Venom is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character. There's a man inside of that sleek black suit. But there's also an alien who communicates with the man, and the two must work in tandem -- a symbiosis -- if Venom is going to be the lethal protector that fans envision. The Venom symbiote, both in the comics and on the screen in the new movie, bonds with Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy), so during a recent Venom press day, we asked Hardy why Brock was the ideal host for this alien creature. And Hardy tells CinemaBlend:
I think Eddie is a professional coward. ... So it's easy for a symbiote to take advantage of him. Certainly in the portrayal -- I wanted it to come across as this, but he's like, there's a part of him that galvanizes as a strong crusader for morality, fighting for the underdog and speaking up for those who aren't heard. And there's a deeply self-centered narcissism that also surrounds him, because he does it to the detriment of the people that he loves and cares about. And then Venom turns up, and there's an audacity for this thing to turn up and live inside him. It conflicts Eddie. That [he] then has to negotiate the terms of somebody else's ethical framework, which is from another planet, which forces his feet to the fire, to actually understand his own idiosyncrasies and flaws.
What a terrific take on the odd relationship formed between Eddie Brock and the symbiote. What you will begin to see, when Ruben Fleischer's movie opens in theaters later this week (and this isn't exactly a spoiler), is that the alien symbiote brought to Earth by the Life Foundation tries to bond with numerous hosts... and the process ends badly for the humans.
But when Venom connects with Eddie Brock, the two share a connection that neither anticipated, and it allows them to form a union that will first pit them against the menacing Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) and, eventually, against all manner of evil beings.
Here's Tom Hardy opening up on his interpretation of why Eddie is the right guy to play host to Venom in the movie Venom:
Of course, in the comics, Eddie and Venom bond over a hatred of Spider-Man. That can't be the case in this new movie, so Ruben Fleischer and his screenwriters have to come up with new reasons as to why the alien symbiote would work with this human who he keeps calling a "loser." Will they find a way to work together? And where will their relationship go from here? Keep reading CinemaBlend, and all of our coverage from the recent Venom junket, to find out!
