Jessie Mei Li recalls first-ever meeting with Tom Hardy on set of ‘Havoc’

Jessie Mei Li looked back at the time when she first met Tom Hardy while she co-starred with him in Havoc.

Mei Li, who rose to fame after she played the protagonist Alina Starkov in the Shadow and Bone series, recalled the day she met the Venom actor.

"The first day I met him was when I came in for firearms training, and I didn’t know he was there," she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. "And then it was, “Oh, Tom’s here. You should bring him over."

The Last Night in Soho actress, shared that she was learning how to shoot, a requirement for her character Ellie. 

Mei Li added that since she is sensitive to loud voices, she kept on saying "'Bang!' they were like, 'Jessie, stop, please.' But I really had to get used to the noise."

"That’s the first time I met Tom," she added. "He was straight in it, giving advice, making sure that everything I did looked really like I’d done it before. He was lovely to work with."

When asked if she received any "general advice about roles in action films," the 29-year-old artist, revealed that they talked about "a lot of stuff."

However, the duo did not perform stunt scenes together as both were filmed separately.

Mei li continued, "So I was able to watch what Tom does, and that really informed how I played Ellie. So things like the way Tom walks as Walker, I tried to mirror it a little bit."

The film was premiered on Netflix on April 25, 2025.