It wasnt the lure of hip-hop or the catwalk that almost ruined Tom Hardys acting career before it even began it was an addictive personality that led to alcoholism and a crack cocaine habit that very nearly claimed his life. Hardy has classified his inner demons as a 400-pound gorilla that runs around the darkness of my soul, and some ill-advised high jinks as a seventeen-year-old would have led to a lengthy prison sentence were it not for his partner-in-crimes father being a British diplomat: Wed stolen his fathers friends Mercedes, got pulled over in Kensington, and I had a gun on me. It was horrific, I didnt really know how much trouble I was in. Although he had a lucky escape on that occasion, Hardys experimentation saw him become an alcoholic and a drug addict, both of which threatened to derail a career just starting to take shape after Band of Brothers and roles in Black Hawk Down and Star Trek: Nemesis. After a blurry night in 2003, the actor collapsed on Old Compton Street in Soho and awoke in a pool of blood and vomit, vowing to make a change before it was too late: I hit a brick wall of behaviour. There were the options of institution, death, prison or insanity, and I could tick the boxes on three of those so I was very lucky that I had a moment of clarity. Hardy has been clean ever since, but has never taken his sobriety for granted.
I watch movies and I watch sport. I also watch movies about sport, and if there were a sport about movies I'd watch that too. The internet was the closest thing I could find.
