Tom Hardy has played many memorable roles throughout his career, from the fearsome Bane in The Dark Knight Rises to the rugged Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road. But for many fans of the BBC crime drama Peaky Blinders, his most unforgettable character is the wild, unpredictable, and oddly philosophical Jewish gangster Alfie Solomons. The story of how Hardy created this iconic character is just as unusual and fascinating as Alfie himself. It involved a rainy day, a cemetery, and a very detailed conversation about bears.
When Hardy first joined the cast in season 2, he didnt just show up on set ready to play the part as it was written on paper. Instead, he arrived with a fully formed, deeply creative vision for who Alfie Solomons was going to be. Director Colm McCarthy, who worked on those early episodes, recently shared the bizarre but brilliant story of his first creative meeting with the actor, giving fans a rare look inside Hardy’s unique process.
The Day Tom Hardy Explained He Was a Bear
It was during a location scout for a funeral scene in the season 2 premiere that McCarthy got his first real taste of what it would be like to work with Tom Hardy. The crew was standing in a rainy graveyard, preparing to scope out shots for an upcoming scene, when Hardy pulled the director aside for a chat under a tree. McCarthy recalled the moment on the Obsessed With Peaky Blinders podcast, describing it as a completely “mad thing to happen” .
Hardy wanted to discuss his character, but he didnt talk about backstory, motivation, or accent in the traditional sense. Instead, he launched into an elaborate analogy about wildlife. According to McCarthy, Hardy explained his entire approach to Alfie by describing himself as a bear. He told the director, “I’m like good bear, but then I’m like bad bear, and if I get angry bear it’s like scary bear” .
For a few moments, the director stood there in the rain, processing the fact that one of the most sought-after actors in the world was pitching him a character based on the mood swings of a grizzly animal. The crew watched from a distance, probably wondering what kind of intense method acting conversation was taking place. McCarthy, to his credit, listened carefully. He connected the dots and asked Hardy the key question: “So you want a beard?” Hardy replied, “Yeah.” And with that, the visual look of Alfie Solomons was born .
Building a Character From the Inside Out
That bear analogy wasnt just a funny story. It became the foundation for everything that made Alfie Solomons great. Watching Hardy’s performance through the lens of that conversation, it makes perfect sense. Alfie moves through the world with the kind of heavy, unpredictable physicality of a large animal. He can seem calm and almost sleepy one moment, then explode with terrifying violence the next.
Cillian Murphy, who plays Tommy Shelby, quickly noticed that Hardy brought something special to their scenes together. In an interview for the BBC, Murphy explained that Alfie arrived on screen “fully formed.” He credited Hardy with knowing exactly what he was doing with the character from the very first take . There was no period of adjustment or finding the character’s footing. Alfie Solomons stepped out of the gate as a complete, unforgettable presence.
Series creator Steven Knight also observed Hardy’s unconventional methods up close. He told Birmingham Live that the actor loves to improvise and play with the dialogue. Knight described Hardy’s style as one that “flits all over the place,” matching the chaotic energy of the character himself . This freedom to experiment on set allowed Hardy to find those strange, specific moments that made Alfie so compelling.
Producer Simon Maloney, who worked closely with the cast, confirmed that improvisation is a major part of Hardy’s process. He told Digital Spy that Hardy likes to “go away from the lines, try things out.” Sometimes he comes back to the original script, and other times he finds gold in the moments of improvisation. Maloney noted that Murphy, who is no slouch himself, genuinely enjoys working with Hardy because the scenes can get “exciting” when two talented actors play off each other .
The Strategy Behind the Madness
At first glance, Alfie Solomons might seem like he is simply chaotic. He rambles about mushrooms, compares his boxer to vegetables, and switches from friendly banter to cold-blooded threats in the span of a single breath. But fans who pay close attention realize that the chaos is the point. Hardy designed Alfie’s unpredictability as a weapon .
