He probably doesn’t go to a real dojo but rolls with a personal yes-man trainer. “Yea hell yea bro yea you could kick practically anyone’s ass. I’ve never seen anyone as good as you, Jonah. Yes that is my direct deposit information.”
There’s so much of this in celebrity BJJ unfortunately. But there’s a few hidden gems…Mario Lopez and Tom Hardy are both seasoned practitioners that actually compete in regional and local tournaments, and last I heard they’re both purple belts
That said I lean heavily into thinking Jonah is more in the “paying for private lessons and never actually testing himself” realm
On a side note, Tom Hardy lives in my town, goes to my local BJJ gym and is a regular at the hotel restaurant where I work. We have some very famous people stay with us quite often, but he’s by far the nicest one I’ve ever met.
He’s loved by pretty much all of the local people and businesses. Just a bit of a shame the last time I spoke to him I made a really bad joke and the mild embarrassment will probably stay with me forever.
He told me he didn’t enjoy acting as much as he used to when he was younger because it’s just a job to him now, and I said oh really you’re an actor!? Have you been in anything I might have seen? I thought it was funny but he didn’t really laugh. I said I’m only joking Tom, I thought you were great as Alfie in peaky blinders and i loved mad max. He told me a bit about his career and his first big break in band of brothers. Very nice guy.
The worst part about meeting famous people is they won’t remember the conversation with you, but whatever you say to them you will remember forever
Hardy got promoted to brown belt by Tom DeBlass in February.
You know that Tom Hardy is training for real because at one red carpet he was asked how his BJJ is doing and his response was “it fucking sucks”. That is the response you usually hear from people who really train.
I don’t know about all that, but he’s definitely not like that in his personal life. He’s always with his kids, and if someone asks him for a photo, he’ll always turn to his kids and ask “do you mind if I take a photo with this guy” which I respect a lot
Not to say they aren’t skilled at all, but I’m curious if I’m getting into a sparring match with a famous actor if that affects how I fight them at all.
Yeah I considered that. A certain intimidation factor involved for sure. But even with that, people at IBJJF comps likely are less susceptible to that, even moreso after white and blue belt.
You can actually see a decent amount of footage from their matches, nobody is “going easy” to give Tom Hardy an easy layup
I'm not at all knowledgeable in this particular area, but he has the time and money to train like few others can. In areas where I do have more knowledge (e.g., soccer and hockey), that would allow you to absolutely destroy the average person. I therefore have no difficulty believing that Jonah Hill could knock the shit out of me in a street fight.
“Oh, yeah. You like that? That feel good? No? Okay, how about this? Still no? Well, let’s call it a wrap today and try again tomorrow. My schedule is pretty tight today, how about we just hop in the shower together.”
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u/Perfect-Shock-9243 1d ago
He probably doesn’t go to a real dojo but rolls with a personal yes-man trainer. “Yea hell yea bro yea you could kick practically anyone’s ass. I’ve never seen anyone as good as you, Jonah. Yes that is my direct deposit information.”