The ‘Venom’ Voice Is Deeply Inspired By Hip-Hop

Tom Hardy has made a lucrative career off of his voice (among other things). But his accent in his coveted role as Eddie Brock in the Venom series takes the cake for some fans (not so much in The Bikeriders).

So, now that Venom: The Last Dance is in theaters, the beloved twang has returned. During a sit down with MTV, Tom Hardy spoke about the inspiration behind the voice he uses for Venom.

“One of the big inclusions that Kelly [Marcel] and I put into the melting pot of our, sort of, creative process is throwbacks to when we were kids,” he said. “What do we enjoy? Rap music…it was hugely influential for me as an artist, the spoken word, and what you can create with just a voice & some words. Also, some of the tonal qualities of certain MCs are larger than life.”

Hardy then went on to name some of those recording artists. “If you look at Method Man, Redman, Busta Rhymes, [and] Biggie Smalls,” he said. “There’s something about them that’s larger, bigger, and epic in the soundscape that they have. So that underpinned immediately when being playful and using a soundscape.”

He closed by saying: “It was logical that Venom had to fall into the canon of Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Redman, James Brown, you know?”

Venom: The Last Dance is in theaters now. Find more information here.