The stories behind Geroge Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road have been passed around Hollywood since the movie debuted. It had a long, arduous production, it had an entire start that was punted and rebooted years later, and it forced actors to work together in the desert under the worst conditions. Of course, there were going to be volatile situations, regrets, and stress.
All of the stories of the movie's production have been captured in Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan. The book is full of stories, interviews, and factoids to make a film lover's head spin.
One of the anecdotes in the book has to do with Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. It's been widely known that the two of them did not like one another on set, but new details have emerged as to why.
In the book, we learn that Hardy was late almost every single day of shooting. And one day in particular, it led to a blow-up. Theron waited for Hardy all morning. and instead of waiting in her trailer, she waited on set, in the War Rig, waiting for someone to yell "action." By the time Hardy made it to set, tempers flared.
'Mad Max: Fury Road'Credit: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros./Allstar
Theron said to Hardy, “How disrespectful are you?” and said the producers should “fine the fucking cunt a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew.”
Hardy responded, “What did you say to me?”
From there, things got scary, with Hardy acting aggressively and people on set worrying.
Theron said:
“It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalize some of it, because I didn’t feel safe. I don’t want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot. Now, I have a very clear perspective on what went down. I don’t think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode. I was really scared shitless.”
This should never happen on any set, ever. To make matters worse, the producer assigned to Theron, Denise Di Novi, was banned from the set by producer Doug Mitchell, because Miller was worried about people messing with his vision.
Theron summed it up this way.
“You understand the needs of a director who wants to protect his set, but when push comes to shove and things get out of hand, you have to be able to think about that in a bigger sense. That’s where we could have done better, if George trusted that nobody was going to come and fuck with his vision but was just going to come and help mediate situations.”
Miller told Buchanan, “Looking back, if I had to do it again, I would probably be more mindful.”
Sets are supposed to be a safe place for artistic vision and collaboration. Directors are supposed to run the show. It can be hard when your cast doesn't like one another, but it should never be dangerous or scary.
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