That's the diametric opposite reaction we'd have upon finding out we'd turn into Patrick Stewart someday.
Not that Hardy wasn't prone to self-destructive behavior in the first place. In an interview, he recalled an incident when he was just 11 and a police officer visited his school to warn the kids about the hazards of sniffing glue. It, um, didn't have the intended effect. Long story short, he was arrested for joyriding while in possession of a firearm at age 17. It wasn't until he woke up in an alleyway, wallowing in a puddle of (presumably his own) puke and blood, that he decided to check himself into rehab.
Hardy stayed on the relative straight and narrow, and his choice to pursue acting paid off as he landed roles in Black Hawk Down and the acclaimed Band Of Brothers miniseries. And when got cast as the main villain in Nemesis, many believed he was on track to become Hollywood's next A-list leading man. Unfortunately, Nemesis was to the Star Trek franchise what George Lucas' prequels were to, uh, cinema in general. The movie flopped like a boardwalk halibut, sending Hardy to a place where he would've "sold [his own] mother for a rock of crack."
He's since kicked the habit, and things have gotten better for him, obviously. But like all addicts, the "400lb orangutan that wants to kill me" on his back must be held at bay on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis. Hardy being driven to drugs, Wil Wheaton getting hate mail, thousands get bullied in school -- how long will we allow Star Trek to terrorize our youth?
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