Tatanka

September 11, 2005

I have a Kat in my hotel room, I wish I could send you the photos I took on my cellphone, I spent 4 hrs manually zapping fleas on the bugger and fed him threw him in the bath and we’re like 95% flea free, now went to the super market but they didn’t have no stuff but Raid. So I sprayed the room with this pollutant spray killing anything that falls off him. Gonna get him wormed tomorrow at the pet store. Then we got to find him a home. He shines right now. I call him CJ after the guy in GTA San Andreas. He’s on my mobile phone, plenty of photos, but this new one ain’t set up to send or retrieve photomessaging so I will have to update you with photos when I get back to London. On the way back from the internet cafe yesterday, there’s this kitten in the road, and I’m like: Hey kat whssup? Then I had to double take. That’s a small cat as cats go. It’s prolly like a couple months old max. So I’m like: Hey little fella, and I look about, but no one is looking for this thing. So I stopped and turned round and said: Hey kat, where’s your family? And he’s like: I don’t know. Then he wanders up to me and bang. He’s in my scoop and I’m looking around, I ask a few old ladies: this your cat? A man: this your… nothing, infact the languague barrier lifts with one old lady who speaks no english but I can tell she wishes me well. Infact every girl in town now notices I have a kitten and even though I have a skinhead and baggy pants on, the uniform of the criminal, I am now such a sweet boy with his kitten. I’m like no, you don’t understand, this is not my kitten, this is God’s child I found in the street prolly belongs to some kid who is crying right now, I don’t want kat, even if I did want kat, I can’t have kat, he has no passport, I have a dog who will eat Kat, the responsibility, I am a tourist, I stay at Hilton, this thing is not allowed in the Hilton, so I’m holding this little big prollem. I look at C.J, he looks at me licking his fleabag paws. And says “so where we headed?”…..

We had a mishap on the carpet, but I took the washing powder and cleaned up, with a flannel! I know, but when you’re a man on location you make do with whatever you can.

He also had a little accident on the duvet which p###d me off coz that’s my bed, but he’s like a baby, but cat piss s lethal so I couldn’t tell reception I had kat in the room and I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit to peeing the bed, or sprinkling, what type of man sprinkles the bed? So I poured some coca cola on the sheets got some fresh ones and committed C.J to the bathroom for the night, where he screamed blue murder. You got to know that this cat lay asleep upside down in my lap for four hours being preened. At first he was pissed but as the itches grew less frequent he knew I was helping him out so. bonk lights out snoring feet in the air. We bedded him down in the bathroom, and C.J got lungs man I’m telling you all night he’s like “WoAh WOAH! PLEASE!”

He is now on my bed watching telly, I am at the internet cafe again. The funny thing is I confessed to reception, OK this guy stayed the night I deflead him and dewormed him, so he’s clean…technically 65% lie there but we’ll de worm and deflea tomorrow when the store with the chemicals opens up. I got to find him a home is there like an RSPCA here or something? The girls at reception fall in love with him. He’s all fluffy coz I put him in a bath, I told them they’re like: we can see, really this kat sparkles now. But he doesn’t want to hang out with them, he wants to sit on my shoulder and stare and watch MTV in the room. So anyway, she says, you can keep him in your room, no problem. We can get housekeeping to send something special up. A litter tray Hallelulah!!! That is so cool, now that only happens at really cool places, you know. So C.J and his remaining fleas are lounging on the covers taking calls, watching extreme sports and tomorrow he’s coming to work and we’re going to try and get him rehoused. He is such a dude, and he is very funny and likes to talk a lot, cuddle and sleep, plus he follows me everywhere, talking romanian, I’m like: I live in London, dude, I have no idea what you’re on about, you can’t live with me, we’ll find you someone. Blood and Chocolate is shooting here with Hugh Dancy some werewolf movie, and I told one of the actors yo you might inherit C.J if I can’t find him a home. I got 10 days. So does anyone know anyone in Bucharest that wants an actor’s Kat? Please call the ##### Hilton in ##### they’ll put you through to my room and we’ll get you one Kat! XXXX Tommy

