Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy remember the hell of making Mad Max: Fury Road in new oral history
Aux Features Film
The grimy, windblown thrills of 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road won’t be forgotten any time soon. George Miller’s epic, decade-in-the-works sequel topped several Best of 2010s lists late last year—including ours—and, years later, continues to prompt cries for a sequel. Based on the hellish tales told in this New York Times new oral history of the film, however, we’re not holding our breath.
The actors interviewed for the piece—Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keogh, and more—each document the exhaustion of the film’s unending shoot, though each clearly cherishes the experience. “It left me irrevocably changed,” says Hardy. “It was one of the wildest, most intense experiences of my life,” Keogh echoes.
“Like anything that has some worth to it, it comes with complicated feelings,” says Theron. “I feel a mixture of extreme joy that we achieved what we did, and I also get a little bit of a hole in my stomach. There’s a level of ‘the body remembers’ trauma related to the shooting of this film that’s still there for me.”
Part of that has to do with the well-publicized tension that existed between her, Miller, and Hardy on set, which is unpacked here with some added detail and context. “Tom really had moments of frustration, of anger,” Kravitz recalls. “Charlize did, too, but I feel like he’s the one who really took it out on George the most, and that was a bummer to see. But you know, in some ways, you also can’t blame him, because a lot was being asked of these actors and there were a lot of unanswered questions.”
Hardy adds, “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.” Hardy goes on to say he was “in over [his] head in many ways,” saying that Theron needed “a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me.”
Theron is gracious towards Hardy, however. “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,” he says. “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.”
There’s plenty of fascinating bits elsewhere in the piece. The Vagina Monologues author, Eve Ensler, for example, was brought in to help shape the film’s portrait of abused women and work with the actors. Also of note is producer Doug Mitchell’s harrowing story of how Miller was forced by Warner Bros.’ Jeff Robinov to wrap filming before he and his crew could film the opening and closing scenes at the Citadel. It was only when Kevin Tsujihara took over for Robinov as the studio’s head that Miller was given an additional month to tie everything up.
Miller, meanwhile, is succinct in articulating his frustration with the higher-ups: “When someone is directing a film, they’re thinking about it every waking hour, and even processing it in their dreams. The problem is, if you’re a studio executive, you tend to think about it for 10 minutes on a Wednesday.”
Read the full oral history, which encompasses 20 of the film’s key players, in full here.
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68 Comments
Very interesting about their perspectives. There is a good bonus feature interview on the blue ray where Charlize Theron talks about this too. One thing I thought was funny was Theron saying that while she “isn’t usually very method,” some days on set when her character and Tom Hardy’s are supposed to be having conflicts, it was easier just to hate him.But she said she respected him & Miller & loved how the movie turned out & would work with them again
I completely feel for them both and Miller, as it seems like a harrowing experience, caused by the studio, that had the director and actors inescapably transferring their frustrations to each other.I’ll say one thing, much like some famously difficult shoots—Apocalypse Now comes to mind—they ended up making an incredible movie, and Theron and Hardy are magnetic on screen together. It’s one of my favorite films of the last decade.
Yeah I don’t know much about acting but it seems like difficult shooting conditions make for better acting in a lot of cases. They’re frazzled people at the end of their ropes playing frazzled characters at the end of their ropes. Hopefully that bodes well for Dune 2020
Generally speaking, getting a good actor to pretend that they’re at the end of their ropes is better than actually letting/forcing them to actually get to the end of their ropes. Mad Max’s responses to stress are probably very different than Tom Hardy’s, for one thing.
For another, putting an employee (or any person, really) through an emotional ringer in order to “make art” is some ole bullshit.
Yeah, I’m glad the Kubrick/Hitchcock/Polanski school of tormenting actors into breakdowns “to help them” is dying out. Especially since it was usually reserved for the women, while male costars were trusted to act. Even ignoring the morality of it, you don’t have to abuse the likes of Faye Dunaway or Shelly Duvall to give a great performance, they can just pretend.
Wringer, not ringer.
Not always. While making Star Trek 3 (IIRC – it may have been #2), the director made William Shatner do loads and loads of takes of certain scenes, because it was the only way to drain his Shatnerian excesses where they wouldn’t have been appropriate.
I really hope it’s III and Nimoy decided to fuck with his “old friend.”
If that story’s true, it’s gotta be Nick Meyer from Wrath. He also got a great performance out of him in VI as well.
I’d forgotten that III was Nimoy’s. I think you must be right about it being Wrath of Khan.
