PopUps: Tom Hardy Responds to Questions on Sexuality
Hollywood hunk Tom Hardy is responding to questions about his sexuality after he chewed out a reporter for an LGBT website last week after he asked the actor about his sexuality.
In an interview with the Daily Beast this week, the "Mad Max" star talked about the awkward question a reporter from the Daily Xtra asked during a press conference, who questioned Hardy's sexuality after referencing quotes he made in an interview with Attitude magazine.
"I think everybody is entitled to the right to privacy," Hardy, 37, told the Daily Beast. "There should be elegant ways to approach any topic, and there's a time and place to approach anything and have a good, common sense conversation about anything. I do think that there's a responsibility for people to own the way that they speak publicly.
"This doesn't stop us from being human beings; some things are private. I'm under no obligation to share anything to do with my family, my children, my sexuality -- that's nobody's business but my own," he continued. "And I don't see how that can have anything to do with what I do as an actor, and it's my own business. If you knew me as a friend, then sure, we'd talk about anything.
"But that was a public forum, and for someone to inelegantly ask a question that seemed designed entirely to provoke a reaction, and start a topic of debate... It's important destigmatizing sexuality and gender inequality in the workplace, but to put a man on the spot in a room full of people designed purely for a salacious reaction? To be quite frank, it's rude," he said. "If he'd have said that to me in the street, I'd have said the same thing back: 'I'm sorry, who the fuck are you?'"
The actor went on to say what the reporter had to ask was "actually interesting" but the way he asked the question was "so inelegant."
"And I appreciate that I could probably have more grace as a human being, but I'm just a bloke. I'm just a man. And I'm just a man doing a job," he continued. "I'm not a role model for anyone, and you're asking me something about my private life in a room full of people. I don't want to discuss my private life with you.
"I don't know you! Why would I share that with a billion people? Also, if you felt it was so important for people to feel confident to talk about their sexuality, why would you put somebody on the spot in a room full of people and decide that was the time for them to open up about their sexual ambiguity? There's also nothing ambiguous about my sexuality, anyway," Hardy said. "I know who I am. But what does that have to do with you? And why am I a part of something now that, however legitimate, I haven't offered my services for?
"It's not about what he and his publication stands for, none of that is offensive, and on the contrary, it's very admirable, and an important issue. But how I was asked was incredibly inelegant, and I just thought it was disrespectful and counterproductive to what he stands for," Hardy concluded.
Hardy's recent comments come after holding a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote his upcoming film "Legend." When the Daily Xtra reporter questioned Hardy's sexuality, the actor shut him down.
"What on earth are you on about?" he asked, which sparked laughter from the audience, according to the Huffington Post.
"I don't find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality," he said.
"Um, are you asking me about my sexuality?"
"Um, sure," the reporter replied.
"Why?" Hardy asked, before shutting down the interview. "Thank you."