Tom Hardy, Like a Lot of People, Wants to Keep His Sexuality Private

Unless you've been living under a rock (a huge, damp, dark rock with no internet connection), then you've probably already heard about that super awkward exchange from last week at the Toronto International Film Festival that British actor Tom Hardy had with a reporter from the LGBT press regarding his sexuality. You know, the one where he basically questioned why journalists should even be asking people — namely celebrities — what their sexualities are in the first place?

Here it is again, just in case:

Well, never one to keep hush about what he believes in, Tom recently sat down with The Daily Beast for an interview and addressed the aftermath of that oh-so cringe-worthy question from the TIFF press conference, and as to be expected, he is standing firm in his response. 

"I think everybody is entitled to the right to privacy. There should be elegant ways to approach any topic, and there’s a time and place to approach anything and have a good, common sense conversation about anything," Tom told The Daily Beast.

He continued:

"I do think that there’s a responsibility for people to own the way that they speak publicly. This doesn’t stop us from being human beings; some things are private. I’m under no obligation to share anything to do with my family, my children, my sexuality—that’s nobody’s business but my own. And I don’t see how that can have anything to do with what I do as an actor, and it’s my own business. If you knew me as a friend, then sure, we’d talk about anything. But that was a public forum, and for someone to inelegantly ask a question that seemed designed entirely to provoke a reaction, and start a topic of debate… It’s important destigmatizing sexuality and gender inequality in the workplace, but to put a man on the spot in a room full of people designed purely for a salacious reaction? To be quite frank, it’s rude. If he’d have said that to me in the street, I’d have said the same thing back: 'I’m sorry, who the fuck are you?'"

To make it perfectly clear, the actor of The Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max fame thinks that what LGBT publications are doing is incredibly important work. What he took issue with is the way he was asked about something he felt didn't have to do with his job as an actor. 

"...if you felt it was so important for people to feel confident to talk about their sexuality, why would you put somebody on the spot in a room full of people and decide that was the time for them to open up about their sexual ambiguity?" he said. "It’s not about what he and his publication stands for, none of that is offensive, and on the contrary, it’s very admirable, and an important issue. But how I was asked was incredibly inelegant, and I just thought it was disrespectful and counterproductive to what he stands for."

So what are your thoughts on the way Tom Hardy answered the question about his "sexual ambiguity?" Take the poll below and let us know!