The problem that faced writer-director Brian Helgeland and cinematographer Dick Pope when they came to shoot the fight sequence?
Below, Hardy, Helgeland, and Pope recall how they succeeded in getting around that problem.
I’d always wanted to do a gangster film.
Then, there’s that reality of, “How are we going todothis?”
Obviously, there’s a tradition of an actor playing twins.
I just wasn’t sure about that because I didn’t want it to be a gimmick.
If the audience doesn’t get past that, you’re kind of dead from the start.
Reggie was the lead of the two brothers, by far.
I thought that I should just start by getting Reggie and see where that goes.
First time I met him was over dinner to talk about the script.
From the time he sat down, all he was talking about was Ron.
He already had a version of Ron’s voice.
He was already doing it at dinner"Pass the potatoes!
“to be funny.
But it was very clear that he wanted to play Ron.
TOM HARDY:The two characters, they were pretty easy to slip between.
The complicated part was to make an audience believe it wasn’t one performer doing both parts.
DICK POPE:We started out [with] more split screens and more motion control technology.
But we found a lot of that technology got in the way of what we wanted to do.
That’s my shooting style, anyway.
That’s what I do.
I get in there and explore the face.
HELGELAND:Tom and I would rehearse in the morning.
I would read Ron and he would do Reggie.
Then he’d go and change into Ron mode.
Ron wore glasses, he was heavier, he was taller, he had a different hairline.
That took a lot of the pressure off.
You’re not ping-ponging between two identical twins.
The thing thatreallyhelped us is, we had a great body double, this kidJacob Tomuri.
He was Tom’s stunt double inMad Max.
They’re not identical but they look similar.
HARDY:Jacob played both the brothers, every time the brothers were together.
It wasn’t likemeplaying both brothers, it was actually Jacobandme both playing both the brothers.
HELGELAND:Jacob could mimic one brother or the other.
HARDY:I put poor old Jacob in the st, actually.
I threw him under the bus at the beginning.
He got thrown under a busliterallyonFury Roadand then he got thrown under a bus again on the Krays.
Because the Krays is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, technically.
He went from not just learning those lines to [being] better thanmeat it!
He got dropped in the st and he came up not just smelling of roses but pushing the boundaries.
I’m really proud of him.
POPE:That [fight] scene is largely on steadicam.
Now, that’s tricky!
[Laughs] Because it’s not a motion-controlled steadicam.
And that’s not at all usuallyone actor playing two partshow it’s done.
It’s usually done very static.
We didn’t want it to be static.
So I said, “Why do you want to know?”
And he said, “Because me and Jacob are really going to hit each other.
So, I want to know, so I can pace myself.”
HARDY:I said, “We’re going to proper go for it.”
HELGELAND:I said, “Okay, we’ll have three takes.”
And he said, “Okay, we canreallygo for it.”
I’m getting twice the beatingand so is Jacob.
POPE:Hit each other?
They slapped each other terrible, yeah.
They really hurt each other’s faces.
They really did attack each other.
It was extraordinary, really.
We had a good old slap-fest!
So, we beat each other up quite badlyfor fun.
[Laughs] It was fun!
you might see the trailer forLegendbelow.
