Tom Hardy appeared rude and homophobic to some people when he earlier brushed aside a reporter who asked him questions concerning his sexuality, but now, the "Mad Max: Fury Road" actor is defending his action, saying that he was offended by the "inelegant" and "humiliating" questions.
"That really, really annoyed me," Hardy told Entertainment Weekly during an interview. "It was just the inelegance of being asked in a room full of people. Now I'm happy to have a conversation, a discussion, at a reasonable time about anything. 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."
While he was being interviewed in Toronto regarding his latest flick, the 1960s gangster movie "Legend," things took a sour turn when a reporter from the Daily Xtra asked him if it's "hard for celebrities to talk to the media about their sexuality."
The question stemmed from Hardy's portrayal of Ronald Cray in the film, who is openly gay. "Are you asking me about my sexuality?" Hardy sought to clarify, and when the reporter answered yes, the actor questioned "Why?" before ending their conversation with a curt "Thank you."
Hardy explained now that he felt that the question only hoped to elicit a salacious response. "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 - that it was zeroing in on a reaction from me that would become a topic of discussion that had nothing to do really, really to do with what was there," he said.
Hardy added that it's very important for people belonging to the LGBT community to feel safe about their sexuality, and the way he was asked about it just wasn't right.
"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," he said.
Hardy also said that he feels bad for disregarding the reporter, but admitted that he just couldn't find any good in answering the malicious question.
"I'm quite sensitive and I feel like I've let people down for something that I actually didn't ask for, for something that's important to a lot of people," he said. "Should I come out of the closet when I'm not in one? I ought to maybe come out of the closet, even though that's a lie, to do the right thing. Or, if I say no, then I'm homophobic? Bless him, he's young. But at the same time, it left me feeling like I have to do something about that. And it's like why? Whose business is it anyway and isn't that the point?"
