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Yeah. I think that’s great because I
remember that my parents were huge fans
of the original, so I had an awareness of it
through them. But there’s definitely a new
generation of people who don’t even know
what Mad Max is. And I think that’s the beauty
of Fury Road. It’s a standalone movie, but it
has elements that definitely connect to the
movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s. There are nice
little gems, if you know those films, but you
don’t need to. And if you know those films,
obviously what you know is what Mel Gibson
brought to Mad Max.
But I think George was incredibly smart
in getting Tom to kind of reinvent this great
character, this iconic character, because Tom just
doesn’t play by the rules and I think you needed
that in order to really create something new. It
was pretty brave for him to step into shoes
filled by an actor like Mel Gibson. I think it takes
a really ballsy, brave actor to not be scared to
bring his own thing to it, and yet, at the same
time, be respectful of the character that George
created with Mel back then, and hang onto the
emotional drive that I think is very similar. But he
really created something that is, I think, very, very
deserving of a new Mad Max film.
How did you find the experience of
shooting the film in the deserts of Namibia,
and driving theWar Rig in pretty much
non-stop action?
Physically and logistically, it was definitely the
hardest film that I’ve ever made. I think you can
bear anything for four months, which is normal
for a movie. And we shot, I want to say, six
months, seven months? Most of the movie was
shot in Namibia. We were really in the middle of
nowhere.
I think the process of making this movie,
too, was very unusual. I don’t think any of us,
as actors, has ever experienced a process like
this – not really having a script, not necessarily
having scene numbers. The demand was to
kind of show up and just be in this movie, not
necessarily be in the scene you’re shooting that
day. We were really living in this world the entire
time that we were shooting, for 130 days. So, it
was exhausting at times. For everything that we
lacked in dialogue, we definitely made up for in
physical contact, brute force, and just being in
the desert.
There was a physical aspect to this
character I had to keep up – upper body strength
and a physical look – that was hard because it’s
not necessarily easy for my
female body to maintain.
We were meant to shoot this movie three
years earlier, and that was like the perfect time
in my life, when I wanted to kind of set off and
just live in a tent in the middle of a desert by
myself. But then, by the time we actually made
the movie, my life was quite a bit changed. I
had just become a new mom, and I had different
responsibilities. So, mentally, it was a little tricky
for me to get my head around it.
But, for me, I think all that really helped the
movie. Being on that road and the fear we all felt
as actors – the not necessarily knowing what
was demanded from us every single day –
helped us create these characters. I mean,
everything about this movie is determined
by fear. All of these people are driven by fear
and not knowing. And I found my own life
to be that while I was shooting it. That was
definitely a strange correlation, and one that
I am glad was over after eight months, to be
quite honest, because it was really tough.
Is there a moment that you remember
during production that was particularly
intense to shoot or just took your
breath away?
There are lot of them. We were shooting with
these stunt units, and it’s pretty incredible what
they were doing. I think as an actor, you kind of
prepare for this stuff that you have to do, and, for
me, there were these amazing moments when
you see what the stunt people were doing around
you that you weren’t prepared for – the work on
wires and poles that they were doing in the fight
sequences. Getting to do that while you were
actually driving the War Rig, and having people
kind of fall in and out of the truck while this
fight sequence was happening, I mean, it was
incredible to watch. Or watching real explosions
while you’re doing an action sequence.
You realise you’re really in a world. There’s
no CGI. There’s no green screen. This is, really,
a director giving you the opportunity to embed
in a whole world. And, as an actor, that’s such a
great gift.
There was an element of everybody, in a safe
way, wanting to really kind of push this film,
and for us, on a physical level, we felt that every
single day. There’s a scene where we’re driving
the War Rig and I have to hold Tom up when
he’s falling out of the truck. And because of my
character’s mechanical arm, I was attached to
him on a wire, but the wire did drop a little too
far below so I had to extend my body out of the
window. I mean, I think I was prepared for all
of this stuff, but while we were in it, it was a
little hairy.
What do you think audiences have to look
forward to when they experience Mad
Max: Fury Road, and what do hope
they take away from it?
I hope that the movie speaks to an
audience on individual terms, because,
for myself, as a moviegoer, that’s why I love
movies. So, to say what I hope they take away
from it, that’s kind of killing the magic of why
I think we make movies. We all go sit in a dark
room, and a story takes us somewhere, or does
something to us – moves us, makes us angry,
makes us laugh. And then we walk out and have
disagreements about it. And I think that’s the
beauty of film. So, I hope moviegoers experience
all of those things.
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FEATURE
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