Tom Hardy experiences beard bother

Tom Hardy has confessed his fiancee Charlotte Riley is not too keen on his new beard.

The Dark Knight Rises star grew a bushy beard for his role as a bare-knuckle boxer in his upcoming film Lawless, and told Esquire magazine while his new facial hair has many fans, he and British actress Charlotte are not among them.

Tom said: "I have to grow a beard for the character. It's really ginger and wild. But I don't give a f*** about it, personally. My fiancee doesn't give a f*** about it. She'd like to have my lips back and I'd like to feel hers. But on the whole, the beard is welcomed by a lot of people."

The 34-year-old actor has a young son from a previous relationship. In his hardman roles Tom has come away unscathed from many fights - but he revealed he suffered a serious injury at the hands of son Louis.

Tom revealed: "I managed to survive my entire life without getting kicked in the testicles. And then one day I was changing the nappy of my son. I put him on his back and he was moving his feet about. I was like, 'Come on', and he brought his heel down - and clipped the top of my left testicle. It took me to the f***ing floor man.

"I didn't see it coming, I was loose... Excruciating agony. And my son was only a foot-and-a-half long."