“We should have been better. I can recognize that”, admitted the actress.
Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most acclaimed action movies by the public and critics in recent years; Not in vain did he get 10 nominations for the Oscars, of which he won six medals. However, not everything was easy on the set, especially due to the friction between its protagonists, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.
This information is not new, since since 2020 they began to talk about the tensions experienced on the filming set, headed by George Miller, thanks to a report published by the New York Times almost two years ago.
Since then, the subject had not been discussed until now, when some testimonies compiled by Vanity Fair from the recently released book Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan, came to light. .
Among them, the actress who played Imperator Furiosa admitted that her attitude and that of her co-star (Tom Hardy) unleashed a lot of tension and discomfort between them, but also with their production team, with whom they worked for approximately four months. . "I don't want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot," Theron said.
Nicholas Hult, who played Nux in the film, expressed that the relationship between the protagonists felt like when you are little and you go out with your parents on vacation but they are angry, arguing in the front of the car, while you see everything for behind.
Charlize agreed with him, acknowledged his part of the fault and said that they should have done things differently: "We were fighting or we were ignoring each other, I don't know which is worse, and they had to deal with it from behind. . It was horrible! We shouldn't have done that; we should have been better. I can recognize that."
Regarding the testimony given by J. Houston Yang, editor of the production company Open Road Entertainment, that "they did not want to touch, they did not want to look at each other, they did not see each other face to face unless the camera actively filmed them" the actress also spoke, mentioning that at the time of filming the film he was not as clear about the facts as he is now.
“Now, I have a very clear perspective of what happened. I don't think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode; I was really f*cking scared," Theron agreed.
And precisely the fear that she felt was what, somehow, led her to adopt that attitude. She though she also said that, paradoxically, that might have made them work during filming.
"Because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying, 'Fuck, this scares you and it scares me too. Let's be kind to each other." We were operating in a strange way, like our characters: it was all about survival," the 46-year-old actress admitted.
However, there was a moment that became a turning point during the filming of Mad Max, and it was a direct confrontation between the protagonists.
The turning point in the filming of 'Mad Max: Fury Road'
Both (Hardy and Theron) were summoned to the set at 8 in the morning to record a scene, although it was well known that Tom used to be very late for morning calls, contrary to Charlize, who always arrived on time. that was required.
Ready with her makeup and clothes, she waited for the actor for three hours sitting in one of the places on the set, and when she saw him arrive at 11 in the morning, walking calm and carefree, the actress exploded in fury and began to say things like “Fine the f**king idiot* a hundred thousand dollars for every minute he's stopped this team” and “How disrespectful of you!”, which the actor probably overheard, turned to her and said, “What's wrong with me? said?" aggressively.
Thereafter, Charlize Theron requested that someone accompany her whenever she had to shoot scenes with her leading lady "because she didn't feel safe," and producer Denise Di Novi was sent to the film's set in Namibia.
However, Mitchel Doug, producer of the film, did not allow (Di Novi) to leave the production office to 'not interrupt the shooting', for which Charlize continued to feel "naked and alone", in her own words. .
“There were a few weeks into that movie where I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and that's not necessarily a nice thing to feel when you're at work. It was a bit like walking on thin ice," Theron confessed.
Tom Hardy's statements
In the same book, some statements by Tom Hardy about his vision at the time of recording the film are also addressed; he admitted that he made mistakes, that he was not up to the level of his partner and that, perhaps, now he could do better.
“In hindsight, he was over my head in a lot of ways. The pressure on both of them was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better partner, perhaps more experienced than me. That is something that cannot be faked. I'd like to think that now that I'm older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion."
