It’s a little bit crazy that nearly a full week has gone by before Variety or the Hollywood Reporter bothered to do any kind of investigative journalism on why Tom Hardy was “booted” off MobLand. Puck News reported the Tom Hardy news last week. Since then, it’s mostly been a tabloid story, with the Daily Mail picking up the gossip slack and claiming that Tom was basically fired after beefing with Helen Mirren. Well, THR finally spoke to some people involved with MobLand (anonymously) and those sources painted a picture of a notoriously “difficult” actor being a prickly diva.
Tom Hardy has been making headlines over the past week after reportedly being fired from the hit Paramount+ series (though a source who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter says the British star’s fate is yet to be decided).
Hardy has been clashing with producers, THR confirmed, including executive producer Jez Butterworth and others at David Glasser’s 101 Studios, the production company behind MobLand, which is filmed across the U.K.
Much of this irresolution stems from the fact that the streamer has not yet officially renewed the show for a third season — another source close to production tells THR that filming on season three, if greenlit, is tentatively scheduled to begin in September this year.
“He refused to come out of his trailer for hours at a time,” the source says about Hardy’s on-set behavior on season two, which has spooked producers into rethinking Hardy’s future. The source adds: “He kept the cast waiting, [which is] a power play. Keeping Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and others waiting is career suicide, I would wager.”
…It remains unclear exactly what keeps Hardy confined to his MobLand trailer. A Puck News story reported that Hardy was also attempting to alter dialogue and provide script notes to Butterworth and creator Ronan Bennett. Clashes with A-listers such as Brosnan and Mirren, however, do not help Hardy’s reputation for being infamously tricky to work with.
THR did not hear back from Hardy’s team or a rep for Mirren when reaching out for comment. Brosnan is apparently traveling and unreachable. We’ve also asked for an update from Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios.
I think it’s interesting that Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren don’t want to be involved in this conversation either way – they’re not defending Hardy, nor are they bashing him publicly. I would love to know how or if those two are wielding their power behind-the-scenes though. If Hardy was this difficult – refusing to leave his trailer for hours, Jesus Christ – I suspect that both Helen and Pierce are like “lol, nope, y’all need to figure out something else.” As much as people want to make this all about Mirren, it definitely sounds like Hardy was aggravating everyone on the production.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