It was II. Meyer has specifically talked about how he did something like 50 takes of Spock’s death scene, because he was kind of locked into an awkward position. With most movie stars, you’re not getting a performance, so much as “Actor (!) playing X”. When you cast Will Smith, for instance, you either get a fundamentally Will Smith performance, where the character oozes charisma and pops off witty banter, or you’re left wondering “Wait, why did they cast Will Smith in this?”Well, William Shatner is no different in that regard; cast William Shatner, and you’re going to get the full Shatner. Except, Meyer didn’t want the full Shatner for that scene. He wanted a Kirk that was slammed, and finally beaten. So, Meyer effectively had to work the Shatner out of Shatner, just so that he could get the shocked, muted “. . . No.” and thousand-yard stare that sold the emotional devastation. Which, honestly, was a fantastic move on Meyer’s part.But as best I can tell, the “be an ass to someone in the film” method of filmmaking seems to have been a directing quirk of some early, super-influential directors, and stuck around because of that. If I recall correctly, both John Ford and Akira Kurosawa both did this to their casts in films; the poor guy who played Gorobei in Seven Samurai was so traumatized by Kurosawa’s abuse that he never took a role in film again. But I share with you the conviction that this is really not necessary to making a good film.
‘When you cast Will Smith, for instance, you either get a fundamentally Will Smith performance, where the character oozes charisma and pops off witty banter, or you’re left wondering “Wait, why did they cast Will Smith in this?”’*exception made for ‘ALI’
I suspect that “frequently, powerful men act like assholes because they are rarely held accountable for doing so” applies to directors as well as any other profession, but with the additional wrinkle that, due to the nature of their craft, they are better at spinning a narrative around it that makes it seem noble and principled.
I don’t think it was deliberate on Miller’s part. They were filming in the middle of nowhere for 11 months, in roles that were by definition physically demanding. It’s not Coppola deliberately taking his actors all the way to crazy town with Apocalypse Now.
Hook. It. Into. My. Veins.
The movie business is just like everything else, the people higher up the food chain make life miserable for those actually doing what needs to be done.
Just remember. Actors were the weird people you avoided in high school
Yeah, except no. I highly doubt that Charlize Theron in her teenage year is that weird kid you mentioned.
I’d disagree with you but her interview on hot ones was awesome. Maybe she was home schooled
Fun fact I learned about Charlize: her father was a raging alcoholic who came home drunk one night and trapped her and her mother in a room. After he shot three bullets through the door, her mother got her own gun and shot him dead.
https://people.com/movies/charlize-theron-details-night-mom-killed-dad-self-defense/
Almost sounds like the origin story for Furiosa
Fun fact indeed.
Ah, the ol’ Suff Ifrikan tradition.
Home school or not. But, come on, look at her!
Put her into typical high school environment, I bet you she will ends up as the ring leader of cool kids, captain of cheerleaders, star athlete or lead in theater class. Also most likely the prom queen.
You know, just because someone is conventionally attractive, doesn’t mean they’ll feel like doing stereotypically popular things. Christina Hendricks has said in interviews that she was an awkward goth girl in school.
The article is about Charlize Theron, not Christina Hendricks.
Yes. I was making a comparison to illustrate a point.
I went to her school (Fairfax) and talked to her from time to time, she totally was.
You sound like an incel.
She witnessed her mom kill her abusive dad and sought therapy as an adult for her own anger issues… I’d say that’s right out of the “Beautiful, Popular Girl with Hidden Darkness” playbook.
That’s make more sense.
Hot and weird are not mutually exclusive. My wife is a prime example of that
Didn’t she just get divorced?
If you can’t make it work with someone who looks like this, then I think you should really think twice about that personality you’re ignoring.
She never married.
“Theron revealed in 2018 that she went to therapy in her 30s because she had unexplained anger, discovering that it due to her frustration growing up during South Africa’s apartheid”
I found this out while I was trying to figure out my confusion, forget what I said earlier: If you’re white, and you claim to have been traumatized by the apartheid…now i know she nuttier than a squirrel crapping out a snickers 0_0
Largely due to her parents’ relationship, from what I understand. She wanted to be able to walk out the door NSA whenever circumstances dictated.
Exactly. No one was avoiding Ms. Theron.
Seriously. The only place that the “hot girl is somehow maligned in school because she’s so quirky and weird!” is in these movies they go on to make.
