Mad Max: Fury Road Director Dishes About Heated Feud Between Tom Hardy & Charlize Theron

George Miller attributes the friction between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron to being “very different performers” on the Fury Road set.

Despite all the sunshine blazing brightly in the torrid desert, Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s on-set feud seemed to dump buckets of rain on the production. George Miller had the opportunity to not only work closely with the Oscar-winning Theron and the Academy Award-nominated Hardy on Fury Road — an apropos title considering the actors’ trouble adjusting to one another’s approach to their work — but the director also witnessed their quarreling firsthand. Miller attributed the friction between them to “they were just two very different performers.” The Fury Road director also said in his interview with The Telegraph (per CBR):

“They were just two very different performers. Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it. And whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer. Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set.”

In the end, though, art turned out to truly imitate real life, as the uncomfortable friction between Theron and Hardy gave way to the performers becoming quite civil with one another as the production rolled on. Miller said in the same interview: “I’m an optimist, so I saw their behavior as mirroring their characters, where they had to learn to co-operate in order to ensure mutual survival. There’s no excuse for it, and I think there’s a tendency in this business to use great performances as an excuse for other disruption that could be avoided.”

Charlize Theron Would ‘Roll Around in the Dirt’ on Fury Road Set

Even after winning an Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role) for her heart-wrenching acting job in Monster (2003), one of Charlize Theron’s best performances remains that of Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. However, much like Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) aversion to sand in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, Theron loathed working with all the dust. And that could have turned out to be a nightmarish issue, since Fury Road was shot in the desert.

Despite the uncomfortable shooting conditions, Theron — ever the professional — rose above the production’s obstacles and delivered a memorable portrayal of Furiosa in creator George Miller’s latest entry in the Mad Max saga. When Theron first brought up her problem with all the dust, Miller was naturally concerned. The filmmaker said in the same interview:

But she said, ‘No, I’m telling you because I can use it.’ And then every morning after getting into her costume and make-up, she’d come outside and roll around in the dirt.

Mad Max director, George Miller says it is unlikely that Mel Gibson will ever return to the world of Mad Max in future movies.

In Fury Road’s upcoming prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, star Chris Hemsworth also found himself facing an on-set problem when he struggled to connect with his character Dementus, who is the evil leader of the Bike Horde. Like Theron, ever the professional, the beloved MCU actor wasn’t going to let any obstacles stand in his way. So, Hemsworth turned to journaling to journey inward and discover more about Dr. Dementus. Hemsworth said in an interview with GamesRadar+:

“George [Miller] suggested to me to journal as the character, which I hadn’t done before. It was 2 a.m. one night. I was awake, and I just put pen to paper, and just started scribbling down thoughts and ideas as Dementus. I didn’t think much of it.

I went to sleep, and woke up, and was quite shocked at what came out of me in that half-asleep state. I went into rehearsal, and showed George. And we both went, ‘That’s it. That’s the direction we’ve got to go.'”

George Miller’s prequel to Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, opens in theaters on May 24.