Mad Max: Fury Road star Tom Hardy looks right at home playing the role of biker gang leader Johnny in Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders

Tom Hardy as Danny and Austin Butler as Benny in The Bikeriders

His slicked-back hair, leather jacket and the cigarette dangling from his lips certainly help things along, but Hardy, 46, is something of a motorbike aficionado himself, with an impressive collection to his name.

Despite his comfort in the saddle, the relationship the fictional Vandals MC, the Chicago motorcycle club his character leads, has with their bikes is a world apart from Hardy’s.

“I ride, and I can appreciate that world – I’m competent enough to ride a bike, and I have bikes,” says the Peaky Blinders actor.

“But what it means to these gentlemen and women is quite different. I think it’s a completely different study for them, and a lifestyle … And then the lifestyle goes on its own journey from fun to hell.”

In The Bikeriders, Hardy stars alongside Elvis’s Austin Butler and Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer to paint an intimate portrait of the rise and fall of America’s notorious outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Set in 1960s Chicago, the film follows Butler’s Benny, the newest member of the Vandals, and Comer’s Kathy, who finds herself inexplicably drawn to Benny after a chance meeting in a bar.

With the enigmatic Johnny at the helm, we watch as the motorcycle club begins to evolve from a gathering place for local outsiders and bike enthusiasts to a fearsome, violent criminal gang.

Kathy tells her story of her time alongside the Vandals to Danny Lyon – played by Challengers star Mike Faist – a photographer who, in real life, spent several years as a member of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club and documented them in his 1968 photobook The Bikeriders, which inspired filmmaker Nichols.

In order to paint an immersive picture of the world of mid-century Midwest motorcycle clubs, which existed during a time of tumultuous political, economic and social change in America, Nichols says it was essential to source motorbikes that were period correct – no mean feat.

“The first part was just getting the bikes, collecting them – there’s not a bike in this movie, I’m very proud to say, that isn’t period correct to the moment,” says the 45-year-old writer-director, who also directed 2011’s Take Shelter starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. “But there are sacrifices you make as a result of that,” he adds.

“And there are things that you ask of your actors as a result of that … to Tom’s credit, he’s sitting on a bike that doesn’t have real brakes, in front of 40 other bikes that don’t have real brakes.”

“Each one is about 60-plus years old, isn’t it?” says Hardy.

“So, already, you’re troubleshooting … You need to understand how it works, really, to get it back up and running. So at a very basic level, if it stops, then you’re kind of out of the shot.

“And then with the setups, if I might speak on your sort of world,” he nods to Nichols, “you have to make sure that you have small bite-sized chunks and enough time in the schedule allocated to get as many of these things out.”

But it’s not all roaring engines and motorcycle set pieces – The Bikeriders is also a character story, exploring how Benny, Johnny and the rest of the Vandals react when mercenary interlopers involve the club in drug trafficking, gambling, murder for hire and open warfare with rival gangs.

Thrill-seeking Benny is everything that both Johnny and Kathy want, albeit for different reasons: Kathy and Benny marry quickly, and while she needs him to quit the biker life, Johnny – whom he sees as something of a father figure – wants him to take over the gang as leader.

With Johnny edging towards something of an epiphany about the trajectory of his life, and of the club’s, Hardy reflects on the times when films and media have opened his eyes to new approaches and ways of thinking.

“I steal from people all the time!” he admits. “Like, that’s part of the job. I don’t think anything’s original, there isn’t an original story. So of course, I’m a collage. My work is a collage of opinions, people, places and things that I just throw up on myself.”

“I’ve had epiphanies like that,” adds Nichols. “A few times in my life. But I think the biggest was (watching) the David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia. It got released when I was in fourth grade, and I got to see a seven millimetre print of it. I didn’t know what was going on in the movie, necessarily, but I knew something was happening. And it kind of changed the trajectory of things for me.”

It’s clear how the sensation of experiencing a movie, of letting it wash over you and take you along for the ride, has influenced Nichols’ approach to creating The Bikeriders.

By its very nature, being based on a series of photographs, the film is designed to be visually tactile, immersing audiences in the world of 1960s motorcycle clubs.

As Nichols says: “It’s a feeling. I’ve spent three months doing press trying to explain it to people, but I just made a movie, and I should just tell them to watch it!” he says. “It’s nostalgic. It’s cool. It’s dangerous. It’s infuriating, frustrating, hilarious – all these emotions came out. Because Danny really captured a pretty wide breadth of humanity in this book, so I just wanted to do it justice.”