Tom Hardy is one of the hardest working, most talented, and most bankable actors working today, as his acting skills are beyond reproach and most of his movies over-perform at the box office. But on top of this, he is often cast in roles based on his looks, as he’s one of the most handsome actors in Hollywood.

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That makes it very ironic that he has portrayed so many characters whose faces are covered in some shape or form. Whether through CGI, heavy make-up, masks, or copious amounts of facial hair, Hardy seems to have a penchant for covering up his face.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Shinzon squares up to Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: Nemesis unfortunately massively underperformed at the box office, but it was through no fault of Hardy’s, as it was the very first movie where Hardy proved he could be a believable antagonist in a blockbuster movie. Not only that, but it was also the first movie that showed how the actor seemingly has a liking for having his face covered up.

In the movie, Hardy plays Shinzon, an imperfect clone of Picard, and though his face isn’t covered for the whole movie, he is covered in ghastly green veins with discoloration in his face in the back end of the movie.

Venom (2018)

Tom Hardy in Venom

Fans are lucky they even got Venom at all, as the movie was in development hell and had supposedly been a possibility since the 1990s, but when audiences finally got it, it was Hardy who totally brought the human side of Eddie Brock to life.

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However, as the symbiote constantly takes over Eddie at any given moment, it isn’t just Hardy’s face, but his entire body that is covered. And the same is due to happen again with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but if the newly released trailer is anything to go by, it looks like the human form of Eddie is going to have a lot more screen time than he did in the first movie.

The Revenant (2015)

John Fitzgerald aims his gun in the forest in The Revenant

Though his face isn’t trapped inside a cage, in a mask that helps the character breathe better, or any of the other inventive ways that he’s had his face covered, Hardy's role as John Fitzgerald sees his face engulfed in a more conventional way.

Being a brutal winter movie that will make any viewer wish it was summer, The Revenant sees not just Fitzgerald’s, but every other character’s face covered by giant collars, long hair, and manly beards. But, of course, Hardy takes it to the extreme, or at least Fitzgerald does, as clothing, facial hair, and a bandana all keep him from showing his full face.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Bane in The Dark Knight Rises

The most famous masked role of them all, Hardy portrayed Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and his bald head in the mask has remained one of the most popular Halloween outfits ever since. Hardy had some big boots to fill when he took up the mantle of Bane, not just because of how iconic the Bane is in Batman & Robin, but because he was the villain that followed Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.

However, despite facing impossibly high expectations, the movie ended up being incredible and Bane was expertly written, as it was somewhat grounded in reality, just like the Joker and just like the Scarecrow before him. Bane’s voice in the movie, which was nasally due to the uncomfortable looking apparatus on his face, might have been the subject of a ton of memes, but it’s now iconic.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Tom Hardy dressed as a Stormtrooper in a deleted scene from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might be one of the most polarizing blockbusters of recent times, as it completely divided the Star Wars fanbase, but there’s still a lot to love about the movie. There were cameos from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and even Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, but that’s not all. Being such a huge movie with hidden references and Easter eggs around every corner, it may have been easy to miss many of the cameos, but Hardy’s voice is unmistakable, even if it is in a deleted scene.

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Though it isn’t a major role, Hardy has a secret role as a masked character in the movie, and just like Daniel Craig in The Force Awakens, Hardy plays a stormtrooper. In the deleted scene, Hardy puts on a hilarious Texan drawl as he insults Finn, who is disguised as a captain at the time.

Dunkirk (2017)

Farrier is piloting a Spitfire in Dunkirk

Dunkirk was almost like a breath of fresh air when it was released, as coming from the genius mind of Christopher Nolan, it was the most grounded movie relative to the high concept as seen in movies like Interstellar and Inception. But it did still feature several things fans have come to expect of a Nolan movie, such as a non-linear narrative, and, of course, Tom Hardy in a mask.

Following their collaboration in The Dark Knight Rises, where he wore arguably the most iconic mask of all time, Hardy played Farrier in Dunkirk, a pilot of a Spitfire. Not only is Farrier’s face covered with a mask for the whole movie, but he’s also isolated from the other characters in the sky the entire time too. The result is one of the best war movies of the 21st century, even if audiences didn’t get to see Hardy’s jawline.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mac Rotackanski strapped to the front of a moving car with a metal mask covering the lower part of his face

Though there are so many movies in which Hardy’s face is covered up, the ultimate film of them all is Mad Max: Fury Road. The titular character is put through the wringer for most of the movie, as not only is he chained up and his face is in a cage, but he’s tied to the front of a speeding vehicle for the most part too.

There is over 480 hours of unused footage of the movie, most of which is probably b-roll of this very thing. And it’d be great to see some kind of a director’s cut of it, as it was one of the most stunning, mind-bending audio/visual experiences there has been in decades. It isn’t just Hardy whose face is covered either, as his costar, Charlize Theron, who plays Furiosa, has her face covered in dirt and oil for the whole movie. And Immortan Joe, the movie’s antagonist, wears a mask it all too.

NEXT: Furiosa: 10 Actors Who Can Play Immortan Joe In The Prequel