‘Venom’ Star Tom Hardy Reveals His Worst Injury ‘Took Me to the Floor’

Tom Hardy is coming back to the big screen as one half of everybody’s favorite predatory antihero, and this time, fans can’t wait to see how the story plays out. The introduction of the iconic villain, Carnage, into Venom’s story is an important step to bringing the beloved Symbiote to life. Though Covid-19 did create a slightly longer delay between 2018’s Venom and this year’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage than either producers or fans would have liked, everybody’s ready to see Tom Hardy back onscreen as both Eddie Brock for more adventures with Marvel’s favorite dysfunctional couple.

Tom Hardy as Venom

In his debut performance as Eddie Brock, Hardy delivered an origin story for the Venom Symbiote that had breathtaking effects but still suffered from some snags and an overall lack of Spider-Man in many critics’ eyes. The stories of Venom and Spider-Man are always deeply entangled, and the lack of the webslinger made Venom feel like it was missing a critical ingredient.

Still, fans loved the film, and it currently sits at an 81% “Fresh” on audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were less friendly to the film though with an overall 30% rating from the professionals.

Victor Pineyro went so far as to write, “Predictable and repeated story. Venom without Spider-Man is lame.” While most fans were able to overlook the fact that the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was missing, the critic continued, “The film relapses into the absurd and gives us 0 connection between Eddie Brock and Venom.”

That’s a pretty stinging insult for a Venom story, as the central themes of Eddie and Venom’s stories are always about the intense connection and, for lack of a better word, love between the two of them. Venom has always been as much of a story about imperfect individuals still finding soul mates as it is about Venom making his body into cool shapes and eating bad guys.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage has a chance to flesh out that part of the story for the characters. Unburdened by the origin story, the trailer makes it look like it may take a more critical look at the interpersonal issues between the two characters alongside the major task of fighting Carnage.

While there’s no easy cure for a lack of Spider-Man in Venom films, hope may be on the horizon. Disney and Sony have been playing nicer with sharing characters, and some rumors indicate that Tom Hardy’s hopeful of Spidey showing up with Venom in the future.

The onscreen tough guy gets laid low

Venom certainly isn’t the first tough guy that Tom Hardy has played on screen. The actor’s credits on IMDb look like a list of the toughest guys in fiction, and he’s certainly mastered the ability to be authentic yet still intimidating onscreen since his breakout in 2010’s Inception.

Films like Mad Max, Bronson, and Lawless have seen him accomplish huge feats of strength and overcome unbeatable odds onscreen, often doing many of his own stunts. For an actor with such a hardened professional experience and dreams of taking time off as a Hollywood tough guy to focus more on his Brazilian Jujutsu, it’s ironic that his biggest injury would come from somewhere that he never would have expected.

In an interview with Esquire, the actor once discussed how on the set of Bronson, he first experienced what a kick to the balls felt like. “I was arse-naked with six guys pretending to kick the shit out of me in a cage. Bam, bam, bam… and this one guy kicks me in the testicles. It was full impact,” the star recalled in the interview. “I saw my testicles go up, inside my arsehole, and then come back out. Time slows down when shit happens that’s serious. I thought, ‘Jesus, I’m going to pass out…’ Nothing happened. I didn’t feel anything. I must have these super-testicles.”

While that may make Hardy seem like he is every bit the superman that he often plays in films, that wouldn’t be the worst injury of his career. “One day I was changing the nappy of my son,” Hardy remembered, ‘I was like, ‘Come on…’ and he brought his heel down — and clipped the top of my left testicle. It took me to the fucking floor, man.”

‘Let There Be Carnage’

Venom, like Tom Hardy apparently, is also seemingly indestructible when he’s down to business, but surprisingly vulnerable when he’s around those he loves and cares about. While it’s probably true that fans probably missed Spider-Man showing up in Venom as much as critics did, Venom is an important and very deep character who can be so much more than just a prop for Spidey.

The story of Venom has always been about him and Eddie Brock, their relationship, and how they make each other better. Before fans see arguably the most beloved superhero of all time come in and steal the show, Hardy deserves every chance to make Brock and Venom compelling and enjoyable characters in their own right.

Fans probably shouldn’t rule out seeing the webslinger in the franchise yet, but with Hardy both starring in and writing the upcoming installment, hopefully, Venom can stand as something unique on his own in the landscape of Marvel film, without his signature hero.

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