How Tom Hardy Transformed His Voice To Play Venom

I will describe him as I see him. He is a great, soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with a huge mouth.

Ruben Fleischer's 2018 film "Venom" features a truly strange creature at its center. The film's main character is Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) a reporter from San Francisco who has fallen on hard times. Unexpectedly, he is attacked by a living blob of alien glop from beyond the stars, and the tar-like being seeps into his skin and occupies his body. The being, calling itself Venom, begins to communicate with Eddie psychically, encouraging him to hurt others and to generally be more reckless and daring. Occasionally, the glop seeps out from Eddie's body and wraps itself around his exterior, transforming them both into a slick, goo-skinned humanoid monster with massive puffy eyes and hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. In human form, Venom loves to bite off people's heads and eat them.

Venom's pop culture origins lie in Marvel Comics, where the character functioned (essentially) as Spider-Man's evil twin. In the comics, the living black glop served briefly as Spider-Man's superhero costume, albeit with a less monstrous appearance. When Spider-Man rid himself of the alien symbiote, it found its way to Eddie Brock and the new pair became a villain who hates Spider-Man like an ex-boyfriend.

Fleischer's film benefits from not having Spider-Man around, allowing audiences to embrace just how strange the concept was. "Venom" wasn't beloved by critics — it currently has a mere 30% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but was an enormous hit regardless, earning over $856 million worldwide. Everyone agreed that Hardy gave a wonderfully gonzo performance as both Eddie Brock and as the voice of the Venom symbiote.

In 2022, Hardy spoke with the BBC about his performance as Venom, and he revealed that his growling, aggressive alien voice was an amalgam of various singers and celebrities. However, he also admitted that he would sometimes slip up and accidentally recreate his Bane voice from "The Dark Knight Rises."

Hardy revealed that his vocal blend was inspired mostly by musicians, including, perhaps unexpectedly, the Godfather of Soul. He also credited Richard Burton, a seven-time Academy Award nominee known for his work in multiple historical epics like "The Robe," "Becket," and "Ann of a Thousand Days," as well as intense hothouse dramas like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Equus." To quote Hardy directly:

"I mix a little bit of Busta Rhymes, a little bit of Method [Man] and Redman, a little bit of James Brown, and ever so slightly an element of Richard Burton." 

With that revelation, most readers will likely want to hear Venom singing "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check." In a separate interview with ScreenRant, Hardy elucidated on those influences, saying that he'd wanted his Venom voice to sound "playful, like dark, witty, clever, you know, honest, but with a power familiar friendly sound which is palatable." 

Speaking to the BBC, however, Hardy confessed that he sometimes lost control of his vocal performance and slipped into his weirdly robust Bane performance, heard from beneath a mask in 2012's "The Dark Knight Rises." But then, Hardy acknowledged that actors have tools they tend to fall back on, and that repeating certain inflections or mannerisms is a risk for any performer. Hardy even admitted that he will occasionally snap into the voice he used to play Alife Solomons, his character on the gangster drama series "Peaky Blinders." In his own words:

"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." 

Some credit should also go to voice actor Brad Venable, a prolific performer in high-profile video games and anime dubs. Venable provided backup vocals for the alien being, and his voice was cleverly mixed together with Hardy's to give it an otherworldly sound. Sadly, Venable passed away in 2021 and he was not able to return for that year's sequel "Venom: Let There Be Carnage."

Tom Hardy will return as both Eddie Brock and Venom in "Venom: The Last Dance," which is slated to open in theaters on October 25, 2024.