There is a time and a place to ask personal questions.
Twenty-eight minutes into a press conference is neither the time nor the place.
A reporter for LGBT news outlet Daily Xtra learned that lesson the hard way after he asked Tom Hardy to discuss his sexuality at the Toronto International Film Festival Sunday. "Our question is for Tom Hardy," Graeme Coleman said. "In the film, your character, Ronnie, is very open about his sexuality. But given interviews you've done in the past, your own sexuality seems a bit more ambiguous. Do you find it hard for celebrities to talk to media about their sexuality?"
"What on earth are you on about?" Hardy asked, prompting the audience to laugh.
"I was referring to an interview given to Attitude magazine a few years ago," he said.
"But what is your question?" Hardy asked.
"I was wondering if you find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality," Coleman said. The actor, who is expecting a child with wife Charlotte Riley, replied, "I don't find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality."
After a pause, Hardy asked, "Are you asking me about my sexuality?"
"Um, sure," Coleman said.
"Why?" Hardy asked.
"Um…" Coleman stammered.
Hardy then cut him off, saying, "Thank you."
Actress Emily Browning's facial expression is priceless.
In Universal Pictures' Legend, out Oct. 2, Hardy plays identical twins Ronald Kray and Reginald Kray, who terrorized London in the '50s and '60s. Browning plays Frances Shea, Reggie's wife, while Taron Egerton plays Edward "Mad Teddy" Smith, a gay man who was said to have had affairs with Ronnie.
Sunday wasn't the first time Hardy shut down a reporter at a press conference.
During the Cannes Film Festival in May, a male reporter asked Hardy whether he read the script for Mad Max: Fury Road and thought to himself, "This was supposed to be a man's movie!" Hardy looked at the journalist quizzically and said, "No." The audience laughed, and the 37-year-old actor added, "Not for one minute."
(E! and Universal are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)