Tom Hardy's MMA co-star 'beat the living daylights' out of him for brutal Netflix thriller

Havoc star Tom Hardy jumped at the chance to collaborate with one of the world's top martial artists on his new Netflix thriller, helmed by acclaimed director Gareth Evans.

The mastermind behind Gangs of London and The Raid franchise joined forces with the Mad Max: Fury Road star to create one of the most adrenaline-fueled action blockbusters of the year.

In the film, Hardy plays Walker, a troubled detective grappling with a tragic mistake while navigating the treacherous underworld of a fictional American city.

Following its release on Netflix this Friday, fans will be introduced to a cast of ruthless antagonists portrayed by some of the world's most skilled fighters.

One of them is former MMA champion Michelle Waterson-Gomez, who stars as an assassin who clashes with Walker in some of the most intense hand-to-hand combat scenes ever seen on Netflix.

In an exclusive interview with Express Online, Havoc's stunt coordinator Jude Poyer praised Hardy's performance, saying: "Tom is a very physical person, he's athletic, he studies martial arts and he's a very serious actor about the integrity of the character coming across in the action.

"So it's great to work with someone who's invested in it, because sometimes you work with actors and really they don't care about the physical performance. They just go through the motions and collect a paycheque. That's not Tom Hardy.

"On the same token, another thing he's got going for him is he understands the difference between the actor being portrayed on screen and Tom, the individual, so he doesn't insist on performing everything himself."

Despite his dedication to mastering Brazilian jiu-jitsu off-screen, film star Hardy often leans on the expertise of his stunt double Jacob Tomuri for more demanding fight scenes.

His latest thriller, Havoc, showcases some truly heart-stopping stunt work, particularly during the frenzied clash with a mercenary played by Waterson-Gomez that fans will not want to miss.

"I think Tom particularly enjoyed working with Michelle Waterson," shared Poyer. "Because Tom's been a jiu-jitsu practitioner for several years and Michelle was a high level professional fighter. She fought at the highest level, which is the UFC.

"So, Tom respected her but also, because Michelle is just incredibly lovely and sweet, they had a very comfortable working relationship with each other.

"Even though, in the movie, Michelle looks like she's absolutely trying to beat the living daylights out of Walker, there's a very comfortable relationship between Michelle and Tom, and a great respect as well."

Fortunately, regardless of Havoc's intensely raw action sequences appearing to be among the most brutal filmed brawls ever seen, Poyer assured that exhaustive measures were taken during filming to guarantee that every move was meticulously orchestrated for the actors' safety.

"They are all a challenge," Poyer admitted. "This is very ambitious stuff and it takes time to do action at the level that Gareth does. It takes a lot of people to make that possible.

"There's always an element of risk when you do fight scenes or action sequences, but we have to mitigate those risks and not put the actor in harm's way.

"The fact is, if you do a fight scene there's always the chance a blow will connect. We didn't have any nasties like that with our cast.

"We did a lot of gunfire and, of course, that's something that people are rightly concerned about, the safety of, on set. But we had a fantastic armoury team, led by Robert Partridge."

Poyer shared a stunning statistic: "I think, across the course of the shoot, the stunt performers and the cast fired 30,000 blank rounds. Some of the time we don't use blanks, we use training rounds, or it's a visual effect.

"It's about looking at everything meticulously to mitigate any risks."

Prepare yourself for one of the most thrilling experiences of the year as Havoc has just been released for your viewing enjoyment.

Havoc is available to stream on Netflix.