Actress Anya Taylor-Joy is known as a modern-day ‘Scream Queen’ due to her performances in horror films. She has starred in the films such as The Witch, Split, Thoroughbreds, and Glass. She has also headlined the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit, for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries.
Taylor-Joy will be featured in George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, called Furiosa. She will be playing the role of a younger Furiosa, a character played by Charlize Theron in the original film. Taylor-Joy reportedly gave a stunning audition shot on an iPhone which impressed George Miller and the studio.
Furiosa In Mad Max: Fury Road
The prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road has been in the works for quite some time. After the surprise success of the film, which was the fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise, director George Miller started working on the next installment. However, he also had ideas to explore one of the most iconic characters of the film, Imperator Furiosa.
Furiosa is played by Charlize Theron in the film and is the driver of the war rig. She is a one-armed rebel warrior who uses the rig to transport the wives of the dictator Immortan Joe in the film. She is the other protagonist who teams up with Tom Hardy’s Max to escape the army of Immortan Joe.
Charlize Theron’s performance was lauded upon the release of Mad Max: Fury Road. She was chosen after the team looked at many actresses such as Gal Gadot, who almost played the role, way before she became Wonder Woman or starred in the Fast and Furious franchise. Furiosa became one of the most important characters in the past few years and is often considered to be well on the way to becoming a classic pop culture character.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Audition For Furiosa
While it was impossible to see anyone perform the role of Imperator Furiosa the way Charlie Theron did in Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller had to find a younger actress to depict a younger Furiosa. Miller announced that the prequel Furiosa was in development in 2020 and that the role would be played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
Taylor-Joy reportedly had an amazing audition that blew away George Miller and the producers of the film. Miller was reportedly conducting auditions on Skype and had given a scene for Taylor-Joy to act. She was given the ‘I am mad as hell’ monologue from the Sidney Lumet directorial Network to reenact.
In an interview with Empire, Miller spoke about the audition process,
“I said to her, ‘I’d like you to do a very simple test, which is read something to camera.’ And it was the speech from ‘Network.’ The ‘I’m mad as hell’ speech. Apart from the brilliance of the writing, it’s a piece that can be done to camera. It doesn’t need an acting partner. Anya did one version, which was really good. Then I gave her just a couple of simple notes about intention and she just absolutely nailed [it]. I think it was done on an iPhone.”
The director was impressed with her work on Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho and was also blown away by her audition. He took it to the studios and even before he could convince them, they reportedly agreed. Anya Talor-Joy got the titular role in Furiosa and would be starring along with Chris Hemsworth, who would be playing a younger Immortan Joe.
Source: Empire
