If you have a Tom Hardy problem, this isn’t going to help. I have a Tom Hardy problem, and just listening to him shut down a stupid, vaguely sexist question in his natural speaking voice was enough to give me a hot flash. This man… he’s so sexy, they need to invent a new word for “sexy.” Apparently, when Tom was in Cannes to promote Mad Max: Fury Road, he was asked a douchey question by a Canadian journalist named Peter Howell. Howell’s question: “As you were reading the script, did you ever think ‘Why are all these women in here? I thought this was supposed to be a man’s movie?’” That happens around the 9:50 mark on this video:
So what was Tom’s reply? “No. Not for one minute…That’s kind of obvious. But like, but also in reference to the concept of having a script, that would have been nice. That was more of a concern.” It really bothered him that they didn’t really have a script, but no, he wasn’t bothered by the fact that Fury Road ended up being a feminist masterpiece.
While in Cannes, Tom also praised the film for being about the empowerment of women, saying that people come into the film expecting him to play a version of Mel Gibson: “What you don’t get, here, is what you expect. And that’s what’s wonderful. The lead of this movie is a female amputee. It’s a total empowerment of women. It’s actually about f–king time.”
And here’s just another random quote that I found from Tom which isn’t about feminism, but is about how actors need to stop labeling themselves “theater actors” or “action-movie actors” or whatever:
“Something that really f–king dicks me off is this stigma between acting ‘classes’: you know, like movie actors, or film actors, TV, independent films, stage, theatre, you know. Apart from musicals, well you know, musicals — I just can’t sing. There’s no difference between a zero-dollar performance and a $20-million performance. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the story and the team and the work. In film you have to crash everything into two hours, it’s very disappointing sometimes: you work your arse off and you see the edit and it’s like, ‘But we shot so much more’ and it’s just being tanked into this box. A goldfish grows to the size of its bowl. So if you’re in a big movie, you have to grow it to that size and work in that machine. If you’re on the stage, the same. Different disciplines, same heart.”
Wait, a goldfish grows to the size of its bowl? That’s not true, right?! No. That’s not correct. But it was a great image. God, I love him. My lust for Tom Hardy is visceral.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I need a chair with his face on it.
+1,000 Tom Hardy, currently starring in all my best daydreams.
AND night dreams!!
I need a doormat with Peter Howell’s face on it.
Add my name to the order form for the Tom Hardy Face Chair. Also, include a CD that plays him saying “No, not for one minute,” on and endless loop, so that I can imagine he’s answering me as I ask him, “do you ever want to not be having sex with me?”
Lol. You are perfect. Don’t ever let anybody tell you different.
Shambles, that’s awesome!!
Tee hee. I feel the warm fuzzies. <3
Partly because I'm feeling the love, and partly because I'm picturing some really unholy things in my brain place.
*cacklesssss* oMG I’d ask Chair Hardy SO MANY leading questions
ha ha ha ha ha ha
you should take that idea to shark tank. i would buy one for every room.
BAHAHAHAHAHA
Holy hell!!!! Yes!
Firstly, Go Bloke.
Secondly, I don’t mean to pee on anyone’s parade, but if this film were a “feminist masterpiece,” wouldn’t they have found the hot girls some trousers at some point in the movie?
To be fair, they were just busted out harem where they were kept as sex slaves. And it’s not like there was a Kohl’s they could stop at out in the desert.
Giggling uncontrollably!!!
True, they only have Belk in the desert.
Well, they did stop for guns, and I’m sure killed enough men to take a couple of shirts. I’m just saying that I’m bit sure you can claim feminist triumph if 90% of the portrayed women are semi-naked sex slacks. It seems to me that the visual undermines the narrative.
I also have to say that I think it’s a sorry state of affairs when we have to debate the feminist agenda of a movie just because it has a strong female lead. I don’t ever remember needing to have this talk over Alien. It sometimes feels like we are going backwards.
