The Venom and Dark Knight Rises star has joined forces with Czarface for an entire hip-hop record, and yes, Method Man is involved.
Tom Hardy has spent his career disappearing into characters, but his latest transformation might be one of his most unexpected yet: masked rapper Frankie Pulitzer (per XXL Mag).
The British actor has teamed with underground hip-hop supergroup Czarface for a full collaborative album, Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, released on August 28th.
Czarface, comprising Wu-Tang Clan legend Inspectah Deck alongside 7L & Esoteric, have built a cult following around comic-book imagery, intricate bars and grimy boom-bap production.
Hardy, meanwhile, isn’t simply dropping in for a celebrity cameo, across the 15 track project, his Frankie Pulitzer persona becomes part of Czarface‘s universe.
That includes the newly released “Mad Technology” video (below) featuring Method Man, where Hardy appears almost completely concealed behind a black and white balaclava.
Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer ‘Mad Technology’ ft. Method Man video
A fun verse
His verse also delivers one of the record’s more memorable pop-culture punches, referencing Cujo, Misery and Kathy Bates in quick succession.
“You sh*t for brains, no name lame, that bites like Cujo/I’d rather masturbate to Kathy Bates than hear you flow/And you know, that misery, it loves company.”
Hardy’s fascination with masks naturally carries some echoes of Bane, the villain he famously portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. He pushes that connection even further on album track “Grim-Visaged War”, adopting shades of his unmistakable Bane delivery while performing a passage from Shakespeare’s Richard III.
But Hardy’s emergence as Frankie Pulitzer isn’t actually new, the actor first appeared under the alias on Czarface’s Good Guys, Bad Guys EP in 2021. He returned to the group’s orbit in 2024, appearing alongside Method Man on “Knull & Void”.
Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer now takes that unlikely partnership considerably further, giving Hardy an entire album to indulge a musical alter ego that has been quietly developing for years.
For anyone who only knows Hardy as Bane, Venom or Mad Max, Frankie Pulitzer might require some adjustment.
Listen here.
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