Tom Hardy's most outlandish accents

An actor's accent can be distracting, none more so than Tom Hardy who has a penchant for picking strange, difficult to understand accents for his characters.

The Inception star's interest in quirky voices has become something of a running joke amongst film fans, who often remark on how outlandish his performances have been, or could be. The latest film that Hardy is set to appear in is The Bikeriders, and it is another prime example of an odd accent.

Read more: What we know about Austin Butler’s new film The Bikeriders

Although he is perfectly capable of doing a normal British or American accent —Dunkirk, The Revenant and Lawless serving as good examples— he has often opted for some out-there accents. But the question remains, what are some of his best (or most distracting, depending on how you look at it).

Tom Hardy's most outlandish accents

Bronson

Hardy's breakout role was in 2008's Bronson, where he played infamous British criminal Charles Bronson. While not his most ridiculous accent to date, the performance does see him take on a unique accent but it is typical of the period and also matches closely with his real life counterpart.

The film showed what Hardy was capable of, and it also proved his skills with adopting a convincingly unique accent for a role. A strong start for his career.

Peaky Blinders

BBC's Peaky Blinders has long featured some interesting accents, but the most outlandish one of all is without a doubt Hardy's. The actor portrays Alfie Solomons, a Jewish gangster who crosses paths with Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his gang in season 2 and who acts as an enemy, and later friend.

Hardy stands out amongst the cast with his nasally, gruff accent that somehow fits the period but also feels like it doesn't. His mumbling delivery can sometimes be difficult to understand, but the quirky voice he uses makes him both menacing and amusing in equal measure.

Taboo

Hardy continued to play gruff gangsters in Taboo, the BBC series he co-created with his father Chips and Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight.

In it, Hardy plays James Keziah Delaney, though he's more understandable than Alfie Solomons Hardy uses a similarly gravelly voice. He would sometimes mumble his lines which also made it difficult to decipher what he was saying.

The Dark Knight Rises

Probably the most famous example of an accent that Hardy used and no one could understand was The Dark Knight Rises, in which he played Batman adversary Bane opposite Christian Bale. His voice in the film was more high-pitched and nasally than previous performances, and the origins of his accent were also difficult to pinpoint — was he doing a British or American accent? Who knows in all honesty.

Wearing a mask likely didn't help matters, and his co-star Christian Bale has also spoken about how he and Hardy couldn't understand each other most of the time on set and so when their characters clash they had to raise a finger to make it clear that they'd finished saying their lines.

Child 44

Hardy led the movie adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's Child 44. Set in Russia, the film follows disgraced MGB agent Leo Demidov (Hardy) as he investigates a series of child murders. Given his character’s heritage, Hardy had to adopt a Russian accent for the film.

Unfortunately it seemed more like a caricature of a Russian accent. It may not been as distracting as some of his other roles, but it certainly is memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Inception

Hardy adopted an upperclass English accent for his role in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which was easily understandable but still a unique take on a voice. His delivery of the line “don’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling” was wonderful though, so we have to give credit where it is due.

Legend

Hardy delivered not one but two outlandish accents in Legend, where he played notorious British gangsters the Kray twins. The actor distinguished his dual roles by having slight variations on the accent, while Ronnie was high pitched and nasally, Reggie had a deeper more suave voice.

If anything, Hardy's accent as Ronnie Kray felt like a continuation of Bane because they are a very similar lilt to their voice, and also the same penchant for reckless violence.

Venom

Hardy has delivered some interesting American accents in his time, but his performance as New Yorker Eddie Brock is most notable because of his dual roles as Eddie and Venom. His voiceover for the alien is deep and brutish, and Eddie couldn't be any more different with his higher-pitched accent.

The Bikeriders

This brings us to The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols drama about outlaw biker gang Vandals MC, Hardy has described his accent as being akin to Bugs Bunny. But the decision was deliberate, he has since revealed.

Watch a behind-the-scenes featurette about The Bikeriders:

Speaking to Variety, Hardy said: "You look straight away at a biker movie and think, ‘Oh, it’s leather. It’s sexy. The music’s great. The hair’s great. The obvious choice is to play to all of these.’ So the obvious choice for somebody like me is to go to the counterpoint of all those. This guy is a tragic clown."

It is certainly an unconventional accent, but when one takes into account the reasoning behind the voice then perhaps it won't be so difficult to look past it.

The Bikeriders premieres in cinemas on Friday, 21 June.