Being hot, and being weird are not mutually exclusive. I dated a model in NYC for a summer, and let me tell you it wasn’t easy and most definitely weird.Also I hung around with Esai Morales before he blew up, and I tell you stories, but I digress. So yeah no, being attractive is definitely doesn’t save one from being weird.
Some people may have their reasons for being weird bro-Theron grew up on a farm near Benoni, South Africa. At age 13, wanting to continue her ballet studies, she began attending a boarding school that specialized in the arts. During a visit home when she was 15, her mother shot and killed her father in self-defense after being attacked by him while he was drunk.
Damn, that’s worse than than if that boarding/ballet school was run by a coven of witches…
Really? I thought the jocks were.
I was one of those weird people. Eventually, I just settled into being a nerd, which I am better at than being an actor, but for a time, I was both.
I was in marching band.Theater kids avoided ME.
I was in orchestra. The marching band kids avoided me!
Miller: “A younger filmmaker who has done very well called me before his first
feature and said, ‘Any tips?’ I told him, ‘The day will come on the
shoot when you think you’re completely crazy and what you’re doing makes
no sense. Just keep going.’ When he finished that film, he told me, ‘Remember what you said? What you didn’t tell me is that it’s going to
happen every day.’”
Was that young film maker Tom Hooper or Uwe Boll?
Does the oral history feature the Doof Warrior? Because I’d love to know what was going through his head on a day-to-day basis.
i like to imagine him getting bored of the purely mechanical, logistical aspects of shooting, like “god, i gotta sit here for 30 minutes while they strap on the bungee cords and wait for an hour while they prep the flamethrower, how dull”
…blindfolded. The scene where the convoy has stopped and he’s asleep in his sling is probably how that guy spent much of his day.
On working with Theron:
C D C A# Am, F G F Dm F G♭… B♭ A G♭m! On the makeup process:
E F F# C? G D Dm, A Am C G F C.
On waiting around in the harness: *FWASSSHHHHHH*
Elon Musk’s kids?
Just rewatched this recently. Such a beautifully constructed film and it’s a miracle it came together as well as it did.
My one big regret is not shooting it out in Broken Hill, as is tradition. The reason cited was that it had rained, and the desert was in bloom – and I think the desert in bloom would’ve been perfect for Fury Road, especially with its themes of birth, renewal, and new life.
But that torpedoes a huge part of the plot – the green place had become poisoned during Furiosa’s absence and there was literally no where to go but back to the water at the citadel.
Well…I did not expect the creator of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES coming in to punch the script up a bit…But here we are.
And obviously do a stellar job at it.
Agreed. The evolution of the wives from small rebellion, to escaping, to becoming part of the fight (with one changing her mind and wanting to go back) tracked logically, as did the hardcore skepticism of the mothers towards any man.
with one changing her mind and wanting to go back
She didn’t though. She tricked the meathead guy to get he to the other car so that she could help Furiosa.
Crap, you’re right. I’m due for a re-watch.
I’m happy to know that they understand that their worries and trouble saw the results they did. Perhaps it’s unnecessary to suffer to produce worthy work (I don’t want, much less demand, its necessity), but it’s a far better thing to suffer and succeed, exp. at this level.Fury Road is a great, great, great film, and entertaining as the hell they were put through.
It sounds like they look back and say “it was worth it”. Which is great, because it is a fantastic film.
It shouldn’t change my feeling about the finished product, but it still does affect my feelings for a movie when I find out about unpleasantness or good vibes behind the scenes. Like my feelings about Kubrick’s The Shining are indelibly marred by knowing how he apparently tormented Shelly Duvall. Same with how Hitchcock would often torment his female leads. (I love The Birds, but knowing how Hitchcock treated Hedren can make watching it hard at times.)Even though it’s clear there were rough times, it helps to know that the actors generally reflect back well on their involvement with this movie.
It would truly suck to go through all of that and have had the film be just a steam turd that no one watched.
didn’t read this and the New York Times article is intentionally unreadable the image of the supporting actress from the movie is supposed to look like Evangeline Lilly young the photograph from the image search is ‘The Honestly Blog: WordPress.com Star Wars”: The “Lost” Episodes – The Honestly Blog’ which apart from being as insulting as possible to Evangeline Lilly and the woman it is supposed to be of is an identikit image from someone who had seen her once when she was a junior Waffen SS tank commander
“It left me irrevocably changed,” says Hardy.”Yeah I saw Venom.
I remember watching it.I wish I didn’t.
charlize theron truly sucks ass as an actor and a human being