'Mad Max: Fury Road': Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron reveal the truth behind their on-set feud
'Mad Max: Fury Road' may have been a BO success, but it did have its bad days, especially during production.
Most noteworthy is the feud between the main leads — Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. The duo opened up about not getting along with each other during filming in an interview with The New York Times, who bought the main cast together and termed it "'Mad Max: Fury Road': The Oral History of a Modern Action Classic".
The article sees the other cast members talk about the tensions that ran high on set. "There was a lot of tension, and a lot of different personalities and clashes at times," Rose Huntington-Whiteley explained. "It was definitely interesting to sit in a truck for four months with Tom and Charlize, who have completely different approaches to their craft."
The two clashed mainly about how they worked with George Miller, the director. Adding to this were production issues when the film moved base from Australia to Namibia and then had to halt filming due to difficult weather conditions. Theron, on her part, said: "All of those young girls kind of turned to me as someone who would problem-solve for them, and this is not anybody's fault — I only say this now because I know George and I've experienced this with George, so I'd fully trust him. But I've also trusted directors fully when I didn't comprehend what they were trying to do, and it just turned into a mess."
She also added that she didn't have enough empathy to imagine what it would be for Hardy to play a cult role. Mel Gibson's portrayal of Max in the '79 'Mad Max' was a challenge to live up to. "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," Theron added. "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."
Hardy voiced out his concerns as well. "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," he opined. "One had to trust that the bigger picture was being held together."
"I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. That's something that can't be faked. I'd like to think that now that I'm older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion."
Zoe Kravitz, who was part of the film, said Hardy and Theron had their moments of frustration and anger. "But I feel like he's (Hardy) 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."
That said, it was a case of all things ending well as both actors and Miller eventually dished out a brilliant film. 'Mad Max: Fury Road' earned six Oscars and $375.2M across box-offices worldwide.