Tom Hardy has revealed how his meet-up with Mel Gibson didn’t quite turn out as he had hoped.

The Child 44 star spoke with the 59-year-old actor to discuss Tom’s portrayal of Mad Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road, a role Mel had played in the other three films.

Mel Gibson (Alexandra Wyman/Invision/AP)
Mel Gibson (Alexandra Wyman/Invision)

“I met Mel. I needed to meet Mel purely from a young man’s perspective. I want to touch base with the previous Max and just say hello. And is it okay? Because I’m taking on Max, I have to meet Max,” he told Details.

“It’s awkward. ‘You’re Mad Max. I’m Tommy Hardy, and I’m playing him’. He was bored with me. He said, ‘All right, buddy, good luck with that’. Bless him,” he added.

Tom said he even offered Mel a gift.

“I made him a bracelet. And then we talked for a couple of hours about all kinds of stuff,” he continued.

“I left, and that was that. And then he called up my agent and said, ‘I think you found someone that’s crazier than I am.’”

Tom stars alongside Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult in the fourth film in the franchise, once again directed by George Miller. The film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Tom Hardy stars in Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros/Jasin Boland)
Tom Hardy stars in Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros/Jasin Boland)

“George Miller presented us with a 300-page comic book with every single frame of the movie drawn out. What he has created is breathtakingly f***ing intricate, and he’s fully articulated the most amazing colourful orchestration of carnage,” he explained.

“It’s a masterpiece. And that far outweighs any fear of playing, taking on Mel’s role. Mad Max is, like, the coolest superhero that a boy could get. ‘Cause there’s no cape, there’s no rubber suit. There’s no flying. Nothing really hurts Batman or Superman. Everything hurts in Mad Max.”

He continued: “Those kind of heroes, they excite me because they are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. They are fallible.

“And when they jump, they’re not sure if they’re going to make it to the other side. And then it doesn’t stop. I mean, Mad Max is really just an old man trying to go home.”