Video of the Day: Tom Hardy’s Star Trek: Nemesis Screen Test

For the second weekend in a row The Dark Knight Rises is the top movie at the box office. In just ten days the film has taken in over half a billion dollars worldwide. This film cements Tom Hardy, who plays the villain Bane, as an even bigger star. But, it was just 10 years ago that Hardy got his big break in Star Trek: Nemesis. A video of his screen test with Patrick Stewart has been going viral again this week. Check it out below.        

 

 

Before he was Bane: Tom Hardy’s Star Trek Nemesis Screen Test

Here is a Star Trek: Nemesis screen test with Tom Hardy as Shinzon with Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard. The video intercuts test scenes (which were shot on the Star Trek: Enterprise armory set) and the actual scene from the Nemesis movie.

At 24 Hardy was a relative unknown when he landed the role of the Picard-clone villain in Star Trek: Nemesis back in 2002. While the film was not considered a success, Hardy did get good marks for his performance. His career has continued to rise in the last decade, including roles in Layer Cake, The Virgin Queen mini-series and most notably Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Nolan then tapped Hardy again to play the villain Bane in his next film, the now monster hit The Dark Knight Rises.


Behind the scenes with Tom Hardy as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises"

Hardy has now moved to the leading man position and is currently filming Mad Max: Fury Road, taking over the role that Mel Gibson inhabited for three feature films.

h/t: E!

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The performance was very good, but the fact that Hardy look nothing like Sir Patrick was very very distracting. I’ve would have preferred James Marsters, who I understand was considered and could pass for a young Patrick Stewart way better, and its a good actor.

Shame nemesis bombed at the box office. it really wasn’t that bad.

It is amazing what steriods will do a person. Good thing they don’t have drug testing for actors like they do for players in sports. There is no way hard grows that much bulk without roids.

Tom Hardy sucked.

swoon…swoon…swoon
I love EVERYTHING about Tom Hardy

Seeing skinny Hardy and muscleman Hardy together looks like one of those old ads in the back of magazines. “You too can look like THIS!”

He’s ideal for a great Trek villain but badly cast as a young Picard clone. I’m not sure what they were thinking.

i could never get past Hardys full head of hair 5 of clock shadow in some scenes(and seen clearly there in the rehersal). he obviously had a full head of hair just shaved down like David Beckham. why not shave it so it actually looked as if he was bald?

and then there was the almost angelina jolie pouty lips to Patricks thin as hell ones. LOL

Patrick shouldve played both roles (he probably wouldve liked to have done that)

The weird plot of “Nemesis,” about a guy who is mad that he was prevented from growing up to become a Picard clone who infiltrates the Federation, suggests that it must have began, at some stage in the story process, as a story about an evil Picard clone infiltrating the Federation.

Watching “Nemesis,” that was the story I wanted to watch. Not the story of a guy who is disgruntled because the more exciting story never happened.

(Maybe it even started as a Locutus of Borg story, looking back to “Best of Both Worlds.”)

Imagine how much fun a movie about Patrick Stewart vs. Patrick Stewart could have been. Good Picard could be banished into some Rura Penthe type predicament. Data starts to suspect that something’s not quite right as Evil Picard perverts the Federation Council. (No, not the Romulan Council. Was anyone clamoring for a story about the struggles of the Reman People?)

Tom Hardy did fine job with an impossible character. But for someone from the stiff-upper-lip Picard stock, I was never clear on why he was so sensual and pouty.

He’s over-acting a bit, here: glad he toned it down (especially the nervous movements) in the film.

I thought that Nemesis had a clever script. It was a better film than how was recieved. Still, if it had not been so, we may never have had Trek 2009 and a bright future….

Hardy’s lips were wrong

I remember an interview with Jonathan Frakes or Stuart Baird (I can’t remember exactly, but I guess it was Jonathan Frakes) when ST:Nemesis came out who said something like “With Tom Hardy we don’t have a star but we have someone who will be a star one day”

At the time I thought “what an embarrassing talk just to push the movie” like “this is the best star trek movie ever” (Something like that has been also said). And I was disappointed they didn’t cast a real big name for box office…

And now I know: He was right! Amazing!

I can’t fault hardy’s acting in the movie but if it was a choice between watching the final frontier or nemesis i’d watch the final frontier everytime. Car chases, Trek rule breaking ships and nosferatu remen just ruins it as a good trek movie

Is it me or Tom Hardy has a record of being miscast/ totally wasted in a couple of his movies? I mean, he is really a talented bloke and a charismatic one as well but with Nemesis… MEH! Miscast! With TDKR, criminally wasted because of the mask!!! Geez. What a waste. Nolan did good use of him in Inception tho.

I read somewhere that Gary Oldman has named his would be successors (for awesomeness) and he included Hardy, Cumberbatch and Fassbender. Nice to know that two of them are in Trek.

I get the impression he’s a very scary guy, off and on the screen.

I had no problems with him playing a younger, warped version of Picard. Shinzon’s probably the only of Tom’s villainous roles, that evokes any sympathy.

He does great work and its no wonder he’s always in demand.

