Tom Hardy: Mel Gibson is a legend

Tom Hardy thinks Mel Gibson is "iconic".

The actor has taken on the tough task of filling the legendary star's shoes as the new Mad Max in upcoming adaptation Fury Road.

Mel played the original in the franchise, which kicked off in 1979. And Tom knew that accepting the role would come with its consequences.

"It was daunting [and] a bit intimidating to step into an iconic character's role and shoes," he confessed to ET Online.

"Mel is iconic. And he's Max, and that's it, I won't argue with that, that's brilliant.

"But on this outing, George [Miller, director] has had 30-something years' worth of reinvestment in a world that he created. And he asked me to come along and play his Max for him. And I'm not gonna say no, am I?"

It's not the only scary thing Tom has had to do recently. He's also portraying Sir Elton John in the upcoming biopic, which was completely outside of his comfort zone. He had to learn to walk and dance in high heels and also develop his piano playing and singing, both of which he describes as "not great".

The 37-year-old continues to bag high-profile roles, but he's also got a bit of a reputation for being a challenging person to handle. It's something Tom is happy to admit to, but insists is improving.

"I have a reputation for being difficult. And I am. I am actually. But I’m not unreasonable. It used to be that if somebody hurt me I’d lash out a bit, in order to get them to stop. It ultimately comes from fear," he told British magazine Esquire. "If I cause enough of a mess, then people will never ask me again to do something I don’t want to do. But that sort of backfires after a while so you don’t want to do that. You grow up."