8 Embarrassing Movie Roles Tom Hardy Probably Regrets

8. Shinzon - Star Trek: Nemesis

Shinzon is, for all intents and purposes, a really bloody strange character. That was the point, presumably. He was supposed to be Jean-Luc Picard gone wrong; he also has a ridiculous name for no reason at all, and Hardy plays him almost as if the actor was forced to suck on a lemon for the entire length of shooting. The fact that the film itself is entirely lackluster - plot, script, originality - doesn't help matters much, either. The point is that the 25-year-old Hardy shows signs of promise in his deeply serious turn as villain Shinzon, but offers up a bad guy that EW's Owen Gleiberman once described as "a hissy-fit fascist" - funny and true. There are traces of the good actor everybody knows and loves, of course, but it's a flat turn. Hardy probably looks back on this and cringes. Still, Star Trek: Nemesis helped him onto the path to greatness, so that's something.