By keeping everyone off-balance, Alfie controls every room he enters. Rivals never know if he is about to make a deal or start a fight. This psychological edge is more powerful than any gun. Hardy crafted every pause, every stutter, and every sudden shift in tone to make other characters—and the audience—question his next move . He uses humor and strange tangents to dominate conversations without ever raising his voice or pulling a trigger.
One small scene from season 2, episode 3 perfectly captures this method. When a man in Alfie’s presence makes a joke, Alfie doesnt hit the joker. Instead, he casually knocks out the man standing next to him with his cane. He then looks at the unconscious body and says, “He’ll wake up. Granted he won’t have any teeth left, but he’ll be a wiser man for it” . In that one moment, Hardy shows the audience everything about Alfie. He is funny, but the humor sits right next to extreme violence. He teaches lessons through pain, and he does it all with the casual attitude of someone swatting a fly.
A Character So Good They Brought Him Back From the Dead
Hardy’s creation became so beloved that the showrunners faced a difficult decision when Alfie’s story seemingly ended. At the conclusion of season 4, Tommy Shelby shoots Alfie in the face on a beach in Margate. It appeared to be the end of the road for the Camden Town gangster. But the character was too good to let go.
Steven Knight admitted that after filming that death scene, he started to regret it. “I began to think, ‘What a shame we don’t have Alfie,’” Knight told the New York Post. He reached out to Hardy, and discovered the actor felt the same way. “Tom loves the character,” Knight explained .
The decision to bring Alfie back was also influenced by the fans. Knight doesnt spend much time on social media, but he kept meeting people in person who would ask him the same question: “Is Alfie coming back?” He noticed a real “groundswell of concern” about the character’s fate. When Alfie’s voice finally echoed in the season 5 finale, Knight heard stories of fans literally jumping up and punching the air in celebration, as if their favorite sports team had just scored a winning goal .
Alfie returned with a scarred face and a blind eye, proof of Tommy’s bullet, but his spirit was unchanged. He was still the same unpredictable, bear-like force of nature that Hardy had imagined years earlier in that rainy cemetery.
Why Alfie Stands Above Other Villains
What makes Alfie Solomons different from other antagonists on the show, like the cold-blooded Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody) or the slimy fascist Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin)? The answer lies in Hardy’s bear-like approach. Alfie is not simply evil. He operates on his own moral compass, one that bends depending on the situation .
He has betrayed Tommy multiple times, even playing a role in a plot that threatened Tommy’s son. Yet, when they meet in later seasons, their conversations feel almost like reunions between old friends. Tommy, who trusts almost no one, keeps coming back to Alfie. He respects him because he sees a reflection of his own ambition and survival instincts. Alfie doesnt betray people out of spite or hatred. He does it because he sees an opportunity, and in the criminal world, opportunity is everything .
This complexity makes him impossible to label as a simple villain. He is an ally, an enemy, a businessman, and a philosopher all rolled into one unpredictable package. That is the genius of Hardy’s creation. He took a character who could have been a standard gangster archetype and infused him with so many strange, human contradictions that viewers cannot look away whenever he appears on screen.
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The Legacy of the Bear
As Peaky Blinders prepares to continue its story with an upcoming feature film, fans are eagerly waiting to see if Alfie Solomons will make another appearance. Hardy has expressed interest in returning to the role, and given the character’s miraculous survival so far, nothing would surprise anyone .
Looking back, it is amazing to think that one of the greatest characters in modern television history was born from a conversation about bears in a rainy graveyard. But that is exactly the kind of creative risk-taking that Tom Hardy brings to every role. He doesnt just read lines and hit marks. He thinks deeply about who these people are, how they move, and what animal they might be if they werent human.
The result is Alfie Solomons: a character so strange, so dangerous, and so utterly magnetic that he stole every scene he was in. Whether he was yelling about the “wicked way of our world” or quietly philosophizing about the nature of business, Alfie remained true to Hardy’s original vision. He was always the bear. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and always, always scary when angry.
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