The actor had been asked about his sexuality during a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.
Earlier this week Legend actor Tom Hardy hit the headlines when he cut off a reporter asking about his sexuality during a Toronto International Film Festival press conference. The reporter, from LGBT news outlet Daily Xtra, had tried to ask Hardy about his sexuality, but was quickly shot down by the actor in a clip which soon went viral.
Tom Hardy plays both Kray twins in Legend.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Hardy has now explained why he was annoyed at the reporter's questions, calling the exchange ‘humiliating’. "That really, really annoyed me. It was just the inelegance of being asked in a room full of people,” Hardy said.
“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.”
More: Tom Hardy Shrugs Off Awkward Question About His Sexuality At Press Conference
"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,” the 38 year old added.
Hardy went on to say that he was most bothered by the way the reporter, Graeme Coleman, chose to ask the question. "It's so important to the LGBT [community] that people actually feel safe about their sexuality and are able to speak freely and not be stigmatized or feel like they are being pointed out," Hardy said.
"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.” However the actor doesn't feel that Coleman meant any harm with his questioning. "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," Hardy added.
More: Legend Gives Tom Hardy A Double Challenge
"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?”
During the exchange on Sunday Coleman had referenced quotes Hardy was reported to have made in a 2008 interview with Attitude magazine when he was asked if he ever had any sexual relations with men. "As a boy? Of course I have,” Hardy is alleged to have said. "I'm an actor for f--k's sake. I'm an artist. I've played with everything and everyone. But I'm not into men sexually."
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