Tom Hardy personally requested his longtime friend to take on the directing duties for Venom: The Last Dance. Hardy and Kelly Marcel have collaborated on the Venom trilogy for over seven years. In this latest installment, Marcel had the opportunity to make her directorial debut, an achievement in which Hardy had a role to play.
Marcel and Hardy were friends even before they worked together on Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. They met each other when Hardy hosted an acting workshop near the video rental shop in London where Marcel worked part-time in the late 2000s. He brought her in to do uncredited rewrites for his 2008 British film, Bronson.
Tom Hardy Wanted Kelly Marcel As The Director Of Venom: The Last Dance
Tom Hardy‘s Venom: The Last Dance is out in theaters and the actor along with the director, Kelly Marcel, is promoting the film left and right. Speaking about their experience on the film with The Wrap, Marcel shared that Hardy wanted her to take on the director’s role in the film. She shared that when Sony came to her about the job, she first turned to Hardy for advice.
The Mad Max: Fury Road actor told her to take the job without pondering much on the subject. According to Marcel, her directorial debut was a “beautiful, lovely journey”. She shared that with the help of Hardy, she was able to make the film in a way that they both intended it to be. She shared with The Wrap:
Sony asked me if I would direct it. I kind of looked at Tom. Tom was like, ‘You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it.’ So, yeah, it was a really beautiful, lovely journey to be able to take it all the way from inception, all the way through to the end, and really make it what Tom and I intended it to be. It was great.
Hardy too enjoyed the experience collaborating with Marcel. The Inception actor shared that Marcel was one of those few people in the creative space whom he could trust to understand his vision. He shared with The Wrap:
Kelly knows where all the bodies are buried, creatively. She knows all the souls are. There’s very few people in the creative space that I know and trust who understand what I’m trying to articulate when I’m struggling and can go, ‘Yeah, I understand where you’re going with that,’ and then manifest in a way that I go, ‘Oh, thank God, I’m not mad.’
He also added in the interview that despite working with well-respected directors in the field, he felt more comfortable on Marcel’s set. He also praised the level of professionalism she showed when asked to helm the sequel of a huge franchise. He went on to claim that Venom: The Last Dance was the best of all the Venom films.
Kelly Marcel Has Proven Herself To Be More Than Capable In The Industry
Tom Hardy has tattooed a tribute to Kelly Marcel, which read ‘Skribe’, after she came in and did rewrites for Bronson (via The Guardian). It was one of the first testimonials she got for her skills. Marcel’s big Hollywood break happened when her script of Saving Mr. Banks was acquired by Disney after it was featured on the 2011 Black List (via Deadline).
She went on to adapt E. L. James’ erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, though she was not happy about the finished film due to James’ interference (via The Guardian). She was later hired as one of the writers of Sony’s Venom alongside Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. She returned for the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, earning sole writing credits.
She was the creator and showrunner of AppleTV+’s 2023 series The Changeling. When Sony announced the third film, Marcel was the director, writer, and producer of the film. Her father is director Terry Marcel and her sister is actress Rosie Marcel.
Venom: The Last Dance was released in theaters on October 25, 2024.
