“Captain America” may yet be a game-changer in the world of actor preparation, but so far 2012 seems to prove that the exception isn’t yet the rule. The media has been glutted with stories about actors bulking up or slimming down ranging from Anne Hathaway’s crash diet of hummus and radishes to Andrew Garfield channeling the spirit of Bruce Lee to transform into Spider-Man. The magic of digital technology convinced audiences that Chris Evans was a skinny little 1940s version of a nerd before becoming a massive wall of muscle. Technology may one day make the efforts of bodily reinvention obsolete, but in the meantime Tom Hardy presents a fascinating challenge to that potential future.
Hardy was hardly what you’d call a skinny little geek at any point in his acting career, but the 30 pounds he gained to play Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises” have the effect of making him look like he put on more than that. Hardy’s musculature is visibly palpable and it needs to be. While one can certainly argue that Hathaway’s drastic weight loss to play sickly Fantine in “Les Miserables” could certainly have been pulled off using digital editing, the situation seems significantly different in Hardy’s case.
The character of Bane is supposed to be physically intimidating. Casting an actor without obviously bulging muscles would be so detrimental to the authenticity of the film that it could completely destroy the suspension of belief. Just like Robert DeNiro absolutely needed to sculpt his body into a muscular representation of a middleweight boxer in order to make audiences believe he was not just an athlete but an athlete famously capable of intimidating more talented opponents, so did Hardy need to transform into a figure of menace.
Certain roles require a physicality that helps them to connect with a character’s psychopathology. Physical stature can and does have an effect on personality and behavior. When a person actually builds muscle, he tends to carry himself differently and many even come to think differently. A transformation of self-awareness can occur that isn’t going to be there when you are dependent on digital trickery to pack on the muscle. For this reason, the need for Tom Hardy to change his body seems more necessary than some other cases of actors gaining or losing weight.
Heath Ledger’s Joker was Batman’s superior in terms of intelligence. The Joker proved capable of outwitting Batman as well as possessing a higher level of philosophical critical thinking skills. Having created a character that was smarter than Batman, “The Dark Knight Rises” needed an antagonist who was stronger than Batman. What makes Batman the ultimate superhero is that he is 100% human at all times and therefore things like alien DNA or cultural ignorance or the effects of mutation cannot affect his ability to experience fear. Bane has to be able to instill fear into Bruce Wayne in order to be a truly imposing figure.
And that aspect of personality is not something that can be done as realistically with technology as it can be done with old-school weights in a gym quite yet.
For more from Timothy Sexton, check out:
Was Anne Hathaway Reckless for Revealing Details of Her Drastic Weight Loss
John Cusack, Anne Hathaway and the Legacy of Robert DeNiro’s Weight Gain