I agree 100%, Fanty.
I am quite delighted that my autocorrect fixed my comment to say “sex slacks.” I wonder if I can get a pair from the L.L. bean catalogue?
There ain’t nothing sexy in an LL Bean catalog. Unless you find duck boots erotic.
Between Tom Hardy chair and sex slacks i am busting a rib and it’s only the start of the thread.
I don’t know the science of it, but back when I had goldfish, the bigger the tank, the bigger they got (in my experience).
It has something to do with a hormone (?) they secrete in the water. When it reaches a point, growth stops. I heard you can get a goldfish to grow bigger by changing it’s water a lot as well, for the same reason. Although that’s stressful for the fish itself….
Goldfish are indeterminate growers. They (and some other fish species, as well) continue to grow throughout their lives, given a large enough tank and the right care and conditions.
Yeah, they keep growing as long as they’re alive and healthy. It’s not so much that they grow to fit their tank as that a small tank stunts their growth and makes them die earlier.
Pity it’s not entirely true. I do like the idea of goldfish growing to dolphin-size when released into the wild.
Yeah, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it was a “feminist masterpiece” (and I loved the movie) but it was awesome to see a female-oriented storyline. Plus Charlize Theron was such a total bada*s too…Furiosa indeed.
I’m glad that Tom Hardy side-eyed the hell out of that question, because it was dumb as fu*k.
Thank you! I liked he movie to the point of seeing it twice. But i think mos tog us are making this movie nore than it is… I do not see it as a feminist masterpiece.
Ps: Nobody is talking about the fact that the pretty women are the “mothers” …
I agree… When they were “washing themselves” in white fabric….
Seriously? You think they should have stopped at the local Sears while fleeing the blood thirsty warlord? They were escaping sexual slavery which made their look spot on. I was just incredibly impressed that with that story line not once did we see rape, flashback to rape, or endure attempted rape. The implication was there and that’s all that was needed, not more on screen victimization of women in genre films for “dramatic effect”. This is a brilliant film.
I saw on another site someone saying that if Game of Thrones writers had written the script for Mad Max Fury Road they would have shown rape of each of the women, had them constantly threatened with rape and of course Max would be the hero saving them and as a big thanks they would have an orgy with him.
Of course male posters were offended.
@Damn
Between the rape of Sansa, the almost rape of Gilly, and the Sand Snakes stripping down for sexual titillation — none of which were in the books, and some of which run counter to the book personality’s characters — I think it’s time someone asked the GoT showrunners why they hate women.
Not hate women, but don’t see them as anything other objects, for sex, for plot devices, for pure fantasizing.
@Damn;
If the Penny Dreadful writers had written the script, the women would have saved themselves while the men decided they were, on the whole, better than them, and looked on, admiringly while repressing their guilt at their own shameful weakness.
Four for you, T.Fanty. Four for you.
#pennydreadful=bestshowairingrightnow
There was this article that pointed out that in the beginning of the movie the girls are hardly wearing anything. However, by the end they are starting to take some of their freedom and control back and their bodies are more covered up by the end.
Don’t confuse who was objectifying them. It was the oppressive regime of the story, not the creator of the movie.
The film didn’t center around Furiosa saving the women who were hooked up to milking machines either…wouldn’t have made such great “man viewing” for this “feminist masterpiece”?
@t. fanty: Agree with you 100%. It’s funny the things people are desperate to label as “feminist” these days, and what little things they are so easily outraged by (calling ones wife “the missus”) as sexist. They coulda worn the pants of all the guys they killed.
He’s not bad for a little fella.
“Wait, a goldfish grows to the size of its bowl? That’s not true, right?! No. That’s not correct.”
You obviously haven’t read A Fish Out of Water by Dr Seuss. Oh wait that was because the kid fed it too much. My bad.
