Tom Hardy: “I Love Playing The Bad Guy”

Tom Hardy said recently that he relished the chance to play a villain in the newest Batman installment, “The Dark Knight Rises.” But that doesn’t mean it was an easy ride for the 34-year-old British actor.

Hardy recalled filming one scene in the movie–for which he packed on 30 pounds–that was particularly grueling, the New York Daily News reported. For the scene Hardy’s character, Bane, climbed atop the Batmobile in an attempt to rally a group of escaped prisoners, but the now-larger Hardy couldn’t take the heat and fainted.

“I was wearing that big long gray coat and my body armor,” Tom Hardy told the New York Daily News. He added: “I passed out. I was unconscious for most of the afternoon.”

Producer Emma Thomas said Tom Hardy went to great lengths to transform into Bane for the role.

“He would walk in and he’d look quite slim and slender… then he would hold his body in a different way and sort of stick his gut out, do something with his shoulders and suddenly you’d see exactly what it is he’s going to do,” she told the New York Daily News.

Filming scenes as Bane was difficult for Hardy, who had to wear a tight mask that was molded to his face. Though the role may have been physically grueling, Tom Hardy said he was happy at the chance to play the villain opposite Christian Bale’s Batman.

“I always love playing a bad guy because you get to say what you want, do what you want, full stop,” Hardy told Access Hollywood. “Whereas as a lead, you have to do as you’re told, which is boring.”

Tom Hardy has earned praise for his role, which is quite a tricky one cinematically. Director Christopher Nolan said he wanted to be careful in selecting a villain after the Oscar nominated performance from Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight,” which was a difficult act to follow.

Nolan ended up selecting Bane because the character was so different from Ledger’s interpretation of the Joker.

Though Nolan has said his work on Batman films is done with “The Dark Knight Rises,” Tom Hardy told Access Hollywood he would be up for more movies. “They’d just have to call me up,” he told Access.