He’s the action hero who plays Venom, Batman’s nemesis Bane and a Peaky Blinder – now Tom Hardy faces his toughest challenge yet... opening up a sourdough cafe.
The Hollywood actor has become fiercely protective of his “mother” starter after, like the rest of us, trying his hand at baking in the first lockdown. But unlike the majority of us, he managed to keep his alive – and now plans to open his own tea room.
He describes it fondly as being set up for: “Coffee and sourdough and jiu-jitsu and AA meetings.”
“You can bring your dog,” assures French Bulldog Blu’s canine-mad owner.
The Brit hardman actor has painstakingly nursed his own sourdough starter since the start of lockdown and is now fiercely protective of his leaven.
“You have to feed that every day. That’s a commitment,” he tells Esquire. “I’ve actually managed to back it up so I’ve got two.
"Just in case someone drops one on the floor or the jar explodes and it’s like, ‘That’s a year-and-a-half’s work!’”
It’s lucky Tom ended up with such a quaint hobby during the pandemic, as his initial reaction to toilet roll stockpilers was a bit more Venom.
He recalls: “It was like... do we need to arm ourselves? Is this the zombie apocalypse? Are people going to riot?”
Fortunately, in typically British style, we all just got into baking instead.
The Autumn 2021 issue of Esquire UK is on sale today.
