Tom Hardy hits back at critic who called him a ‘spoiled baby’

In testy open letter, the star of The Revenant denies that he pulled out of an interview with press junket on short notice while doing publicity for the film

Tom Hardy has written an irate open letter to a film journalist after the latter sent a series of profanity-laced tweets excoriating Hardy for not turning up to a press junket to do interviews.

Journalist Drew McWeeny, from the US-based entertainment website HitFix , said he had been waiting four hours for an interview before Hardy cancelled.

He tweeted: “Spoiled babies like Hardy count on the press needing access to them and staying quiet about how badly they behave. [Expletive] move.” He suggested that Hardy had made publicists cry by not doing press, “makes it impossible for anyone to do their jobs” and said “Tom Hardy could be set to play me in a movie, and I still wouldn’t interview him about it. Besides, his answers would all be, ‘Ghbbbbygy’.” He concluded: “I get it, dude. Being a movie star is a burden. Thanks for making my job impossible because you’re such a delicate [expletive] flower.”

Hardy responded by posting an open letter on his website in which denied that he had deliberately cancelled, and had been unaware that journalists were waiting. He added: “One note to make is that per Fox, they said they ‘never actually told [you] that the interview was cancelled, simply that they were running behind schedule”. They also said that “Drew chose not to wait and left. Had he stayed, he would have gotten his interview as planned”.

“[Expletive]... Plot thickens... Who knows what to trust my friend, but I do know the cancellation was definitely not made by myself.”

Hardy went on to take issue with the tone of McWeeny’s tweets, writing: “Resisting the urge to dare you to say what you ‘rant tweeted’ so publicly, to my face next time we meet, which I doubt you have the balls to do; I want to apologise regardless on behalf of those that misled the both of us. That isn’t cool. At all. Neither were your tweets. But that’s by the by.” Hardy also suggested that he and the journalist had emailed one another about the fiasco, though McWeeny denied this on Twitter.

Hardy concluded his letter: “Best regards and thanks for calling me an [expletive] a lot, Tommy xxx.” It is not the first time Hardy has crossed swords with a journalist. While promoting Legend at the Toronto film festival, he had a tense exchange with a writer who tried to ask him about his sexuality. Hardy later said that the question was “inelegant and humiliating”.