In Child 44, Tom Hardy plays a war hero and security agent named Leo Demidov who stumbles upon a series of child murders and sets out to prevent more from happening. Demidov, by the way, is Russian. In order to play the role of a Russian-speaker, then, Hardy - ever the resourceful actor - turned his attention not (as one might have expected) to a language professional, but to Sesame Street. Yes: the Sesame Street. That's not a joke. When asked on the red carpet how he prepared for Demidov's accent, Hardy gave a short, sufficient answer:
"I watched Sesame Street. The Count speaks just like it."
He's referring to the show's Eastern European Count von Count, of course, who is - for all intents and purposes - a Muppet version of Bela Lugosi's take on Count Dracula. The Count doesn't have a specific nationality, of course, him being a Muppet, but he certainly isn't supposed to be Russian. Which makes him a weird choice of inspiration. Is it a wonder the movie was lambasted for its use of "horrible fake foreign accents"? Like this article? Like Tom Hardy? Are there any other crazy Tom Hardy transformation stories that we missed? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section below.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
