Tom Hardy has cleared up exactly what went down last year, when an eyewitness said the actor was a real-life “superhero” after he chased down a moped thief in the street.

In April 2017, reports claimed Tom had chased a teenager on a stolen moped – a route that was described as “assault course”-esque at the time – before “hauling [him] into a bus stop” to search him for weapons, as he waited on the police.

The actor has now addressed the subject for the first time in an interview with Esquire, revealing that the media missed out a crucial part of the story.

Dismissing the idea that he “chased” the teen (“it wasn’t much of a chase; when I found him, he was in fucking rag order”), Tom told the magazine that after the incident he “tracked down” the youth responsible to make sure he got help.

He explained: “He must stand accountable for what he’s done. But he’s got issues, and he’s in a bad way. Do we just give up on a sixteen-year-old?”

Earlier this year, Tom was spotted at the wedding of Prince Harry (who he describes in the same interview as a “fucking legend”) and Meghan Markle, looking noticeably different to usual.

At the time, the actor was filming ‘Fonzo’, in which he plays Al Capone.

Tom isn’t the only British actor to have stepped in to stop a real-life crime, with Benedict Cumberbatch making headlines when he jumped out of a car to come to the aid of a Deliveroo driver, who had been set upon by muggers.

Read Tom Hardy’s full interview in Esquire.