Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, George Miller and Nicholas Hoult on their MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Experiences

The movie event of the summer arrives this weekend in the form of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which reunites fan with the series’ titular hero (now portrayed by the badass Tom Hardy), who finds himself in yet another dangerous adventure, but this time with a few new friends along for the ride.

During the recent Fury Road press day, we heard from Miller, Hardy and co-star Charlize Theron about their experiences working on the latest chapter in the Mad Max franchise, what we can expect from their characters and much more. Check out the highlights from the press conference below and look for Mad Max: Fury Road in theaters everywhere this Friday (early engagements begin Thursday night).

Tom, Max in this movie seems to be more broken than we’ve ever seen him before. Were you reflecting on all he’s been through in the previous three movies or was it just your take on the character?

Tom Hardy: I think he’s supposed to be broken, isn’t he, because in many ways, he’s a broken-spirited man. Max starts off living a hermetic lifestyle in the beginning and then, we see him open up throughout the movie, connect with humanity around him, and then be broken again. Then, Max’s sent off into the Wasteland. I’m not quite sure where this fits into the trilogy that was before this but there were a succession of conversations about Max, the world around him and the previous mythology. George wanted Max to be broken at the beginning and then suitably broken again and again.

Charlize, what was so irresistible about putting yourself through all of this for Mad Max: Fury Road?

Charlize Theron: I find myself in the last couple of days talking about this movie and realizing more than ever just how fortunate I was to have George trust me with this role and to hand this opportunity my way. You really are only as good as the opportunities that are handed to you and I watched the movie a couple of weeks ago, and found myself so incredibly grateful to have been given this opportunity. So, thank you for that (to George).

And I think Furiosa is a pretty bad-ass name. It’s funny, when you get a name in a movie it’s because that’s what we do, socially. We are given names. But in this case, I thought what was really interesting about the names we had was because the movie is so bare in its explanation of where these people come from and who they really are, and you find them in the midst of the movement already. I thought there was something really powerful about the name Furiosa because it almost sets you up- like you didn’t have to know anything about her because the name alone said it. So anything that was emotionally driving her was already represented in her name, which was helpful for me. And it’s just a cool name.

George, can you talk about infusing Fury Road with a bit of “girl power?”

George Miller: Well, it comes from the very first notion or conceit of the movie which was, instead of the “McGuffin” as usual being a thing that instead, this time around it should be human cargo. Five wives who were capable of breeding an army for a Warlord. That was the basic architecture of the movie and the rest followed organically. And I never thought it could be a male stealing the women, it had to be a female and it had to be a female “Road Warrior.”

As you know, often enough you don’t end up conscientiously doing these things. I’ve reflected on my life though and I grew up with no sisters, all brothers. I went to an all-boys high school and I went to medical school at a time when there weren’t that many women studying medicine. And so I had to see these things outside of all that- through my two marriages, my mother was very strong and we’re now seeing in the world in many different places that women are emerging in a way that almost a unifying or a healing way that helps the universe. I think that all sort of crept into the movie.

And I just wanted to create characters, these two characters (Max and Furiosa), who couldn’t be more desperate and they try to kill each other because of that. But then they find themselves in an extreme where they need each other so there’s a mutual regard there and ultimately, a mutual sense of survival comes out from all of that.

George, the music really drives the action in Fury Road so I was wondering if you could talk about collaborating with Junkie XL?

George Miller: Believe it or not, when I started this movie I intended to have no music other than the sound of the cars and the guitarist and the drummers (that appear in the chase scenes).  And then as the movie started to evolve in the cutting room, I realized that this is almost a rock opera so it needed a composer that could really bring something huge to this. Darren Higman from Warner Bros. said to try this composer and I had never heard of Junkie XL. He had some music he had done for some other projects which ended up fitting really well when we first started so that was great. And I didn’t realize his background at first, either- he studied law, he lectured on sound design in Holland, he’s got the full symphonic ability and so whatever you throw at him, he’s got the intellectual and artistic capacities to be able to handle it.

And I think he glued so much of this movie together and modulated the passages through the movie. I mean, it is a visual medium and so it needed music that’s complimentary to it. We had a really good time doing it, he’s a great composer.

Nicholas, can you talk about your experience and the preparation you did to ready yourself for the transformation you underwent while playing Nux?

Nicholas Hoult: It’s really because of George. He had a great way of describing the world we were living in and also, before we even got first to Australia, then to Namibia, he would send me videos that were essentially chronicling my character’s life. It covered everything from conception to his younger life to his mental state when we first meet him in Fury Road and all the values he believes in because of this world he exists within.

And then I just tried to listen to George on set and it was quite an extreme atmosphere on set so that always kept the blood pumping.

Tom, what did you bring to this in order to make the role of Max your own?

Tom Hardy: I think initially I was daunted because, obviously, Mad Max is synonymous with Mel Gibson and  a much loved character by many people. But at the same time, I was really excited to get the job because it’s always exciting to get a job, but it was such a big fish to land for me. The other side of that though was that because everybody loves Mel as Max, and nobody is going to want me, at all. So it’s like being the new boy at school, and set up in some way for failure immediately.

Having said all that, George in the same way that he created the car chase movie, he also created the post-apocalyptic movie some 40 years ago and there was no real pressure to try and fill anybody’s shoes, or to be a new Mad Max of any sort. And so I was inheriting a legacy and had been chosen by George to transmute his vision and this character into today’s Mad Max world which has been further discovered and mined and pursued by George.