![Some highlights from a new article at Collider. Lots of gems from Tom: he has no friends and his pinky was injured in a trapeze mishap. :D
*Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler and Director McG Talk THIS MEANS WAR*
….
Tom, the two guys remain friends through a lot of really strong stuff. For you personally, what could a friend do to you that would be the last straw?
HARDY: I don’t have any friends. I don’t keep them or entertain them so I don’t have any kind of problem. I like to keep to myself. I have a dog at home and a son.
What would your dog do?
HARDY: My dog couldn’t do anything to upset me and neither could my son.
What’s your take on internet dating, and in this day and age, do you really want to do it? Do you relate to dating two at one time and do you recommend that for a guy?
WITHERSPOON: For a guy? I don’t have any recommendations for a guy. For a girl? I think a lot of people internet date. That’s what the commercials say. Right? One in five people meet each other online.
HARDY: Where are you supposed to meet someone?
WITHERSPOON: Online.
McG: I know. At least you can say “Hey I’m really into going to bed at 9 o’clock and I like zebras and role playing.” And then, you can get after it in that regard and you narrow it down to some freak.
WITHERSPOON: Get after it.
HARDY: Narrow it down.
Do you think internet dating two at once is okay?
HARDY: I think it’s abhorrent. I think the whole thing is abhorrent. I think online dating is a way of procuring people. Like Facebook and Myspace, it’s the way that people connect now and procure small children and sometimes dodgy relationships. I don’t think it’s very healthy. Online dating is cool but I think Myspace and Facebook is a little bit off key.
Tom, you and Chris have a great rapport in this. Was that there from the beginning? Did you rehearse a lot?
HARDY: No, that was just acting. I’m very alpha and he was just the other actor in the film so I did my best to help and to accommodate that.
Really?
HARDY: Yeah. I was playing with him. It was just acting.
McG: I think put simply, there’s a great old Robert Altman adage that the best thing you can do as a director is to cast the film properly. If you have Reese and you have Tom and you have Chris driving that triangle and then you have Chelsea to come in and steal scenes, it makes everything very, very simple and it flows from there. We talk about how the picture is so pretty and the costuming or the sound or the explosions are fun. That’s all easy. We can handle that. But I cannot fabricate chemistry. And the chemistry these two girls have from a place of buddy dynamics. I would just listen to them walking back to video village and go let’s cherrypick that and use that in a scene because it’s incredible. And, as far as the chemistry that Tom and Chris had, they are indeed both very alpha and they respect each other, but one would never acquiesce to the other.
HARDY: No!
McG: It was a healthy, competitive spirit that I think is in the service of the picture.
HARDY: Yeah, but I do really like him so I was just teasing. He was good fun to play with. I wouldn’t work with him again, but that fear that we were working together, that was good. Yeah! Next question!
…
Reese, out of all the dates that your character goes on, what were some of the most fun for you to shoot?
WITHERSPOON: I would say probably, and I think Tom (Hardy) would agree, the trapeze scene. He practiced for at least a month ahead of time.
HARDY: It’s true I did.
WITHERSPOON: He did. He rehearsed and sometimes he’d just go out of his way, and he’d get up super early in the morning, and he had a trapeze installed in his hotel room.
McG: It was all that Burt Lancaster viewing.
HARDY: Yes, I couldn’t have pulled it off because I have a little finger which is a bit broke from a…. [reveals his crooked finger]
WITHERSPOON: That’s actually a trapeze accident.
HARDY: Yeah. It got caught. I was on a chain trapeze at the time and I caught it in one of the links. I lost my grip and I fell and it pulled my finger. It was terrible. It took a lot of guts to get back on the trapeze and I thank you.
WITHERSPOON: And hypnosis.
HARDY: Forgive me.
WITHERSPOON: But he did a great job. We’re very proud of him.
HARDY: I also want to thank McG for that.
WITHERSPOON: MacG.
HARDY: MacG.
Reese, you get to do some action in this and it looks like it was lots of fun. Did that give you a taste for doing a lot more? Or was it like I don’t want to do this again?
WITHERSPOON: No, it was really fun. I wish I could’ve done more. I kept saying to McG, “Give me the gun. Make up a scene where I can do the guns.”
