Since it was announced in January that Tom Hardy would be playing Bane in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, the biggest question is how the character would be presented. In the comics Bane wears what looks like a luchador mask and has more muscles than any human frame could likely put on. Because Nolan's Batman movies have all been based in a hyper-reality, it's expected that a lot of the features will be toned down to fit, in the same way that Scarecrow didn't look like this and the Joker's appearance was done using make-up as opposed to chemical burns. Now Tom Hardy may have clued us in a bit.
AICN has learned from a scooper named "D1g1tel" that Hardy appeared on a show called Alan Carr: Chatty Man and opened up a bit about how the character will be presented. According to the source, Hardy said that the character will be a "non-gimp mask wearing villain" and that he is currently building up his frame from 12 stone (168 lbs) to 14 stone (196 lbs) in preparation for the part (UPDATE: Movie Web has Hardy saying that's he'll wear the mask "only if [he feels] like it"). Hardy also said that he's signed on for more Inception films, but that's not really a surprise, as studios regularly have stars sign franchise deals just in case they ever decide to make sequel, which is unlikely to happen in this case.
While I understand the lack of a mask (lord knows we don't want Bane looking like he did in Batman and Robin), I am kind of perplexed by the limited weight gain. Hardy isn't the tallest guy in the world, standing at only 5'9", but 196 lbs still isn't really that big. Then again, his part in Bronson had him gaining 40 lbs. and he was an absolute giant in that. There are, of course, different ways to build different kind of muscles and one has to imagine that Hardy knows the kind of look he is meant to be going for. I anticipate the day that his character design is revealed.
UPDATE PART 2: Batman-News.com has gotten their hands on the video. Check it out below.
