Venom: Let There Be Carnage made waves at the box office, as fans seem to be loving the sequel, praising the performances of Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson in the process. Hardy really commits to playing the Eddie Brock and Venom roles, and it shows on the screen. The voice work that’s done is impressive, but apparently, he uses some of his other iconic voice work while playing the antihero. While discussing how he keeps things fresh for the Marvel character, he revealed that he channels a bit of his Bane role for his voice.
If you've seen the Venom movies, then you know just how hard the lead actor works to craft entertaining performances. The distinct voice of Eddie Brock's symbiote alter ego is one of the coolest parts of the franchise. Tom Hardy recently spoke to BBC Radio 1’s Ali Plumb about his voice work and explained how he manages to integrate DC Comics' Bane into the performance. He said:
Yeah, I do as well [sometimes do Venom as Bane]. I mean, I think that’s an occupational hazard. You know, there are only a few characters that we have and we will smear between them all. As Alfie comes out, it’s inevitable, just how my day happens. They’ll pop up, and that’s it.
When you've played as many distinct roles as the Oscar nominee has, it's only natural that they'll bleed into each other. Bane’s voice in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is iconic and infamous and, in post production, it actually had to be altered for clarity because test audiences couldn’t understand what he was saying. When you think about it, you really can hear the masked villain in Venom. It's also cool that the actor shouted out his Peaky Blinders character, Alfie, as a voice that sometimes comes out during his work. He goes on to list some other inspiration for the symbiote's voice:
OK so I mix a little bit of Busta Rhymes, a little bit of Method and Redman, a little bit of James Brown, and ever so slightly an element of Richard Burton.
Tom Hardy clearly has a lot of fun as Venom, given that he channels iconic performers like the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, as some of the flavors he uses to keep things fresh. Voiceover work is complex and probably especially difficult when you are tasked with playing two different characters. Woody Harrelson actually talked about his struggles with his Carnage voice, even trying to get director Andy Serkis to take on the voice, but he eventually found his groove.
It goes without saying that Tom Hardy has major love for this franchise. He's talked about what critics have to say about the most recent film as well as the audience’s reaction and what he wanted to accomplish with it. Hardy is undoubtedly looking at the possibility of a third installment, as these movies usually come in threes. And there are so many possibilities for Eddie Brock's story moving forward.
I can’t wait to see what’s next for the actor and whether we'll get to see his extraterrestrial character wreak havoc in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hopefully, we get to see him crossover with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man sooner rather than later.