HIs question was completely taken out of context… Before he asked the question, he said he had a wife, 5 sisters, a daughter, etc… And he joked that he knew what was like to be outgunned by estrogen (I am paraphrasing). Then, he asked the question. So, I think he wanted to know from a male actor what he thought about so many women in an action movie where, in his industry, males actors tend to play the leading roles, especially when comes to action movies.
“I have a wife/sisters” is to sexists as “I have a Black friend” is to racists. 😉
Great minds, I said the same below, before seeing yours.
Agreed. If he felt that he had to qualify his question with “I know some womens” before he even asked it, he definitely knew it could be interpreted as sexist. Which it was.
IMHO I don’t think it’s out of context. It’s a loaded question full of preconceptions about gender. To be honest I think the journalist’s comments about his family actually make it worse. It’s very them and us attitude to gender.
Still dickish. It’s not like there is a tsunami wave of women overtaking the industry in these roles. It’s like starting a conversation with, “I’m not racist, I have a black friend, but…”, or, ” I have a wife I love, but those women in films, where it should be all testosterone, amirite?…”
LOL! Exactly. 😉
yeah actually he clarified his comment later. which i think is in the guardian? but now i cant’ remember where i read it and i’m too lazy to look it up. the point is, the journalist said himself his question was really poorly worded and that’s not what he meant. which ok guy, whatever, but isn’t your job using WORDS?!!? like learn how to phrase a g*ddamn question. u
Yeah he completely messed up the wording of his question. He actually wrote this great piece, prior to the incident, about “the rise of alpha females” in this genre, and how it perfectly works–despite what Marvel and those dummies think.
I think he was just trying to come off as funny, but just came out as dickish as kiddo says.
Agreed loud noises! If you are a journalist, you need to have better command of your words! lol
Thanks for chiming in your views. I still didn’t interpret as sexist. But I see now, how it would be.
I do think is a valid question and I really liked Tom’s reply and Charlize’s reaction: good for you!
It is quite possible in a movie genre run by testosterone that other male actors would ask that question themselves.
The part that caught my ear was that this mild-mannered journalist used the phrase ‘out gunned by estrogen.’ Interesting to me because it sets up this aspect of his daily life (which I assume is not normally a Mad Max scenario) as some sort of conflict or competition… when my first thought was, “Maybe those girls and women just ‘are’? Not really some inherent ‘threat’ because there’s a lot of them or a lot of estrogen? Would testosterone be making him feel threatened like that? Mmmmwwwwuuuaaaaaa.
At any rate, I think the false and pretty lame comparison he attempted as a jokey lead-in did him no good – either at the press room, back in his own newsroom, or back at home. But what a perfect gimme for the lovely, unthreatened and infinitely more manly Mr. Hardy to rise to the occasion, eh?
Can you imagine a journalist asking a woman what she thought as she read an action script and noticing that there were a lot of male characters? The question was not poorly worded, it was not necessary. He could ask what he thought of her character, or working with such a badass, etc., but asking about the sheer number of women in the film is ridiculous.
@Josephine, is it? don’t people use numbers all the time to demonstrate lack of diversity in the industry? Yes, they could ask and I would hope that she would say something like we need more female characters in it or something that demonstrates a better representation of women in films or say that was great, if she felt that way.
ScarJo has been asked something like that and nobody said anything… Granted the guy who asked her phrased his question better than the one who asked Hardy.
I think it’s more problematic in the sense that it implies that women in traditionally masculine roles undermines the film’s appeal to men. Women are expected to enjoy films with predominantly male casts all of the time, but the reverse is treated like some bizarre outlier that’s beyond the ability of men to handle. It’s insulting to both sexes in the sense that it implies that women are limited in their ability to play certain characters or that men can’t find women engaging.
I don’t think he necessarily meant it as terribly sexist, but it is a dumb question founded in some very gendered thinking of which he’s not self-aware.
