There have been stories told and retold about the animosity that set off like a fusion bomb on the sets of Mad Max: Fury Road. What started off as George Miller’s brainchild and the ultimate peak achievement of the 36-year-old franchise quickly turned into a pi–ing contest between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. No longer was the set a location hosting two of the biggest A-lister names in Hollywood, it was a fiery pit that stood witness to a volatile atmosphere that would set the producers’ blood curdling with pure fear and terror.
Tom Hardy Makes the Mad Max Sets a Straight Road To Hell
If one considers it to be an inspiring and learning process to work alongside a Method actor, think again and think hard. Tom Hardy, counted as one of the greatest actors produced by this new age era of historical innovation in films and storytelling, is easily at par with other greats like Joaquin Phoenix, Gary Oldman, and Hilary Swank. And despite what the process entails, the cast and crew of George Miller’s 4th Mad Max installment were not ready for the fury that came after.
The two leads: Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, despite their vested interest in the George Miller epic, began to lock horns in their initial few days in so much that their co-star Nicholas Hoult who plays Nux claimed, “It was kind of like you’re on your summer holidays and the adults in the front of the car are arguing.”
The sorely traumatizing arc that the two set off on while cruising along Fury Road became a point of contention for the crew and executives on set as well. A mediator had to be ultimately flown in from London when Theron and Hardy’s spat became too violent and too volatile. The actress felt like she needed protection and Hardy later acknowledged he should have been a better partner to his leading co-star.
Charlize Theron Exposed Her Animosity Against Tom Hardy
It was clear from Day 1 of filming that the leading pair were not going to make Fury Road an easy pill to swallow. In the meantime, George Miller’s erstwhile plans for the film went up in flames twice when he tried to get Mad Max 4 made – once in 2001 (the production stopped because of the 9/11 tragedy) and again in 2006 (because of lead actor Mel Gibson‘s anti-Semitic, homophobic, and racist rant that got him exiled from Hollywood). The 2015 production was the third charm but even though it worked, the journey was anything but a smooth one.
J. Houston Yang, the editor of Open Road Entertainment claimed:
“Those two people hated each other. They didn’t want to touch each other, they didn’t want to look at each other, they wouldn’t face each other if the camera wasn’t actively rolling.”
Charlize Theron moreover added:
“We were either fighting or we were icing each other—I don’t know which one is worse—and they had to deal with it in the back. It was horrible! We should not have done that; we should have been better. I can own up to that.”
Also read: “We lost close to 25% of our budget”: 9/11 Forced Mel Gibson to Abandon Iconic $526M Franchise
Eventually, the script got to the part where Max and Furiosa had to fight together for survival as they were being followed through the desert wasteland by the Vuvalini and the Wives. There was an elemental shift in the atmosphere and something in their dynamic shifted – suddenly, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron were working in sync with each other. Hardy began to show more compassion and Theron was no longer scared of her co-star.
Mark Goellnicht, the one who captured it all through his camera, later revealed: “Heʼs such a Method actor that I think he took the arc in the literal sense.”
Source: Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road [via Vanity Fair]
