporter inquired.

“I don’t find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality. Are you asking me about my sexuality?” Tom continued.

“Um, sure,” came the response.

To this, Hardy shook his head and asked, “Why?” This was followed by an awkward stare from Tom, during which you could practically hear crickets chirping as the reporter seemed lost for words, and, finally, a dismissive “thank you” from hardy.

On one hand, you can see where Hardy was coming from. Why do people care so much about his sexual preferences? What business is it of theirs? On the other hand, though, he could have gone a bit easier on that reporter, who had no way of knowing Tom would be so touchy about it.

What do you think? Was Tom Hardy justified in how he dealt with the question? Was he out of line?

[Image via Tomasso Boddi/Getty Images]