The reporter’s lead-in (don’t drag your sisters and wife into this!) is what made it so cringeworthy. If he’d just said “Were you surprised by so many women being in the story?” I don’t think Hardy or anyone else would have had the same reaction. Most people were surprised, after all.
This movie is incredible, best movie of the summer by far!!
I don’t get the Hardy lust, but I like him as an actor and he’s a good guy too, apparently!
There was nothing vaguely sexist about that question, he flat out asked why are there all these women in a men’s movie. And prefaced it with a list of the women in his life, as if that would counteract it.
You’re kidding?
He can’t comprehand that women can exist in an action movie without being reduced to sex objects and eyecandy while the male hero kicks ass, saves the day and gets the prize in form of the damsel in distress.
It’s depressing when women don’t see or understand when they are target of sexism and misogyny.
My comment is that there’s nothing VAGUELY sexist about it, because it’s flat out sexist. Not vague.
@Damn I think you misunderstood the comment. She’s saying without a doubt it was a sexist question.
Yes. This. Doesn’t it just feel like a kind of release to hear his response? Why do some men(and women) struggle with feminism so much? It’s progress!
Because progress threatens the status quo of white men being at the top of the food chain. When an animal is threatened, it attacks, hence – meninists :/
That reporters need to explain that he comes from a family full of women is like when a racist tries to tell you that he has a lot of black friends.
yes! Not only that he’s implying he’s not happy about ‘being out-gunned by estrogen’ whatever that means. That’s like saying hey, i have a lot of black relatives so i know how it feels to be out gunned by people of a different race! HIYO. barf.
I had a friend complain about the scene where the 5 wives are bathing…..
..but that’s also the scene where they cut off their chastity belts. If that isn’t an eff you to patriarchy I don’t know what is.
I don’t know, that scene didn’t bother me (although I can see why it might have bothered some). It could have been a lot worse-closeups of heaving bosoms, etc. It all seemed pretty perfunctory to me-business like. Wash all the gross off, take of the belts, run away.
Exactly. There was no slow pan or lingering shots. They were washing off dirt and grime, drinking water and cutting off their shackles. Movie more than passes the Bechdel test imo.
The close up on the chestity belt and the pregnant woman show you without telling what the women in that environment went through.
Exactly. We didn’t see rape scenes and the camera didn’t rape them either. They were beautiful and were let be. I was amazed at this teatment for an action film.
Also regarding Tom Hardy..I’d hit it til it fell off.
He is….oh.damn. Must watch “Locke”. Must watch The Take. Again. I am going to now gracefully collapse onto my Swooning Lazyboy….
He just makes me think naughty things.
This movie was utterly amazing. I had no idea who Mad Max was or what it was going to be about, and it was 2 hours of mind-blowing awesomeness. It didn’t have a feminist “agenda,” it was just a great movie that had great roles for both genders. A thousand times better than Avengers: Age of Ultron, although I enjoyed that one too.
I think he means if a goldfish is put in a pond or larger body of water, it’ll grow to a much bigger size than its’ bowl/aquarium counterpart.
Also thanks Peter Howell for representing Canadians as close minded, regressive genderists on a world stage. We appreciate that.
Nah, if we were going to be pissed and take offense, we would have pointed at you for Bieber. But alas, we have Kardashians and Duggars, so best not to shatter the glass house.
Most fun I’ve had in a movie in a while. Charlize owned the movie and everything else that got in her path
Be still my heart . . . I’m at the office, trying to work!
Take that, GoT!
Of course, truth compels me to add that the lead is a female amputee – but a really gorgeous one with a dynamite haircut that probably cost a few hundred . . .
But it’s okay, it’s okay . . . his haircut probably cost that much, too.
Have a friend that told me about this blogger that was recommending this movie to all because it is a women driven film.
I’m conflicted … I mean, don’t like that Tom hit Paul B. for the whatever reason he thought was “appropriate” don’t condone the behavior, and actually found out about this while reading here, so Tom H. was losing me, but this statement comes along, and he is just making very hard….
