LOS ANGELES – Tom Hardy showed up on director Gavin O’Connor’s porch at midnight a few years ago, brimming with excitement about playing a fighter in a bizarre, violent fringe sport called mixed martial arts.
“I flew out and knocked on his door to tell him why he should hire me to be Chuck Norris,” Hardy said with a grin. “At the time, when I read `Warrior’ the first time, I thought it was Chuck Norris he wanted.”
Hardy and Joel Edgerton both acknowledge they knew almost nothing about MMA when they signed on to star in “Warrior,” the biggest major-studio film to date featuring the fast-rising sports.
The two actors quickly figured out MMA isn’t about blood, rage and Chuck Norris-style beatdowns. They’re hoping audiences will enjoy getting a similar education about a niche pursuit that’s about to go mainstream.
“Warrior” puts MMA in the nation’s multiplexes Friday as the biggest major-studio film to date about the sport, and the critically acclaimed drama is leading a slew of MMA-related projects in various stages of production. The UFC also just signed a nine-figure broadcast deal with Fox, putting the sport’s dominant promotion on network prime-time for the next seven years.
O’Connor knows why MMA is
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