Ranking Tom Hardy’s 10 Best Performances (By How Much You Can Understand Him)

8. Lawless (2012)

This blood-soaked prohibition era crime flick penned by Australian music legend Nick Cave, is filled to the brim with some incredible overacting from almost everyone involved. In particular Guy Pearce is a ham acting tour-de-force as he chews all the scenery around him with all the gusto of a wolf with a juicy steak. On the flip side of this, Hardy's grizzled stoicism stands out for its wonderful restraint, and believable menace. In fact, as bootlegger Forrest Bondurant, Hardy is so grizzled and stoic that he barely raises his voice above a whisper throughout huge swathes of the film €“ and in doing this he practically dares the audience to turn the volume up to hear him clearly, even though they know that copious violence will soon blast through the speakers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOl0wRIIsWc When combined with the superbly thick Appalachian accent he adopts for his character, this is another performance that you might want to use subtitles on, so that you actually grasp the dialogue he angrily mutters. Although maybe not also - after all when he punches people in the face it speaks far louder than any words possibly could.