Tom Hardy's worry over Batman weight gain

Tom Hardy is feeling the pressure to bulk up for his role in 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

The British actor will play villain Bane in the new Batman movie from Christopher Nolan and while he can't wait for the director to put his own unique stamp on the character last seen in 1997's 'Batman and Robin' he admitted he is panicking about trying to put on up to 28lbs in three months.

He explained: "He wasn't very menacing in Batman and Robin. Chris Nolan will revisit that territory entirely so I wouldn't go by that.

"I've got to get up to about 189lbs or 196lbs. I'm 168lbs-and-a-bit now and we start shooting in May so I've got only three months to bulk up, it's a lot of fat and trickery."

The 'Inception' star also revealed he loves playing the bad guy because he is a big softie in real life.

He explained to Britain's Alan Carr on his 'Chatty Man' TV show: "I've cornered the market on the old psychos and weirdos. I think it's because I know what frightens me.

"I'm a big softie really, I'm quite scared of everything so I'm naturally quite fearful so my job is just to observe and mimic people so whatever scares me I just portray in movies."