#TBT: Tom Hardy, Greatest Male Model of the '90s

Before he more or less owned 2015, Tom Hardy was just a 20-year-old drama student with a dream and a pair of ill-fitting khakis.

Back in 1998, Hardy--apparently fresh off an *NSYNC audition at a TGI Fridays--went on the Brit TV show The Big Breakfast for a modeling competition.

First of all, what's happening with this shoe situation? A teva? On television? I don't remember the late-90s being so basic yet here we are.

Second, The Big Breakfast may have been playing a little fast and loose with the words "model" and "competition"--

--but in all fairness, the prize was a toolbox so you get what you pay for. But even as an awkward, terribly-dressed, 20-year-old aspiring thespian, that Tom Hardy was all lips and charm.

At least now we know how he became a star...

...and it only took 15 years for it to take.

Meanwhile, I hope Tom wins his Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination just to see this reaction again:

Take a catwalk down Memory Lane to Tom Hardy's modeling day(s) below: