Here's how acting saved Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy, who has climbed his way to the top of the film industry and earned a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy and a go-to for troubled drug-addict-alcoholic- type roles, has revealed that his profession saved his life.

The 38-year-old star, who suffered from drug problems and alcoholism prior to his success, having once collapsed after a crack cocaine binge, said, "In death, I was reborn," adding that the only thing that saved him through that dark time was acting.

The 'Mad Max: Fury Road' star noted that he originally got into it because he wanted to make his father, Edward "Chips" Hardy - a novelist and comedy writer, proud, adding "Because I was an only child, this was very important to me and there wasn't very much of anything else that I could do. But acting was something I could do and because I found that I was good at it, I wanted to make the effort to invest time and effort into doing it."

Hardy, who admits he enjoys playing bad guys on the big screen because they are so far removed from his own life, further said that he is lucky enough to do it for a living and he loves it and learns from it every day.