McG: Yeah, but she was in a harness and raised fifty feet off the ground, hanging from a wire. You ripped your finger wide open. You went for it. She’s fearless and she did her thing. The film had a lot to do with everybody to some degree being gracious to the other one, and I think what you see is it’s no doubt that Reese is a very gracious actor and she sets up Chelsea to steal a lot of scenes. That’s wonderful. Tom is in the service of Chris and Chris is in the service of Tom. And, from an action place, the boys are very proficient in that regard and they took Reese with them. But, from a place of leadership, as I said earlier, Reese was the sun around which the whole production orbits. It’s her leadership. She’s just on her mark, very professional and ready to go. That’s how you get away with Chelsea’s style. I know she says “I don’t prep. I don’t do this, that or the other,” but from the bottom of my heart, I wouldn’t want it any other way. We hired Chelsea for a reason. I don’t think she’s done that character in a film yet. I think a lot of people are going to chase her now to do it, and I’m delighted that you made your big debut in that capacity. I’m looking down there at Tom. He’s a good sport to play along in a decidedly Americana pop film. The guy is a monster. We know what he can do with his acting ability.
WITHERSPOON: In a good way!
HARDY: (kidding) It was monstrous acting!
McG: Well we all saw Bronson. We all saw Warrior. We know he’s going to be Mad Max and here comes Bane. I turned onto Tom with the Handsome Bob character and most particularly from just discussing filmmaking with you and knowing that you had a very active mind, and you’re a brilliant guy, and we could show the world a side of you that they hadn’t seen before.
Reese, was there anything stunt-wise that McG wanted you to do that you didn’t want to do?
WITHERSPOON: No, not really.
McG: She’s fearless. She’s given birth twice. She can do anything.
With a film like this, you basically have five options for the end of a love triangle. Did you give yourself some wiggle room to choose that ending?
McG: Yeah, I think the film only works if you’re rooting for both the guys. I defer to the room. Did you feel empathy for both characters? Did you go out saying “I really like Pine and I really like Hardy. They’re both interesting for different reasons.” We wanted to have flexibility. We even talked about two endings and releasing it … I mean, if it were on 3,000 screens, 1,500 have this one and 1,500 have that one, and just not saying anything. But, it felt a little gimmicky in the end, because I think the film’s very clean in the absence of that, so we went with what you guys have seen. There’s even an ending where the two boys end up in each other’s arms, a homoerotic finish.
HARDY: It would have really been a groundbreaking ending to do that.
McG: It would have.
HARDY: We should have gone for it. We should have really gone for it, McG.
McG: I know, I know. I pussed down on the ending of Terminator 4 so I should have gone for the dark ending of that one. Maybe I’ll do a dark ending on this one.
Tom, can you tell us about the fight scenes that you had with Chris Pine and if there were any injuries and how well you handled it?
HARDY: There were two fight scenes really, weren’t there? There was one in the restaurant and the rest of it was just hanging onto a car…and the beginning with the helicopter.
McG: I think she means when you fought him.
HARDY: Oh, it was good fun. Chris is a good fighter. He’s got this kind of jazz hand style which is kind of scary. It’s like going up against someone from Westside Story. You’ve gotta keep your eyes well peeled because they can come from any angle, especially when you have that much of the dancer naturally in you. So, to work with that kind of skill set, I have because I’m more used to a different kind of form of boxing – Muay Thai. I had to look out for myself because he’s got fast hands. But it was safe.
McG: There was a fun moment where… Listen, again, Tom is very gracious. You know from the fight scene at the end, he goes “Where you going?” and you smacked the hell out of Chris’s character.
HARDY: I smacked him in the face.
McG: And that was a big moment because you can’t hurt Tom. You can throw him off a truck and you just kind of tumble along and you bend the other finger.
HARDY: That’s not true. It hurts but I won’t show it.
McG: And we had to create a world in which everybody was comfortable moving forward with that and smacking each other up a little bit and falling off second tiers and smashing into tables and doing everything you went through. But he’s a fighter by trade.
HARDY: Obviously Chris is much better with a weapon than I am. If you look at him technically in the film, he’s actually much more adroit with the pistol work and the weapons, if the truth be told. And, he’s a lot tougher than he looks.
McG: That’s for sure.
