There was plenty of fighting on screen in Mad Max: Fury Road, but apparently there were high tensions off-screen as well. Tom Hardy played Max and Charlize Theron played Furiosa. While the two were powerhouses in the film, both have admitted to butting heads during the making of the movie. Now, both are opening up about this feud. During an interview with the Times, Theron opened up about the experience:
“In retrospect, I didn’t have enough empathy to really, truly understand what he must have felt like to step into Mel Gibson’s shoes. That is frightening! And I think because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, ‘This is scary for you, and it’s scary for me, too. Let’s be nice to each other.’ In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters: Everything was about survival.”
Theron added:
“The biggest thing that was driving that entire production was fear. I was incredibly scared, because I’d never done anything like it. I think the hardest thing between me and George is that he had the movie in his head and I was so desperate to understand it.”
Hardy also agreed, expressing to The Times:
“I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.”
He added:
“Because of how much detail we were having to process and how little control one had in each new situation, and how fast the takes were — tiny snippets of story moments were needed to make the final cut work — we moved fast, and it was at times overwhelming. One had to trust that the bigger picture was being held together.”
Despite high tensions on set, fans can admit that Mad Max: Fury Road is probably, still; one of the best films to hit the big screen. You can read the entire interview at IndieWire, where it’s revealed that originally Uma Thurman was considered as Furiosa and Jeremy Renner was considered for Max. I cannot imagine anyone else playing these parts other than Theron and Hardy.
What did you think of Mad Max: Fury Road?
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