Earlier this month, the cast and director of “Mad Max: Fury Road” – George Miller, Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, and Doug Mitchell – held a press conference for the action movie at the Cannes Festival.
Charlize Theron's role as the powerful Imperator Furiosa and the female-led cast has led to many describing the dystopian film as a "feminist movie", with a message of gender equality.
So it came as no surprise that during the press conference, reporters would ask questions about the importance of women in the movie.
A reporter from the Toronto Star asked Tom Hardy: "When you were reading the script, did you ever think, why are all these women in here, I thought this was supposed to be a man's movie?"
Hardy's answer is blunt: "No. Not for one minute."
Does he look amused by the question?
Just in case you needed another reason to <3 Tom Hardy.
You can watch the glorious moment in action here at 10 minutes in:
View this video on YouTube
Peter Howell, the Toronto Star movie critic who asked the question, gave the following statement to BuzzFeed:
"My question to Tom Hardy was intended as the opposite of sexism. I was congratulating him for his willingness to share the screen with so many strong women in a franchise and genre more inclined to celebrate the male over the female. He was also willing to be in a co-lead role with Charlize Theron, in a movie called MAD MAX, no less. I think a lot of male stars might have objected to this, but Hardy is of a special breed.
But I don’t think I worded my question very well. Hardy just shrugged it off, although I don’t think he was offended by it. I think this article I wrote gives you a better idea of what I was getting at, which was to celebrate the idea of women being cast in traditionally male roles, not to scorn it."