HARDY: If that even matters, which it does in a row [fight].](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzes4cKthd1qde7iyo1_500.jpg)
this means war tom hardy reese witherspoon chris pine mcg press collider.com w. 56 notes
Some highlights from a new article at Collider. Lots of gems from Tom: he has no friends and his pinky was injured in a trapeze mishap. :D
*Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler and Director McG Talk THIS MEANS WAR*
….
Tom, the two guys remain friends through a lot of really strong stuff. For you personally, what could a friend do to you that would be the last straw?
HARDY: I don’t have any friends. I don’t keep them or entertain them so I don’t have any kind of problem. I like to keep to myself. I have a dog at home and a son.
What would your dog do?
HARDY: My dog couldn’t do anything to upset me and neither could my son.
What’s your take on internet dating, and in this day and age, do you really want to do it? Do you relate to dating two at one time and do you recommend that for a guy?
WITHERSPOON: For a guy? I don’t have any recommendations for a guy. For a girl? I think a lot of people internet date. That’s what the commercials say. Right? One in five people meet each other online.
HARDY: Where are you supposed to meet someone?
WITHERSPOON: Online.
McG: I know. At least you can say “Hey I’m really into going to bed at 9 o’clock and I like zebras and role playing.” And then, you can get after it in that regard and you narrow it down to some freak.
WITHERSPOON: Get after it.
HARDY: Narrow it down.
Do you think internet dating two at once is okay?
HARDY: I think it’s abhorrent. I think the whole thing is abhorrent. I think online dating is a way of procuring people. Like Facebook and Myspace, it’s the way that people connect now and procure small children and sometimes dodgy relationships. I don’t think it’s very healthy. Online dating is cool but I think Myspace and Facebook is a little bit off key.
Tom, you and Chris have a great rapport in this. Was that there from the beginning? Did you rehearse a lot?
HARDY: No, that was just acting. I’m very alpha and he was just the other actor in the film so I did my best to help and to accommodate that.
Really?
HARDY: Yeah. I was playing with him. It was just acting.
McG: I think put simply, there’s a great old Robert Altman adage that the best thing you can do as a director is to cast the film properly. If you have Reese and you have Tom and you have Chris driving that triangle and then you have Chelsea to come in and steal scenes, it makes everything very, very simple and it flows from there. We talk about how the picture is so pretty and the costuming or the sound or the explosions are fun. That’s all easy. We can handle that. But I cannot fabricate chemistry. And the chemistry these two girls have from a place of buddy dynamics. I would just listen to them walking back to video village and go let’s cherrypick that and use that in a scene because it’s incredible. And, as far as the chemistry that Tom and Chris had, they are indeed both very alpha and they respect each other, but one would never acquiesce to the other.
HARDY: No!
McG: It was a healthy, competitive spirit that I think is in the service of the picture.
HARDY: Yeah, but I do really like him so I was just teasing. He was good fun to play with. I wouldn’t work with him again, but that fear that we were working together, that was good. Yeah! Next question!
…
Reese, out of all the dates that your character goes on, what were some of the most fun for you to shoot?
WITHERSPOON: I would say probably, and I think Tom (Hardy) would agree, the trapeze scene. He practiced for at least a month ahead of time.
HARDY: It’s true I did.
WITHERSPOON: He did. He rehearsed and sometimes he’d just go out of his way, and he’d get up super early in the morning, and he had a trapeze installed in his hotel room.
McG: It was all that Burt Lancaster viewing.
HARDY: Yes, I couldn’t have pulled it off because I have a little finger which is a bit broke from a…. [reveals his crooked finger]
WITHERSPOON: That’s actually a trapeze accident.
HARDY: Yeah. It got caught. I was on a chain trapeze at the time and I caught it in one of the links. I lost my grip and I fell and it pulled my finger. It was terrible. It took a lot of guts to get back on the trapeze and I thank you.
WITHERSPOON: And hypnosis.
HARDY: Forgive me.
WITHERSPOON: But he did a great job. We’re very proud of him.
HARDY: I also want to thank McG for that.
WITHERSPOON: MacG.
HARDY: MacG.
Reese, you get to do some action in this and it looks like it was lots of fun. Did that give you a taste for doing a lot more? Or was it like I don’t want to do this again?
WITHERSPOON: No, it was really fun. I wish I could’ve done more. I kept saying to McG, “Give me the gun. Make up a scene where I can do the guns.”
