‘MobLand’s’ Tom Hardy Talks Playing Tough Guys & Jokes About His Range (Exclusive)

Tom Hardy and Joanne Froggatt chatted with “Extra’s” Mark Wright about “MobLand” Season 2. 

The show centers on the Harrigans and the Stevensons, two feuding crime families in London. Tom plays Harry Da Souza, a fixer working for matriarch Maeve Harrigan (Dame Helen Mirren) and her relatives. Joanne plays Harry’s wife Jan Da Souza.

They talked about Jan stabbing Harry at the end of Season 1, with Tom saying, “She’s clearly upset, isn’t she?… She’s now crossed the lexicon from being an argument into, ‘Actually, I could die.’ So I’m not gonna hold that against Jan.”

Laughing, he added, “We do need an ambulance and babysitters and maybe someone to feed the dog ’cause I won't be back for a couple of weeks."

Joanne said Jan is “having a bit of an existential crisis and a midlife crisis and she’s just kind of floundering, really. So, she ends up doing some pretty reckless stuff in Season 2."

Tom also spoke about playing tough-guy characters, saying, “I think as it pertains specifically anything to do with being characters that, in some aspects, are intimidating or aggressive or seemingly dangerous… I hyperfocus on things that I’m scared of, if that makes sense or make my nervous system feel a certain way, and I mimic it. Acting is just a mimetic art. So, I copy things that I’ve seen and studied and then hope that that works.”

He said he gets “super focused on things that have been compelling. And when I get into a canon of interests, then it’s probably why I keep playing the same types over and over again.” 

Joanne insisted, “I don't think they are the same!”

Tom laughed, saying, “You’ve got range. I don't have the same kind of range. We’ve talked about that, haven’t we? Yours is far superior to my range.”

He joked that Bane from “The Dark Knight” was in the “same range.”

Continuing to laugh, he said, “Just a silly voice, but muscles, bald head, angry bloke — another gangster.”

Mark asked if Tom brought in his past experience playing twin mobsters Ronnie and Reggie in “Legends” to his “MobLand” character.

On a more serious note, Hardy said, “I would be remiss not to collect information along the journey that would be usable within the crime genre of studies that I’ve done before. So, there will be residue of all of those.” 

Joanne said she is enjoying trying something new after playing her beloved “Downton Abbey” character Anna Bates.

“I love it,” she said, adding with a laugh, “The vocab’s pretty different.”

She added, “I’ve always, always wanted to do something in the gangster genre… and to get to work with Guy [Ritchie] has just always been on the bucket list. So, when I got the role, I was just super excited.”

Their fellow “MobLand” co-stars Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan also sat down with Mark to chat about the season. Helen spoke about the “peacefulness” of working with Pierce, while Pierce also had lots of praise for Helen. Watch!