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 Gideon's Daughter
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Tom Hardy plays Andrew
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Tom Hardy admits that he was nervous when he was invited to play the
part of Andrew in Gideon's Daughter.
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"I'm a huge fan of both Bill
Nighy and Miranda Richardson," the young actor reveals. "I thought if
they were in the building, I'd be exposed as the pizza delivery boy!"
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In the event, the 27-year-old Hardy more than holds his own in such
exalted company. He brings a real plausibility to his character.
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Andrew is a whizzkid PR who works with Gideon (played by Nighy) and is
in awe of the older man's apparent guru-like wisdom.
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Hardy, who starred in the recent critically-acclaimed West End production of Festen, as well as such high-profile productions as Black Hawk Down, Band of Brothers, Layer Cake, Colditz and Star Trek: Nemesis, felt like he knew his character.
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"Andrew is a type I'm familiar with: he's one of those slick City PR boys. He's very astute, but not too fussy about the ethics of his business. He operates in a pretty amoral way.
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"He's Gideon's right-hand man, and he enjoys all the accoutrements of the upwardly mobile. He has a lot of gadgets from the pages of GQ and a new, very attractive supermodel girlfriend every weekend. He's simply fascinated by power and what you can do with it.
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"He's totally caught up in this world, and desperately wants to get to
the top of it. His natural gifts are meeting and greeting, schmoozing
and brown-nosing. He reaps the benefits of blagging."
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The drama also has wider ramifications about the way in which so much
of our lives are controlled by ruthless media manipulators like Andrew.
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"Spin is responsible for how we all are," continues Hardy, who will soon be appearing on our screens in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, as well as taking the lead opposite Rutger Hauer in a new horror movie entitled Minotaur.
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"PR manipulation is so dangerous: remember that film, Wag the Dog,
about how spin-doctors created a war as a distraction?
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"Spin is
treacherous because it's morally irresponsible. People in positions of
authority can mould things for their own ends. They don't do it for
the greater good but to enhance their own power."
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Finally, Hardy expresses his gratitude for the chance to take part in
a Stephen Poliakoff project.
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"Stephen is a class act. He has his own
vision and he brings it to fruition without any interference from
anyone. He has complete control over every syllable. In this day and
age, that's incredibly rare. It was a privilege to work with him."
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