Tom Hardy is one of those actors that you kinda love in everything he’s in, but you can’t quite shake the feeling that, in real life, he might just be a bit of a jobbie.
Acting is essentially standing where the director tells you to stand, looking where the director tells you to look, wearing clothes somebody else has picked out for you, pretending to be a character somebody else has created, while reading out lines somebody else wrote. Nobody should take it as seriously as some do. It is a deeply silly way to earn a living.
Hardy comes across as if he takes it all seriously. Really, really, seriously. This seriousness might have gotten young Tom into a spot of bother on his smash hit TV show MobLand.
The British crime drama on Paramount+ stars Hardy as Harry Da Souza, a fixer for the Harrigan crime family led by Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve Harrigan (Helen Mirren). It was easily one of the best things on TV last year. MobLand was the second-most-watched show on Paramount+. A second season has just wrapped, and yesterday the internet exploded with news that Hardy had been fired from the show.
A report on Puck News broke the story, alleging that Hardy had been told not to return for season 3 following on-set disagreements with executive producer Jez Butterworth, production company 101 Studios, and others in the production team. These issues reportedly included serial lateness and attempts to give notes and change the dialogue.
It turns out that the story, as told online, might not be totally accurate. A follow-up report in The Hollywood Reporter says that Hardy has not been fired, but there are discussions underway to resolve the issue, and Hardy still might be asked to walk ahead of a planned but not yet ordered third season.
