The new Mad Mad: Fury Road prequel about the character Furiosa, is now moving to 2024. The movie will now be released over Memorial Day on May 24, 2024. This is both good and bad news for Mad Max fans. Bad because of them moving, good because George Miller has found his Furiosa in Anya Taylor-Joy. The movie will also star Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
In the newest edition of Empire magazine, Miller tells Edgar Wright that he's the one who turned him onto Anya Taylor-Joy.
"I’d known about Anya but I’d never seen her in a film until I saw her in Soho," Miller said to Wright. “And I remember thinking, ‘Gee, she’s interesting.’ I started to say to you, ‘I’m looking for someone to cast as Furiosa,’ and I barely got the sentence out before you said, ‘Don’t go any further, she’s great, she’s gonna be huge. She’s fantastic to work with.’ You were so emphatic about it.”
Taylor-Joy is certainly having a moment after Queen's Gambit and now Last Night in Soho. She'll look to emphatically keep her star burning bright in this highly anticipated actioner.
When it came to casting her, Miller said of the 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. I sent it to the studio. I explained why I thought she was right for the role. I said I was really happy to talk about it but it was so persuasive that we didn’t need to talk. The studio said, ‘Tick.’”
What an interesting and unique process. It seems like the director and actor have a fun chemistry, and I can't wait to see what they bring to the big screen. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
