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Home Page > Entertainment > Tom Hardy found playing an alcoholic character in 'Warrior' a 'cathartic' experience - VIDEO

Tom Hardy found playing an alcoholic character in 'Warrior' a 'cathartic' experience - VIDEO

JANE WALSH,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, August 29, 2011, 9:01 AM

Updated Monday, August 29, 2011, 10:38 AM

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The 33-year-old actor – who battled drink and drugs addictions until he entered entering rehab to combat his problems in 2003 – says portraying troubled ex-Marine Tommy in new movie 'Warrior' allowed him to draw on his own "personal experience" of alcohol abuse.

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "I felt very much at home with the sadder side of Tommy, but it's not a territory I need to dwell in. I don’t need to discuss or work around the abuse that surrounds alcoholism and dysfunction in families who suffer from that disease because it's something I can draw on from personal experience.

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"It was actually quite cathartic, and I felt a responsibility to those who understand that world and those who don't and to open a window on it."

Tom – who has a three-year-old son Louis with his fiancee, actress Charlotte Riley – can relate to a number of the issues in the movie which affected his own life, including "the loss of a father figure".

He added: "The dysfunction of an alcoholic family, the issues of abandonment. I have all kinds of things from separation anxiety and abandonment, the loss of a mother's gaze at a certain age, the loss of a father figure, manhood, forgiveness, amendment.

"And recovery – natural recovery. The evolution of a family and moving on. Tommy is not a very happy person, so I spent a lot of days unhappy. It had its toll."

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pkbayleafs | Aug 30, 2011, 01:29 PM EDT

I understand that totally. I grew up pretty much the same, alcoholic parent, my father was there, but was not allowed to interact with us because of my mother's mental illness, and in my family there was no love shown because we were told that we were born only because my father would have divorced my mom if she didn't have kids. I can't imagine Tom having to go back inside himself to those places that we move on from, and bring them back out to play a part like this, then putting them back and being himself again. No matter what people say, you know, "get over it" stuff, those feelings and hurts are a part of us. I myself have moved on, but the damage has been done, such as relationships, which are hard for me, and trust. But we do the best we can. Life is good. I also understand addiction, I did meth for six years with a boyfriend I thought I loved. I'm ok now, kicking myself for being stupid, but eventually you have to forgive yourself, and let go. I wish Tom Hardy all the best that this life can give.

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