8 Little Known Nuances In Tom Hardy’s Performance That Made Nolan’s Bane Awesome

8. Hardy Had To Wear Lifts To Be Imposing

Monty Python had a great extended sketch Scott Of The Antarctic (cum-Sahara), detailing a disastrous movie production, where the actor stands on stilts next to his leading lady in a trench. This rudimentary solution to height differences may seem a little old hat when full height actors have convincingly played hobbits through the use of suggestive camera work, but in The Dark Knight Rises the trick was alive and well; it'€™s what made Bane so imposing.

Of course, Hardy had bulked up substantially for the role, but all the weight lifting and protein shakes in Gotham won't help you stand taller. Measuring in at 5۪'9۪۪, Hardy was smaller than pretty much the whole of the male cast - Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman are over six foot and even Ben Mendelsohn, who as Daggett is meant to be physically insignificant to Bane comes in at 5۪'11۪۪ - meaning his terrorist could easily have come across as an over compensating muscle man.

So to get around that Hardy wore three inch lifts that put him on a par with Batman (and, in the spirit of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, much bigger when filmed).

Or to put simply, Bane wears high heels.