September 12, 2005

C.J has been adopted by the Costume dept at the studio in Romania now so he has a new home which is great. Will send pics! Am in FHM Collections in England at moment. Have a L’uomo Vogue shoot coming out soon I hope. XXX ETH

Thanks for everyone’s concern, I was even looking at trying to ship him out to Carolina! xxx

We're not normally interested in celebrity tittle tattle here on Den Of Geek, but one recent story doing the rounds on Monday really caught our eye. According to several news outlets, Shia LaBeouf (he of Transformers fame) came to blows with actor Tom Hardy on the set of The Wettest County In The World.
In a lengthy interview with Details magazine, LaBeouf said he'd engaged in a tussle with Hardy, and that his opponent "never did that roughhouse stuff with me again."
We recently met with Tom Hardy for a round table interview to promote the forthcoming Warrior, a film about two brothers who fight in a mixed martial arts tournament. We'll be bringing the full transcript of that meeting nearer the movie's release in September, but one thing we can share with you is that Hardy briefly mentioned his encounter with Mr LaBeouf (and this was before LaBeouf's interview came to light).
"I got knocked out by Shia LaBeouf, actually," Hardy said. "In Wettest County, apparently."
At this point, that the atmosphere in the room seemed rather unusual, as though no one involved quite knew whether Hardy was being serious or not. His use of the word ‘apparently' would also suggest that he was winding us up.
Nevertheless, Hardy persisted with his version of what happened.
"[It was] behind the scenes," he said, before being almost drowned out by incredulous laughter, both from me and my fellow hacks, and the row of publicists sitting a short distance behind us.
"No, he did," Hardy continued. "He knocked me out sparko. Out cold. He's a bad, bad boy. He is. He's quite intimidating as well. He's a scary dude."
When someone understandably asked Hardy how the fight started, Hardy was less clear.
"He just attacked me," Hardy said, provoking more laughter. "He was drinking moonshine. I was wearing a cardigan, and er, went down. I woke up in Pnut's arms."
To clarify, Pnut (pronounced Peanut) is Hardy's personal trainer.
The actor continued, "He was concerned for me. I was like, ‘What was that? It was lightning fast.'" And he said, ‘That was Shia.' I said, ‘Fuckin' hell. Can we go home now?' ‘No, we've still got three weeks to finish.'"

Now, if you've seen Hardy's work in Bronson, or the trailer for Warrior, you'll know that he's a fairly well built chap. Is it likely that LaBeouf (who is, shall we say, rather less well built) really knocked out him out? It's certainly the story that Hardy's going with, even if the way he related it suggested that he had his tongue firmly in his cheek.
(Источник denofgeek.com)

In the Cannes Film Festival entry Lawless, Tom Hardy plays a bootlegging brother of Shia LaBeouf who manages to convey the import of an entire monologue with a single, hesitant "um" or "uh." In real life, though, the talkative Hardy is the exact opposite of his character, and in a free-wheeling conversation with Vulture on the Croisette, the British up-and-comer (best known for his roles in Inception, Bronson, and Warrior) was game to discuss just about anything. Read on for Hardy's thoughts on fame, fuck-ups, and future projects like The Dark Knight Rises — where he plays the masked villain Bane — and George Miller's long-in-the-works remake of Mad Max, which will have him taking over the lead role from Mel Gibson.

You always go to great lengths to modify your look and your body shape for a role. What did you want to do for Lawless?
Well, I wanted to be skinny. Skinny, like I am now — maybe a little skinnier. But Batman came in, and then I needed to be bigger. I had six months to train, but there was a three-month period where Lawless was being filmed at that time, so I had to train during Lawless, so that’s why I was physically the size that I was. Luckily, Shia was physically big as well so it kind of worked, but I would have preferred to be more Billy Bob Thornton–sized.

Does that ever take a toll on you, to go from big to small for each movie?
Shifting your weight fucks up your liver! You've got to be careful. It's the end of that for me.

Speaking of changing your look, have you grown out this beard for a role?
Yeah, that’s for Mad Max; that’s in preparation for that.