Tom’s got anger issues, but his only other instances seem to be when people go at him first and are a holes. Shia punched him, so he punched him back, and apparently Inniraritu was screaming and pushing the cast and crew so he fought back, He seems like the type to fight back instead of walking away, but he doesn’t seem to initiate fights which makes me think Paul B probably started something
oh, interesting.
Go for George Miller and Charlize Theron – it’s really their movie.
The thing is that The Bloke doesn’t give a F about labels. He never did. While promoting The Drop (excellent movie and his accent is superb), he said it was time to grab a script and replace all male characters with female characters and “JUST GO” (I’m paraphrasing but I’ve seen a gif set of this all over the Internet)
He’s always been like this, which is why I have a serious Tom Hardy Problem and I hope it never goes away.
Other than that, the most amazing aspect of this film for me, was the fact that even though Furiosa is an amputee (and this fact is not hidden) not even once did I see her as a cripple or disabled person. Her prosthesis was a detail in the background.
Tom Hardy makes me feel like a girl, think my estrogen levels rise just from looking at his picture.
It’s a bit sexist and unwarranted but I think he was trying to be fun/funny.
I’ve met and worked with Peter and in those instances he’s been very stern and businesslike so maybe he isn’t used to trying to be fun.
Just when you think this man can’t get any sexier….. I love him.
Theres nothing quite as sexy as a male feminist. Or as unsexy as a meninist :/
This yes. Men who are not intimidated by strong women are sexy. Those who want weak ones aren’t.
I didn’t have a Hardy-on for the guy until I watched that clip, and his response.
Now I have a problem …
On the upside, my husband was as irritable over the question as Hardy and in similar words. (And now you know why I married him)
I do think because he’s a man he gets away with being difficult. People tend to be more judgmental of women like Charlize if they don’t even smile. But he just got even sexier to me. You do have to respect how he handled that stupid question. A real man is comfortable with a strong female presence. He showed something by how comfortable he was letting Charlize be such a strong factor in Mad Max. Some male actors would feel insecure. Not Tom, so they made an equal duo.
Actually the gold fish/bowl size quip is true, all things being equal they tend to stay at the size that allows them a reasonable amount of movement in their bowl, put them in a bigger bowl they will grow bigger. Must be an evolution thing.
I was just scrolling down to see if anyone would mention that. Yup, goldfish grow to the size of their bowl. I kinda secretly want to see how big one could get through that effort.
They can get huge in in big ponds, fish tend to just keep growing and live/breed as long as they have plenty of food and don’t get eaten or stuck in a water source without good filtration.
I think everyone has gotten used to seeing women sexualized so much that this is old hat to them and normal. Though they were sex slaves the whole skinny models washing themselves in the desert with perfect teeth and skin was a little ridiculous and over the top, especially where the camera lens was focusing. I would have been more impressed if they were missing some teeth and had more blemishes, bruises and black eyes from being hit and raped, that would have been more in character with the setting (world) of the movie and how corrupt everything was. Instead, the sex slaves were made to look quite appealing, the most desirable, happiest, and healthy women in the movie. While you guys may think that is unimportant, it goes into the unconscious of everyone who watches it with a rather unpleasant message about women and where their true value is. While I thought Furiosa was pretty bad ass and a well developed character, the rest of it seemed to cater to teen boys a little much. I laughed my ass off in a lot of parts during the movie, especially the constant presence of the “guitar guy” and at the end with the guitar coming flying at you. It was pretty ridiculous. I’m sure I pissed a lot of people in the theater off who were taking it much more seriously than I was.
I’m sorry, I know it’s against popular opinion and adoration of Hardy but I wasn’t impressed buy the female empowerment in this movie. It was better than the usual fare but not by much. I guess maybe some of us feel we have to be happy with the little table scraps Hollywood throws our way and lap it up eagerly in our hunger to see something truly different and amazing.