Venom star Tom Hardy has revealed his main influences while creating the character’s distinctive voice. Fans have waited a long time to see the character of Venom properly portrayed on the big screen. Venom’s previous appearance in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 in 2007 proved massively disappointing, which was partly a result of the studio forcing Raimi to use the character against his will. Topher Grace’s performance also came under fire by certain sections of the fanbase.
Venom's Spider-Man 3 appearance proved such a letdown that a spinoff written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool) was abandoned. The character was set to make an appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 3, which would have set up a Venom solo movie. Channing Tatum expressed interest in playing the villain, but once Sony and Marvel made an agreement to share Spider-Man, those plans were canceled.
Related: Topher Grace Can’t Wait To See Tom Hardy’s Venom Movie
Tom Hardy’s take on Venom is coming to the big screen next week and is set to be a much more faithful adaptation of the popular villain. Hardy plays both Eddie Brock and Venom, with numerous trailers and clips giving audiences a preview of Hardy’s distinct vocals for Brock’s alter ego. The actor revealed his main influences on Venom’s voice during an interview with Screen Rant.
Screen Rant: Tom, great job on that Venom voice. it was amazing. Where did you come up with that?
Tom Hardy: Redman, Busta Rhymes, and James Brown as ingredients and then I played with it to create the fusion of sort of what you hear, which sounds nothing like that, but initially was like vibe or heartbeat that I wanted to bring to it. That kind of bombastic, playful, like dark, witty, clever, you know, honest, but with a power familiar friendly sound which is palatable.
Hardy is famous for giving all of his characters a distinct voice, with arguably the most famous example being his take on Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Venom is no different, and Hardy appears to be having a great time playing both sides of the character. His vocal influences wouldn't be the most obvious choices for a comic book villain role, but if nothing else it can’t be denied the actor likes to think outside the box.
Venom is currently tracking to be a big success for Sony, but fans are disappointed by the studio’s recent confirmation that the movie will be PG-13. The movie had previously been reported by cast and crew to be a hard R take on the source material, and it would play up the body horror element of the concept. It seems Sony would like to make sure the movie is tonally more in line with Marvel’s cinematic universe instead, which could lead to future crossovers between Venom and other Marvel characters.
