Riz Ahmed praises 'intense' Tom Hardy

Riz Ahmed’s Venom co-star Tom Hardy was an early champion of his rap music.

The two met on British TV The Play's The Thing before both hitting the big time, and have reunited for the new Marvel flick, in which Tom plays Eddie Brock – a journalist who turns into the title character after coming into contact with an alien symbiote.

Talking on The Jonathan Ross Show, which airs in the U.K. on Saturday (22Sep18), Riz shed some light on his friendship with the “intense” Inception star.

“I’ve known him for about 11 years now and we first met when we were both doing a reality TV show about playwrights… It was me, Tom Hardy and Rafe Spall and we had all just started,” he told host Jonathan. “This was in 2007. We were bonding over rap music, Tom is a big rap fan, I played him my first track I’d just recorded, he was really encouraging. He kept doing this strange thing… Any breaks in conversation he just started doing push ups. And I thought, ‘This guy is going to go all the way, man.’ He is intense but that’s also because he cares. He is really passionate about his work.”

When comic book fan Jonathan pressed Riz on his role in Venom, where he’s listed as playing Dr. Carlton Drake, The Night Of star remained tight-lipped over whether he was also doubling up as comic book character Carnage.

“I haven’t talked about this up until now… And I’m not about to start,” he smiled.

Fans don’t have to wait long to find out though, as Venom begins hitting cinemas from 3 October (18).