Probably my favourite role of his was on TV, in a remake of A For Andromeda for the BBC. One of the earliest sci-fi shows from 1950’s, done again in the 2000’s.

@3: Oh well, I wouldn’t be so fast to judge. You have to consider the fact that Hardy had already starred in two movies for which he had to bulk up beforehand; namely “Warrior” and “Bronson”. So it’s not like he packed on those muscles in a matter of weeks.

Hardy sucked in Nemesis…not sure who to
blame on that. Stewart should have played
both parts (but that would have been really
weird with him and Spiner playing dual roles
in the same film)…

Obviously another problem in the production
when you let the actors make the decisions
over the director & producers…(imho)… B4
never should have been in the film – it took
away from the actual story..

I much prefer seeing Tom Hardy the way he looked in This Means War – fit and well-toned, but not over-muscled. I have never found the Arnold Schwarzenegger Mr Universe type body, that Tom seems to have here as Bane, as attractive. I doubt having to build up that kind of muscle is all that healthy, short-term or longterm either.

I see that they have had to do a body paint job on Hardy as well for him to play Bane. Those tattoos that he has on the movie This Means War are not his character Tuck’s. They are Tom Hardy’s and they are REAL!

I have to agree with those who felt it should have been Patrick Stewart playing Shinzon. It would have been awesome to see Stewart commanding the Scimitar and wreaking havoc across the galaxy. It would have made Picard’s predicament MUCH more compelling and heartbreaking.

Unfortunately the entire theme of the movie was undermined by the fact that Tom Hardy looks or feels or acts NOTHING like Patrick Stewart.

Why was he bald? Picard was not bald from the beginning so they chose to make Hardy bald to make the “clone” aspect for obvious, which made no sense.

Just watched this movie with my wife the other day, and she LOVED it, except for the ending. So we watched the alternate ending on the Blu-Ray, and we both agree that the filmed ending is the one thing that made the movie totally suck. So here is the alternate ending we have replaced in our minds with the actual one:

[SCENE FROM ALTERNATE ENDING]
Riker and Geordi banter about the new First Officer on the Bridge. New First Officer RFK from Thirteen Days enters, speaks with Riker, asks for advice. Riker mentions to call the Captain by his first name. Riker enters the turbolift, exchanges smirks with Geordi and Worf.

[CUT TO PICARD’S READY ROOM / CONFERENCE ROOM / WHATEVER]

Picard and B4 talk about Data. B4 sits there stricken with duckface and doesn’t understand anything. Starts singing the song Data sang at the wedding. Everyone feels a little better that B4 might someday be like Data (but screw you guys, we’re never making another TNG movie so you’ll have to buy a book or something). Picard starts to walk out.

[ALTERNATE ENDING: CUT TO THE BRIDGE, WHERE PICARD WALKS OUT]

New First Officer starts sucking up to Picard. capain invites NFO Madden to dinner, Madden follows Riker’s advice, everyone gets a good laugh. Captain turns to try out new chair, demos new seatbelts. Unnamed Ensign Techie Guy grins with satisfaction at Captain’s approval, Worf is jealous he doesn’t get seatbelts. Picard starts telling NFO about new mission to Deneb system, says it is [PAUSES] “Where no one has gone before.”

[CAMERA REVERSES TOWARDS THE VIEWSCREEN TO SEE ACTIVE BRIDGE]

(Feeling of excitement at the new stories that could be possible after this movie swells)

[CUT TO BADASS HERO SHOT OF THE ENTERPRISE SET TO THE STAR TREK THEME YOU KNOW AND LOVE]

[END CREDITS]

What do you guys think?

Do you think the wardrobe department saw this and thought “close fitting leather right up to his neck – that’s what his costume needs to be!”

21.

I thought the ending of Nemesis was the best part.

Um… This was on the two disc DVD that came out years ago.

#3
Hardy looks fairly natural. I’m sure he has a trainer, a nutritionist, and others to keep him on track 24/7, but I don’t think he has a pharmacist, too.

Oh my gosh, the dialog and delivery from the screen test is so much better than the actual film. WTH. I halfway-actually believe Shinzon, it’s a much more compelling performance.

Oooooh. It was “don’t they?” I always wondered why he said “our eyes reflect our lives, Dudley.” Who is dudley? and why does everyone think this guy looks like Picard? And why did they do an episode where the two leading characters had clones? And why aren’t they using the same sickbay set as in First Contact? And why does that green color feel so out of place? And have the Romulans always been that other green color? And why the heck is everyone just standing around (or sitting around) looking at each other for the whole dad-blame movie? Where’s Wesley? And why did Picard say there were 24 decks in First Contact but the first officer just ran down to deck 26 to fight intruders, and then fell down another deck or two? I was cranky when I got out of that movie.

I just loathe this whole movie. The Remans should have been transplanted Romulans. End of story. But since they wanted a prejudiced race they could have done something like the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” . The same race with suttle differences.

I have to admit, I found the acting in the rehearsal video more moving than in the actual movie. In rehearsals, the actors have a lot more freedom to improvise and mess around and see what works and what doesn’t. I’d love to see rehearsal videos for a lot more movies.

I concur. I like the rehearsal footage better than the actual movie.

