Look, I don't give a fuck about James Bond. I am not part of that discourse. It's like the royal family - it's just there, I don't hate it, it's part of my childhood, but it's not lovable or interesting.
But, with rumours that the next Bond will be Tom Hardy, I must say - really? That sounds like a really wrong-headed decision.
If there's one thing Tom Hardy can't play it's what he is, an upper-class Englishman. His speaking voice is the apotheosis of the West London private school boy early 90s, don't quite know where to put it, dropped consonant, hip hop faux everything - I heard 'em all (including, for shame, my own, for a wee while) but most find their way back to, or through to, a default speaking voice that makes some sense, but Hardy, for all the lives he's lived and voices he's inhabited (and a little like Christian Bale though Bale seems to finally have got back to something solid), Hardy's never quite worked out how to get back to a natural speaking voice.
For me, Hardy is jarringly not-good in the likes of 'Inception' and 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', as he was in the NT restoration comedy 'The Man of Mode', when he was meant to be the charismatic, roistering hero Dorimant.
He is excellent playing extremes, putting on a show - 'Legend' as the Krays, 'Mad Max', 'Bronson', Alfie Solomons in 'Peaky Blinders' - all great fun. He is also very good at putting on an accent and playing quiet, inconspicuous men with secrets - 'The Drop', and his best ever performance, on screen, driving a car, throughout the film in 'Locke'. He is really excellent in that. If he plays Bond as a quiet and unassuming Welshman, maybe they're on to something.
I'm actually coming round to thinking it might be good. He must know, they must know, what he's good at. They must have an idea for a completely different Bond. If it's just more brooding sensitive tough Daniel Craig stuff, or anything like suave Moore/Brosnan stuff, I really think he'll be dreadful at it.
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