Actor Tom Hardy is known for his dramatic transformations and powerful onscreen performances. As a result, the actor has enjoyed a long and enduring career, appearing in multiple hit movies. However, that wasn’t the case at the start of his career.
Hardy’s first major film role was in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, the fourth film in the franchise starring The Next Generation characters. In the film, Hardy played the role of the villainous Praetor Shinzon, a clone of Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard.
Despite Hardy’s admirable effort in his performance, the character remains one of the grossest additions to the Star Trek canon. Here is why I find Tom Hardy’s first major film role in Star Trek: Nemesis as Shinzon extremely gross and disturbing.
Tom Hardy arguably played the most disturbing role in Star Trek: Nemesis
Actor Tom Hardy is no stranger to playing broken and disturbing characters. However, when he first made a breakthrough in Hollywood, it was with his appearance in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis, playing the lead villain, Shinzon.
In the film, the Venom trilogy star delivered a most convincing performance, but the character’s existence as a clone of Picard made little sense to fans and felt contrived. Moreover, the clone’s backstory contributed to Shinzon’s deteriorating physical state later in the movie.
As the film progresses, Shinzon’s past genetic manipulation results in a slow breakdown of his cellular structure. Therefore, he starts to fall apart, leading to some extremely gross visuals, including scenes where worms are burrowing into his face and skin melting away.
Ultimately, the character simply failed to land with viewers (via Reddit), which might be a major reason for the film’s box office failure. While Hardy was still decent in the role, I find the visuals of Shinzon’s deterioration too gross, making the character extremely unappealing and disturbing.
Patrick Stewart thought Tom Hardy’s career was going to tank after Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Nemesis emerged as a colossal financial failure, and could’ve easily tanked Hardy’s career. However, the actor was mostly unscathed by the negative reviews, and despite his character’s many flaws, Hardy still managed to prove his acting prowess.
As a result, it wasn’t his acting skills that had his co-star and Jean-Luc Picard actor Patrick Stewart convinced Hardy’s career was going to go for a toss. In his memoir, Making It So, the veteran actor reflected on working with a young Hardy on the 2002 movie.
Tom wouldn’t engage with any of us on a social level. Never said, ‘Good morning,’ never said, ‘Goodnight.’
Stewart wrote the above comment (via Variety), adding that Hardy spent most of his free time in his trailer.
The Charles Xavier actor also found it difficult to build a rapport with Hardy during filming. As a result, when Hardy wrapped his part, Stewart felt it was probably going to be his last gig. However, Stewart noted in his memoir that he was pleased with Hardy’s meteoric rise, proving him wrong.
Star Trek: Nemesis is streaming on Paramount+.
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