Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton talk about MMA movie 'Warrior'

Tom Hardy, left, and Joel Edgerton, right, had to get in Ultimate Fighting Championship shape to play brawling brothers in "Warrior." (Chuck Zlotnick, Lionsgate / September 2, 2011) With two muscular, physical actors brimming with testosterone cast as brawling brothers in "Warrior," the set of the mixed martial arts drama could have been trash-talk central.

"You mean like, 'Hey, I just got cast as the new 'Mad Max?' How do you like that, Aussie?' And 'Oh, yeah? I just got a role in 'The Great Gatsby,'" Joel Edgerton cracks.
"Actors are never that competitive," says his co-star, Tom Hardy.
But it could have been an environment where things got out of hand. Edgerton and Hardy spent months putting on muscle and training for the full-contact sport, which includes elements of boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles. Surely somebody got caught up in the moment.
"Because you're getting your fighting out in the scenes, there's no reason to get competitive about the rest of it," says Hardy, the 33-year-old British star of the gritty prison bio-pic "Bronson" and the hulking villain Bane in next summer's "The Dark Knight Rises." "There was no peacocking in the gym."

"Funnily enough, the only real fighting and trash talking that has gone on through the whole process has been while we're together on this press tour," complains Edgerton, 37, the emerging Aussie star of "Animal Kingdom" and the upcoming remake of "The Thing."

"Bloke's thrown three or four knees on me today, alone. I've had to elbow him a couple of times. No broken ribs. Yet."
It's all about the sport they're portraying, they say. Mixed martial arts may look "just barbaric, no-holds-barred fighting," says Edgerton. But it takes months of training and careful choreography to make it work on the screen. "We had to get in UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] shape," Hardy says, which meant 10 hours a day of training, six days a week.
"Warrior," which opens Friday, was directed by Gavin O'Connor, whose Olympic hockey movie, "Miracle," was his biggest hit. His new film is about two estranged brothers and the bruising alcoholic dad (Nick Nolte) who tore them apart. The film follows Tommy (Hardy), a Marine combat vet, and Brendan (Edgerton), a former boxer turned teacher who needs to make the mortgage, as they work their way toward a lucrative mixed martial arts tourney. The brothers are as different as their fighting styles.
"Their internal drives are different," Hardy says. "Tommy has accrued a lot more damage and destruction along his way. ... The other has an older brother's concerns. Less damaged, more practical worries. Brendan's trying to establish a secure home for his wife and kids. A nurturer.
"That sets up the contrasting styles they have in the ring. Explosive, violent versus thinking, enduring, patient, willing to absorb a lot of pain to get the victory, more of a jiu jitsu sort of thing."
Edgerton had only a passing acquaintance with MMA before making the film, but doing his role prep gave him an appreciation of the sport.
"I've been in stadiums, up close to the cage, watching what's going on, feeling the atmosphere," he says. "Females yelling louder than the men. Very different from a boxing match, where it can get pretty quiet."
The actors, relative unknowns up until now, are earning glowing reviews for "Warrior." Variety's Joe Leydon calls Hardy "arrestingly intense" as Tommy. Drew McWeeney of Hitlflix praises Edgerton for standing "toe to toe, literally, with both Nolte and Hardy, giving as good as he gets at every moment."
Both actors had to get in fighting shape and master Pennsylvania accents. And they had to make certain that when the cameras rolled and the bell rang for their fights to begin, they didn't do something in the ring that would shorten their acting careers.
"The best advice I got was just 'Keep your bloody hands up! Keep your guard up!' But even when I was competing, the advice that works is 'Just breathe.' It's amazing how calm that makes you," Edgerton says.
And Hardy, the physically more intimidating of the two?
"The first thing you need to know about fighting is that there's always somebody out there who can kick you in the pants," he says. "So there's no point in walking around thinking you're all that. You're not. And somebody in the gym will be more than happy to prove it!"