'Lawless' Actors Tom Hardy And Guy Pearce: It's The Script – And Money!

Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce are teaming up in Lawless, a film about the infamous Bondurant brothers who led a bootlegging operation in Depression-era Virginia. Directed by John Hillcoat and featuring an all-star cast that includes Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Jessica Chastain and Gary Oldman, Lawless left the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival buzzing about Oscar nominations.

Hardy was born and raised in London where he studied at the Drama Centre London. Hardy is often typecast as a hyper-masculine figure owing to his chiseled features. So it is not surprising that he won a modeling competition when he was 21. This led to his first television role in the HBO-BBC mini series, Band of Brothers, in which he played a United States Army private. Hardy’s first feature film debut was in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, but it wasn’t until 2009 that he received his first starring role as the title character in Bronson, where he had to gain 42 pounds of muscle. In the last few years, Hardy has become a rising star, garnering roles in mega box office hits such as Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Dark Knight Rises.

Pearce is also an English actor who moved to Australia with his mother, who ran a deer farm. Prior to film acting, Pearce was a competitive body builder and practiced fencing. He performed in many theater productions when he was younger which led to his on screen acting career. His first major film role was in The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, in which he portrayed a drag queen who heads on an epic journey through the Outback. Pearce achieved film success and has gone on to star in well-known films such as L.A. Confidential, Rules of Engagement, The Count of Monte Cristo and his frighteningly realistic performance as Andy Warhol in Factory Girl with Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick.

For Lawless, Hardy and Pearce collaborated with the eminent screenwriter Nick Cave, who previously fronted the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seed. "There’s something brutally honest about him," Pearce told Uinterview exclusively. "He’s a no-bullshit kind of guy, really. That comes through. The thing I’m always interested in with Nick is how easy his poetry comes to the surface, because he is obviously so poetic."