【Lena Paul - The Next Morning】

Oscar-nominated actors tend to go for transformation -- but Lena Paul - The Next Morningnever quite like the one Tom Hardy went through to become an alien creature that's all teeth, eyes, and goopy skin.

In an exclusive Entertainment Weekly first look at Sony's upcoming Venom, we see the former Batman villain transform into the Spider-Man equivalent of Jekyll and Hyde. And if he's being honest, Hardy knows that the repulsive, Xenomorph-on-crack appearance is part of what attracted him to the role.

“As far as Marvel characters, I have to say for me, Venom looks the coolest,” he told EW. “That sounds a bit shallow! But I appreciate that he has a kind of brazen swagger and a zero foxtrot attitude.”

In the movie, Hardy plays a down-on-his-luck journalist named Eddie Brock who undergoes a horrifying metamorphosis into an alien called a symbiote. Venom isn't all pretty looks, though. He comes with powers.

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Director Ruben Fleischer (best known for Zombieland) said that:

"We talked a lot about a werewolf and what it is when you get infected or bit by a werewolf... Usually a human gets imbued with powers or an alien comes from outer space and has to figure out how to live on our Earth. But this is really about a relationship between two people who have to work together to create this hybrid symbiotic relationship.”

For Hardy, he sees the relationship between Brock and his new inner monster as being, “a bit like Ren and Stimpy, you know?” Brock is just an everyday guy, "But he’s inherited this massive ego, this beast.”

It will be interesting to see how Hardy plays such a protagonist who, by all means, is a villain in the comics. But in the age of the anti-hero, audiences are primed for a superhero that'll force them to look into the grey areas of morality.

Venomhits theaters on Oct. 5.

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