So Mad Max is actually going to happen now?
I mean, anything could happen.

Well, I don’t want to jinx it.
Neither do I.

You've been compared to Marlon Brando quite a bit, but in the press conference for Lawless earlier, you confessed that you haven't even seen The Godfather, On the Waterfront, or Streetcar Named Desire.
I hadn’t! No, I haven’t seen any of these. I’ve seen Apocalypse Now. I’ve seen Shanghai Teahouse of the Rising Sun, or whatever it’s called, where he plays the Chinaman? [Editor's note: The film is 1956's The Teahouse of the August Moon.]

Which is certainly a questionable casting choice, in retrospect.
But the thing is that it's great, because you go, "Okay, everybody fucks up."

Like Mickey Rooney playing Asian in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Great, though! I mean to say: These are legends, and even legends are fallible. Reach for the stars and catch the moon! If I am duly compared to Marlon Brando at all, well, I can only think of The Teahouse of the Shanghai Noon, that they're comparing me to that! [Laughs.]

So, no plans to Netflix On the Waterfront?
I’m just gonna watch Teahouse again. [Laughs.] No, I've just got to have a sense of humor about it and not take it too seriously, because that’s a big fish to be compared to. It's a very kind and lovely thing to hear, isn't it? That’s the type of thing that my mum would go, “Do you know what they said [about you]?” And I would go, "Can we talk about something else, please?"

When Harvey Weinstein pushed Lawless to the fall, he said that you weren't well-known now, but that you would be a big star by August.
He's riding The Dark Knight Rises! He's not sloppy. He's not a stupid man.

But isn’t any fame you get from that going to be mitigated by the fact that you’re so disguised in that film?
To me, it’s about the characters, it’s about the film, it’s about the process of making stunning visuals and a huge, epic movie. It doesn’t matter if my head was covered in a black plastic bag and I was bouncing around in a space hopper: That's the villain of Chris Nolan's Batman!

What I meant is, with very little exaggeration, almost everyone on earth will see this movie. Does it put you at ease at all that you're unrecognizable in it?
If I fuck it up, you mean?

No, because it's such a big movie, and it carries with it a whole other level of potential fame.
And people won't recognize me because I have a mask on in it? Is that what you mean?

Yeah.
I haven’t thought about it. Because I’m not famous in my head. Like, you aren’t.

No, I’m not.
So I suppose I think very similarly to you. If people start treating me differently, then maybe I’ll start to treat them differently! I hope that every engagement is just as amicable as it normally is. Maybe it's a little ambitious of me to presume that no matter how big the film is, that I can always go down to the shop to buy a pint of milk. I don’t think that anything should really be allowed to interfere with that, and it would be silly of me not to make the effort to go down to the shop to buy a pint of milk because I thought I was too big or too famous to do that. And it's certainly not a lesson that I want to give to my son! Fame and stuff like that is all very cool, but at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. Although what I do is incredibly surreal and fun and amazing and I’m really grateful for it, I don’t believe my own press release, do you know what I mean?

That’s wise. And at least you know you can always grow that beard again if you need to go down to the corner shop undetected.
And I fucking will as well!

How long did it take to grow that out?
Five months. And I’ve already trimmed it a lot, because people are saying it's grizzly.

Which people?
Oh, I'm a terrible reader of the Internet and stuff like that.

And you read what people say about you?
Yeah, 'cause in my head, I’m still not famous. It's like, "Hey, I'm on this site!" Or [to my fiancée], "Look at what we were wearing last night! And everyone says you look great." And then someone will say, "Tom Hardy is a cunt because … " What? WHAT?

And then do you reply anonymously?
Yes, sometimes! Wouldn't you? Sometimes no one’s defending my corner! And then what you find — I've done it before — is that it’s a forest fire that you can’t put out. It's like [when commenters say], "Is he gay? Isn’t he gay?" Does it matter? Does it actually?

