Tom Hardy: Playing two characters is a bad idea

Tom Hardy thinks it's a "bad idea" to get one actor to play two roles.

The 37-year-old star plays twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray - who terrorised London during the 1950s and 1960s - in the new Brian Helgeland-directed crime thriller 'Legend', but Tom has conceded appearing as two characters is far from ideal.

He shared: "It is one of them situations. You get an actor to play two characters, and immediately, it's pony. It's gonna be rubbish. Just: no. It's a bad idea."

Initially, Tom was only wanted to play the role of Reggie, who's regarded as the alpha male of the twins - but he was drawn to the more complex part of Ronnie.

He told ShortList magazine: "I was like, 'Well, I feel Ronnie.

"So which actor am I gonna give up Ronnie to, if I play Reggie? Errrrrggh.... I can't have that. 'Cos that's all the fun there! And Reggie's so straight! But there was a moment when I could have come away just playing Reggie.

"We could have gone and found a superlative character actor to play Ronnie, and that would have been the best of everything."