'Godfather of London' had secret meetings with Tom Hardy to help him prepare for Legend role

A gangster once known as the 'Godfather of London' said he helped Tom Hardy prepare for his role in Legend. Watch the trailer here:

To make sure he nailed the part, the Kray's hitman Freddie Foreman said he had meetings with the much-loved actor.

"He used to be suspicious of everything and was looking around all the time. I sat down with Tom and helped him out as he needed some pointers."

Evidently he took these pointers on board, as 'Brown Bread Fred' said Hardy knocked the role out of the park.

"I went down to the set and there he was stood in front of me as Ronnie," Fred said.

"And he nailed him off to a tee. I told him 'It is scary here talking to you, it is scary.'

"It was like being with Ronnie. I told him 'You have f****** nailed this, you are f****** Ronnie Kray.'"

Hardy was able to portray the two brothers through a clever combination of CGI, ear pieces and body doubles – having roped in his stunt double from Mad Max, Jacob Tomuri. 

Along with using Tomuri as a body double for scenes involving both Kray twins, when Hardy was playing one twin he'd have the other's dialogue fed through via an earpiece.

Hardy added: "The two characters, they were pretty easy to slip between.

"The complicated part was to make an audience believe it wasn’t one performer doing both parts."