I think people just admire honesty in a star, because they’re not used to getting it in an age where everything is so PR-managed.
Mmm, well it won’t be [like this] when China rolls on us in fifteen years and we’ll all have to speak Cantonese. Then people will have to grow the fuck up, won’t they? Up to a trillion dollars in debt, then we actually realize that we really are in debt and that China’s a major creditor, Brazil's got the fastest-growing economy and so does Russia … things is a-changin'!

Don’t go out and say that in front of the Chinese Pavilion on the Croisette.
There’s nothing wrong with that! There’s more people in China than there are here. Who are we to stand in the way of what God wants, or whatever your concept of that is? No man can stop a tidal wave. "Thou shalt not pass"? Of course not! "I’m a tidal wave! Fuck you!" [Laughs.] It’s not personal, buddy, do you know what I mean? It’s just the rise and collapse of civilizations! History has had several thousand of them. Whatever, you face the fucking fear and you face it head on. Because it's going to happen anyway, and it’s not a bad thing! It’s called evolution. How's your Cantonese?

Terrible. I can say "Nei hao," and that's about it.
Jeez, you're doing better than I am.

Your Dark Knight Rises co-star Christian Bale recently made a movie in China.
Oh yeah. Awful. I'm not commenting. I love Christian.

You recently attached yourself to Cicero, where you'll play Al Capone for director David Yates.
I’m really excited about it. The thing about me is, I have a job to do right now and I always focus on my next one. The thing I have to do right now is Mad Max, but I'm looking over the top going, "And Al Capone is over there!" And they say, "Tom, you've got to do Mad Max first."

Like how you saw Dark Knight Rises coming over the hill while filming Lawless.
Absolutely. When I used to drink — I don’t drink anymore — I used to buy a beer for myself and I’d put another one in the tap for afterwards. I could drink this beer knowing full well that I have the next one waiting for me in the tap — I’d never want to be without a spare, you know what I'm saying? I'd always have five bills in my back pocket, I always had a pistol secreted somewhere, and a beer in the tap!

And now in your career, you have that security.
Psychologically, yeah. I’ve got this one here, and that job there, and if that one falls through, then I’ve got this one here. But I can always teach, or just be a dad, you know? Because you know what? My son would really like to see me.

Is he here at Cannes?
No, he’s at home with his mum and his new sister. But if this all falls apart today, which it can, then I had a good crack at it. I’ve been very fortunate and lucky, and I did what I said I was going to do. I could go home and teach.

Well, I don’t think all this is going to fall through for you.
It doesn’t matter if it does, though, and that’s the difference between really wanting something to be, and just, like, trying to be part of something. Before, I was drinking this one to get to that one. Now I know I’ve got that one, and I don't need to drink it. When you ask me about Al Capone, I've gotta concentrate on this one. [Laughs.] Although actually, apart from the beard, I’m still a long ways away from getting on the floor with Mad Max.

I'm crossing my fingers that it'll finally happen.
I am as well. I'm terrified. I think I might have bitten off much more than I can chew.

I think you'll be fine.
I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see.

Then I had to interview him. Fresh off associating him with this character and all those really hot attributes only in person, now that he’s lean again, having lost the Bane bulk and in the process of slimming down for Mad Max (that’s what the beard is for), well now it’s just not fair. After all, the challenge is attracting your mind; the physical draw is easy. He was wearing a green t-shirt and jeans that hang off good narrow hips. At one point he walked past me down the hall and I smelled fresh laundry. When I walked into our interview space he was muttering to himself, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes. When he looked up I promised I wouldn’t torture him. He was like, oh no love, I just talk too much and they’re saying we’re running long. Gotta keep my answers shorter. Five minutes, five minutes...

We ended up going seven.

You get him on something and he’ll just...talk. In my case it was about how he interpreted his character like an “old lesbian”, playing house on set where he and Jessica became like the parents of the bigger family, and the dog they adopted together. He’s called Woodstock. Tom got custody and he lives with him in London. And then he went on about how Woodstock is home probably tearing shit apart. And he couldn’t stop himself then, laughing about his goofy, messy dog.

Come on. At this point I feel like it was out of my hands.

I mean...

I can’t...

I can’t even...

How can you???