Tom Hardy has opened up about a devastating health issue, saying that his body is "falling to bits."
In a candid and surprisingly relatable interview with Esquire, the 47-year-old Dark Knight Rises and Inception star laid it all out, revealing that years of physically demanding roles and intense training have taken a serious toll.
“I got dizzy today,” Hardy confessed. “I took a Sudafed and it’s starting to work, so I feel better, but in the interviews I was sitting there, and you know when you feel not right, but you can’t tell someone you don’t feel right?”
He even joked about potentially passing out mid-interview, before diving into the laundry list of injuries he’s been dealing with.
“I’ve had two knee surgeries now, my disc’s herniated in my back, I’ve got sciatica as well,” he revealed. “And I have that… is it plantar fasciitis? Where did that come from? And why? Why?!”
Add a pulled tendon in his hip to that list, and it’s clear Hardy’s not sugarcoating the realities of middle age.
“It’s like, it’s all falling to bits now, and it’s not going to get better,” he said.
While Hardy hasn’t ruled out trying new medical treatments to keep going, he’s not jumping in blindly either. When asked if he’d consider stem cell therapy, he replied: “Probably, yeah.”
“I think if it comes down to the wire and it seems the sensible thing to do and I take advice,” he added. He’s also dabbling in alternative medicine, mentioning “custom homeopathic treatments like tinctures.”
And just to set the scene, Hardy hilariously described the setting of the interview itself: “This is the biopsy of where we’re at: two vapes, somebody else’s clothes, and a hotel room that neither of us feels comfortable in!”
Despite the ailments, Hardy hasn’t let go of his commitment to staying fit — especially through Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a sport he’s grown passionate about.
“I did the posturing bit of boxing and hitting mitts, and trying to be a bloke,” he said. “But ultimately I was sort of scared of blokes, because there’s so many of them, and there’s always one stronger than you.”
He continued: “You know, somehow you’re supposed to be able to look after yourself in this wicked world, but in a numbers game it’s not possible to be the strongest.
"So eventually I was like, ‘Just have a go, who cares who wins.’ And of course I care who wins, but you spend the first couple of years trying to forget it. You’re not winning anything. It’s very humiliating, in the right way.”
Now a purple belt, Hardy has embraced the painful but empowering reality of the sport.
“It’s about stopping your opponent. They submit to defeat, or you choke them, shutting off the carotid artery so the blood doesn’t go to the brain,” he explained.
“But once you isolate a limb — an arm or a leg — and put pressure through the joint, and it’s correctly applied, you needn’t go any further. It’s a fait accompli. It’s done. You are done. Only your ego will take you any further.”