McG: Yeah, but she was in a harness and raised fifty feet off the ground, hanging from a wire. You ripped your finger wide open. You went for it. She’s fearless and she did her thing. The film had a lot to do with everybody to some degree being gracious to the other one, and I think what you see is it’s no doubt that Reese is a very gracious actor and she sets up Chelsea to steal a lot of scenes. That’s wonderful. Tom is in the service of Chris and Chris is in the service of Tom. And, from an action place, the boys are very proficient in that regard and they took Reese with them. But, from a place of leadership, as I said earlier, Reese was the sun around which the whole production orbits. It’s her leadership. She’s just on her mark, very professional and ready to go. That’s how you get away with Chelsea’s style. I know she says “I don’t prep. I don’t do this, that or the other,” but from the bottom of my heart, I wouldn’t want it any other way. We hired Chelsea for a reason. I don’t think she’s done that character in a film yet. I think a lot of people are going to chase her now to do it, and I’m delighted that you made your big debut in that capacity. I’m looking down there at Tom. He’s a good sport to play along in a decidedly Americana pop film. The guy is a monster. We know what he can do with his acting ability.
WITHERSPOON: In a good way!
HARDY: (kidding) It was monstrous acting!
McG: Well we all saw Bronson. We all saw Warrior. We know he’s going to be Mad Max and here comes Bane. I turned onto Tom with the Handsome Bob character and most particularly from just discussing filmmaking with you and knowing that you had a very active mind, and you’re a brilliant guy, and we could show the world a side of you that they hadn’t seen before.
Reese, was there anything stunt-wise that McG wanted you to do that you didn’t want to do?
WITHERSPOON: No, not really.
McG: She’s fearless. She’s given birth twice. She can do anything.
With a film like this, you basically have five options for the end of a love triangle. Did you give yourself some wiggle room to choose that ending?
McG: Yeah, I think the film only works if you’re rooting for both the guys. I defer to the room. Did you feel empathy for both characters? Did you go out saying “I really like Pine and I really like Hardy. They’re both interesting for different reasons.” We wanted to have flexibility. We even talked about two endings and releasing it … I mean, if it were on 3,000 screens, 1,500 have this one and 1,500 have that one, and just not saying anything. But, it felt a little gimmicky in the end, because I think the film’s very clean in the absence of that, so we went with what you guys have seen. There’s even an ending where the two boys end up in each other’s arms, a homoerotic finish.
HARDY: It would have really been a groundbreaking ending to do that.
McG: It would have.
HARDY: We should have gone for it. We should have really gone for it, McG.
McG: I know, I know. I pussed down on the ending of Terminator 4 so I should have gone for the dark ending of that one. Maybe I’ll do a dark ending on this one.
Tom, can you tell us about the fight scenes that you had with Chris Pine and if there were any injuries and how well you handled it?
HARDY: There were two fight scenes really, weren’t there? There was one in the restaurant and the rest of it was just hanging onto a car…and the beginning with the helicopter.
McG: I think she means when you fought him.
HARDY: Oh, it was good fun. Chris is a good fighter. He’s got this kind of jazz hand style which is kind of scary. It’s like going up against someone from Westside Story. You’ve gotta keep your eyes well peeled because they can come from any angle, especially when you have that much of the dancer naturally in you. So, to work with that kind of skill set, I have because I’m more used to a different kind of form of boxing – Muay Thai. I had to look out for myself because he’s got fast hands. But it was safe.
McG: There was a fun moment where… Listen, again, Tom is very gracious. You know from the fight scene at the end, he goes “Where you going?” and you smacked the hell out of Chris’s character.
HARDY: I smacked him in the face.
McG: And that was a big moment because you can’t hurt Tom. You can throw him off a truck and you just kind of tumble along and you bend the other finger.
HARDY: That’s not true. It hurts but I won’t show it.
McG: And we had to create a world in which everybody was comfortable moving forward with that and smacking each other up a little bit and falling off second tiers and smashing into tables and doing everything you went through. But he’s a fighter by trade.
HARDY: Obviously Chris is much better with a weapon than I am. If you look at him technically in the film, he’s actually much more adroit with the pistol work and the weapons, if the truth be told. And, he’s a lot tougher than he looks.
McG: That’s for sure.
HARDY: If that even matters, which it does in a row [fight].
