Tom Hardy Explains How Conor McGregor Inspired His ‘Venom’

The first Spider-Man spinoff movie is set to premiere in a few weeks, and Venom is set to be a violent spectacle unlike most superhero movies you’ll see from Marvel Studios. Instead, Sony is embracing the character’s darkness.

Actor Tom Hardy, who is playing journalist Eddie Brock as well as the symbiote, was excited to return to the superhero genre and found some interesting inspiration for his character. The star of Venom told RTE Entertainment he was influenced by the personality of popular fighter Conor McGregor.

“There were more elements of Eddie Brock which needed to be pinned on somebody who’s incredibly handy physically. And, obviously, Conor is incredibly handy physically,” Hardy said. “There was an aspect the studio wanted somebody who could fight, which they always do in these sort of hero movies. They want somebody who can have a scrap. Conor obviously wants to have a scrap with everybody, so that’s useful. But then, there were elements like the neuroses of Woody Allen. So, if you put that and Conor together, there was that too.”

McGregor is known as a bit of a hot head, but when Hardy was asked if the fighter would be flattered by his portrayal, Hardy downplayed it.

“I don’t think he’d be bothered, really. Conor doesn’t strike me as the type of person who might be that bothered!”

Hardy previously made this comparison, while also mentioning that the rapper Redman also had an influence on his portrayal. It sounds like they’re trying to embrace the conflicted nature of Eddie Brock as he vies for control with the symbiote, something that should make comic book purists happy.

Director Ruben Fleischer previously told ComicBook.com that they are embracing the character’s roots from the source material.

“I’m a huge fan of comic book movies so I just tried to pick a lane that was true to the character,” director Ruben Fleischer explained to ComicBook.com. “I think inherent to the character, he’s just darker, and we talked about more violent. It’s just tonally different from everything else, especially when you’re focusing on just Venom. He’s not a sunshine kind of guy. So, it takes place at night. It’s darker. More menacing. I think that within the spectrum of all these movies, there’s the DC super dark, Zack Snyder type version and then there’s the Marvel movies and I like to think that we’re in our own zone apart from that.”

Venom premieres in theaters on October 5th.

(h/t TMZ)