Tom Hardy’s ‘Bikeriders’ co-stars call him a ‘Teddy Bear,’ ‘He’d give us all hug’

The movie features gang members riding bikes without helmets, “There’s no CGI. There’s no filter."

Tom Hardy may be a huge softie when it comes to real life relationships.

"Tom was a teddy bear,” ‘The Bikeriders’ producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones states at Monday’s premiere of the Focus Features drama at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

‘Elvis’ actor Austin Butler agreed, “He’s very much that. He’s a sweetheart.”

“I thought Tom was going to be scary but he turned out really lovely. Honestly, he would walk on the set and give people hugs. Pretty much every time he came to set, he was like, ‘How ya doing, mate? You alright?’ And then he’d give us all hugs. I loved him,” co-star Damon Herriman revealed.

‘The Bikeriders’ follows Butler, a member of a motorcycle gang in the 1960s and its leader (Hardy). Jodie Comer plays Butler’s girlfriend who keeps urging him to leave the violent gang world behind. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, the film is inspired by a novel of the same name written by Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) about the ‘Outlaws MC,’ an Illinois motorcycle club.

The movie features gang members riding bikes without helmets, “There’s no CGI. There’s no filter. We put up a camera and lens and they got up on the bikes and rode them. But, yeah, I was terrified,” Jeff Nichols said.

“I mean you take all the safety precautions that you can and you have stunt coordinator Jeff Milburn, who is a motorcycle guru. But at some point, it’s a 60-year-old machine and you’re spinning with speed and you have a famous person with no helmet on,” Nichols explained.

Austin Butler initially was not afraid to ride without a helmet but then he got in an accident. He, thankfully, escaped the incident unscathed.

“I should have been more scared on a motorcycle probably. It wasn’t until I crashed, that I realised that it was possible. That then gave me a healthy respect,” Butler said.

'The Bikeriders' will hit theatres on 21 June.