The Three Surprising Celebs That Inspired Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock In Venom
2018's "Venom" serves as an origin story about how reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) became bonded with a symbiote after it arrived on Earth via meteor along with a few others of its kind before being captured by the Life Foundation and its founder, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Brock bonds with the Venom symbiote while attempting to write a piece on Drake in an effort to expose him and the Life Foundation's off-the-books schemes. After defeating Drake at the end of the film, we see Brock visit serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) for an interview, leading us into the events of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," where a piece of symbiote from Venom creates Carnage, which bonds with Kasady and leads to chaos that only Venom and Brock can stop in the end.
Venom is Hardy's first superhero role (although he's notably more of an antihero at best, having a long history with Peter Parker's Spider-Man). To prepare for it, Hardy noted three surprising celebrities that helped inspire his portrayal of the character. Here's what we know.
Venom was inspired by Woody Allen, Conor McGregor, and Redman
In a 2018 interview with Esquire, Tom Hardy explained that he drew inspiration from three famous celebrities in his process for "Venom." The first is famed writer, director, and actor Woody Allen, whom Hardy specifically chose for his "tortured neurosis and all the humor that can come from that." The second inspiration Hardy mentioned is professional mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, specifically for, as Hardy put it, "the überviolence but not all the talking." McGregor is well-known for both his violence and his talking, notably having a heated relationship with mixed martial artist Khabib Nurmagomedov (via GiveMeSport).
Finally, the last inspiration Hardy mentioned is Reginald Noble, aka Redman, the American rapper known for his work on film soundtracks like "The Fast and the Furious." The actor drew from Redman's perceived qualities of "out of control, living rent-free in his head." He then joked that his having used these three celebrities as his inspiration for Eddie Brock and Venom was something he purposefully neglected to tell Sony Pictures, likely implying that it was something that the studio would disapprove of.
There's nothing confirmed about Hardy's future as Venom as of yet in a possible "Venom 3," but many fans on Reddit are championing an "Amazing Spider-Man 3" film starring Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker and featuring Hardy's Venom. Only time will tell, but we're certainly crossing our fingers.