Actor Tom Hardy, who got angry at a reporter at the Toronto International Film Festival, says his reaction was a result of “inelegant” and “humiliating” questions regarding his sexuality.
The 27-year-old British actor shut down a reporter when he asked him is it “hard for celebrities to talk to the media about their sexuality,” reported Entertainment Weekly.
“That really, really annoyed me. It was just the inelegance of being asked in a room full of people… I’m confident in my own sexuality, and I’m also confident in my own being and talking about any issue you want to talk about it. But there is a time and a place for that,” Hardy said.
In his upcoming film, “Legend”, Hardy plays the infamous East End London gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray. Ronnie was openly gay.
The actor says he felt the question was asked only to elicit a salacious response. The interest in his sexuality has been an online talking point after a 2008 magazine piece where he had said he is “not into men sexually.” Hardy, however, clarified in other interviews that he is straight.
“I found it very humiliating for somebody to decide that on his dime and his time, to openly and inelegantly pursue a line of questioning which I could only sense at the moment — which was quite awkward.”
“It was zeroing in on a reaction from me that would become a topic of discussion that had nothing to really do with what was there.”
Hardy said the question felt like an invasion of privacy in the manner in which he was asked.
“Why point me out, assuming that I’m gay because I’m ambiguous about it, which I’m very clear if you look into what I’ve said in the past.”