He was so young……

This was the better scene. They stepped on it by adding the duplicate scene in Picard’s ready room.

Anyway… Hardy was excellent as Bane. I really didn’t have much hope for the menacing pro wrestler, but it works well.

I do not understand the “Cumberbatch” mystiic.

How is the next Trek going to be any good with such a geeky British protaganist?

I kind of hope that we will eventually see the screen test iPhone video of Benedict Cumberbatch. It would be interesting to see the performance that blew JJ away.

Tom Hardy was good in “Nemesis”. The character could have been written better, though. He was badass as Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises”, which I saw for the second time last Saturday. I enjoyed it more the second time. Hell of a way to end an epic superhero trilogy.

Tom Hardy also appeared in “Band Of Brothers”.

I always wished Patrick Stewart played Shinzon… Imagine, A real evil Picard played by the real and only Picard… I thought that would have worked and would have been better.

A few techy bits about age progression therapy and there ya go.

I concur #37

Hardy was in “Black Hawk Down” prior to trek, along with Eric Bana.

I don’t think you can beat his performance, I just never understood the decision to make him bald other than the audience is too stupid to think a guy with hair is a clone of a bald guy.

Shinzon suffered from that illness that Picard had but was cured of. Shinzon was never cured. Apart from sharing the same DNA etc which would have given Shinzon male-pattern baldness as it did Picard, losing hair, even going bald can also happen when a person is chronically ill.

Hardy was great as Bane. I’m going to see TDKR for the fifth time tonight.

Nemesis could have well killed his career before it started so i’m glad he is still around.

Nemesis would have worked better had Stewart played the antagonist also but a better story would still have been needed.

I am glad Tom Hardy’s career recovered from Stuart Baird’s horrible direction.
Look at his take in this clip as compared to the final, over- the- edge product. Tom had a handle on Shinzon and Baird pushed him to camp it up.
Jonathan Frakes should have directed Nemesis and while he was diplomatic about Baird’s new eyes in the DVD commentary, when I suggested to him in May at Cherry Hill during a lull in autograph signings that Nemesis would have been a much better film with him at the helm, he thanked me for the [belated] support and wholeheartedly agreed. He suggested I look at Hardy’s performance in his screen test and compare.
I always thought the best take on Nemesis was the second idea they had and discarded; Sir Patrick in both roles.
He would have been masterful, as always. Frakes said he would have been OK with Hardy, he would have given him a lot more leeway in the role and would have made many choices differently than Baird.

Alec Newman got down to the last 2 for shinzon, but as is a regular occurrence with the producers, he eventually played malik in season 4 of enterprise.

Tom was great as shinzon. Anyone who talks about his lips is an idiot. They were looking for someone to be a ln effective screen presence opposite Patrick Stewart, who not only is a very fine actor, but had 10+ tests of fan goodwill on his side. For them to find a 24 year old who could hold his own in that situation AND be affordable us nothing short of a major casting ‘find’, which, as a poster above said about Jonathan frakes’ assessment of him, is nothing short of brilliant.

I talk about his lips. They are entirely different in shape from Stewart’s.

Proof that Stewart as Shinzon would have been 1,000x more badass. :) http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v225/CaptProton/?action=view&current=picard-2.gif

i said this before somewhere but i will say it again because i want to do so – they shouldve just done another Borg movie for Nemesis. they had Klingons as villains in III, V, and VI (and VII) so they couldve done the Borg again to ensure some extra $ so the film series didnt crash and burn (esp if theyd had Jeri Ryan in it : )

anyway the borg were far more Picards nemesis than any juvenile whiney clone

what story though? obviously not another earth invasion thing. couldve instead explored the borg origins … and had the Ent E (with Seven of Nine as new crew member) sent to investigate some troubling disturbance in far reaches of unexplored space where they encounter new improved borg, more alien like not so machiney…no queen…something that would tie into their origins (prometheus style)

– Vger..

at the end the Ent would have to stop nuBorg from reaching federation space – Data is killed saving the ship etc

@46–no, they should have done a Dominion movie. However, as bad as Nemesis was, consider this: it might be the reason Tom Hardy got his bigger, more recent roles. Also: I find it cool that Hardy and Stewart did his screen test on an NX-01 set from Enterprise :)

@1–James Marsters as Shinzon..would…have…been…epic.

As much as I like Patrick Stewart, I think he phoned in his Nemesis performance. Remember, he was getting big bucks elsewhere as Professor X. I remember a comment he made before filming began about his payout negotiations and making sure is was “worth my time.”

Apparently it wasn’t.

A split screen evil twin episode with Stewart would have taken a bad movie and made it unintentionally laughable. IMHO.

There is an interview somewhere (maybe even on the original DVD) where Patrick Stewart confirms that the original intention was for him to play both roles but he wasn’t interested because he felt it was “going over old ground”.

I have to agree with those who think this would’ve made a better film though – a missed opportunity, a bit like a Mirror Universe Next Generation with a dark Picard.

Hardy did a fine job in Nemesis.
Too bad the movie wasn’t better, primarily due to the director.
He’s good in the screen test and comes up several levels in the final footage.