A Tribute to Tom Hardy’s Insane Internet Presence

About two years ago, the Internet stumbled upon Tom Hardy’s MySpace page and discovered one of the Seven Wonders of the Interweb (Cher’s Twitter is also on that list.) Although the page has now been tragically deleted, the discovery marked the public’s first real peek into Hardy’s unfiltered personality. There’s the infamous crotch-grabbing and duck lips photo, as well as some understandable anxiety over having plant hair, and many, many NSFW moments. "I've got no shame about my MySpace photos, especially the one of me in my underpants which is a glorious photo of a man in his natural habitat," he once said in an interview. "I might not be an Adonis, but I like to think of myself as an Adonis in that photo."

Ever since the Great Tom Hardy Myspace Era came to an end, though, all we really know about Hardy the man is what he chooses to reveal in interviews, because the actor has never created a personal Twitter or Instagram account. 

But that’s not exactly true. Once a crotch-grabbing selfie taker, always a crotch-grabbing selfie taker, and just because he doesn’t have an Instagram doesn’t mean Hardy isn’t taking photos and videos. While there are many fan accounts dedicated to sharing photos of and information about the actor, there’s one in particular that towers above the rest, TomHardy.Org, and that’s because Hardy actually contributes to it. It’s an unusual set up: the account seems to have been created independent of Hardy, and is run by fans who have no affiliation to him, but somewhere along the line Hardy caught wind of it and started sending original content like selfies and videos of freestyles with his son strapped to his chest. It’s also where Hardy’s long, stream-of-consciousness emotional tribute to his legendary dog Woody, who passed away earlier this year, was first posted.

The ironic thing is that because of this arrangement, we might know more about Tom Hardy than we know about the celebrities who spend hours curating their social feeds. Having this Tumblr feels like we’re all Tom’s collective non-celebrity friend, you know, that mate he’ll gladly share some pints with at the pub when he’s back in London. Going through it feels like going through the group text he sends us every once in awhile to let us know how he’s doing while he’s off shooting stuff like The Revenant or Mad Max: Fury Road. And there are some glorious, unexpected, and truly groundbreaking discoveries to be made by analyzing what Tom Hardy chooses to share with his fans.  

We already knew Tom Hardy had a shadow career as a rapper, but when the 2015 Dubsmash craze started sweeping the planet, Hardy had the opportunity to show off his talent for rapping once again. During his very relatable Dubsmash obsession, he sang along to Whitney Houston, Simon and Garfunkel, and Annie, but far and away his best performances are the rap ones. 

No matter what it might seem from the tough roles that he takes—The Dark Knight Rises, Bronson, and Mad Max: Fury Road—Tom Hardy isn’t a hardened tough guy who spends all his free time boxing to vintage Drake songs. He also knows how to move his soft, pillowy lips and use that soothing, velvety voice for turning all the way down. He’s been working with English children’s channel CBeebies to produce some amazing bedtime stories for those luckyass English children who have access to the BBC. 

Hardy sent his Tumblr some behind-the-scenes photos of that CBeebies shoot. It included some great photos of Hardy sitting in the kid-friendly set, but the true gem is his enthusiastic caption full of emojis: 

Had a great day today with the team on CBeebies with Woodstock I love my life 😊😊😊❤️❤️❤️😉😉😉🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🌟🌟🌟🌠🌠🌠😇😇😇 

There’s also this adorable photo of Tom with his dog, Woody, floating in a magical wonderland of happy, positive emojis. This is also my new desktop background. 

He makes truly daring fashion choices. If the below photo is anything to go by, he particularly likes to see jaws drop when faced with his provocative t-shirts. 

He’s not afraid to go, ahem, big and shock everyone with his unique style. 

Move over, Justin Timberlake: Tom Hardy, King of the Selfies, single-handedly brought sexy back with just one thick black and red patterned wool sweater. Your fave could never. 

Hardy started his career in the spotlight after winning a modeling competition when he was 21 years old, and it’s quite obvious that the man’s still got it, judging solely by these blurry, low quality photos of a Simpsons onesie. 

Let’s admit it: most celebrity endorsements are boring. When you see that #spon on Instagram, can you think of anything else besides guessing how much a celebrity was paid for that photo? But remember: Tom Hardy has not been exposed to the shallow monster that is Instagram. The result? His beautiful innocence has brought celebrity endorsements BACK. 

There’s actually very little to say about these other than to officially declare Tom Hardy the King of the Selfie. 

Tom Hardy, King of the Selfie, throws up the classic basic-girl-hand-symbol-of-choice in nearly every photo he takes of himself. But Tom knows how to make even the most common hand signs his own. He has a tendency to over do the peace sign (which could only mean he is probably impressively strong), effectively mangling the peace sign altogether and instead throwing up an obtuse angle of sorts. Tom Hardy: King of Geometry.