STACK NZ Sep #66

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with them. You notice that she’s looking a lot like these Warboys chasing her, and that she’s got an arm missing, and has a mechanical arm. She looks like a boy, but she’s not. I think you can tell that there’s a look of desperate revenge on her face. And I loved all of that.  Her journey starts off that way, and then, obviously, gets derailed when she runs into Max, and she all of a sudden is kind of captured by him. But then, he’s also captured by her.  They’re somewhat stuck with each other on this journey to find hope – a journey of hope in a place where there really is no hope. But she’s this kind of rogue survivor; that’s what she has always been. I think she’s lived a life filled with waiting for the perfect moment to grab her revenge. And I know, because of George telling me, that she was kidnapped to perform certain duties that she could not deliver on, and thus she was discarded in quite a terrible way. We don’t see any of that in the movie, but I think she carries a lot of that emotion with her – of being stolen and then discarded – and is just trying to find a way to rectify that for herself, emotionally. Some members of this generation are going to be meeting Mad Max for the first time in this film, as played byTom Hardy. Can you talk about working withTom and what you think he brings to this role?

CharlizeTheron's character manages to upstage the titular hero as the driving force of Mad Max: Fury Road .

When you first talked to George Miller about Max Max: Fury Road , what drew you to the project and what resonated with you about your character, Furiosa? CHARLIZETHERON: 

Yeah. I think I had ownership because George allowed me to have ownership, you know? 

As an actor, you can’t just kind of take it. I think it’s really up to the filmmaker to invite you into that, and George is absolutely fantastic

Well, the whole thing was pretty secret. There was a script, but it was really just a long storyboard. George and I had several conversations, and he communicated what he wanted to do with Furiosa, I think, later on – not necessarily even in this movie. So there was a lot of backstory that he introduced me to, and a real intrigue in what he wanted to do with the film, which felt really honest.  Every time you make a film with somebody, there is this moment where you have to kind of just jump off the cliff with them. But, in this case, I feel like we were blindfolded, because there was very little to go by, except for George as a filmmaker, which is, I think, why we all signed up. So, for me, what happened with Furiosa was that there was a grain that was really thought out, but the scenes were continuously developing over the years as this project came together. And I think it all happened for a reason, because, at the end of the day, we ended up with a character that I felt was very unique, and somewhat brutally honest. It was interesting for me to play in this world, in a genre where a character’s flaws are celebrated. Once you’d wrapped your mind around this character, did you feel an ownership of her, and did George welcome your collaboration? 

and encouraging of collaboration.  I think he really wanted that for all of us. For me as an actor, that’s

always very important.  He just loves actors, and really loves the process. I mean, we spent a lot of time sitting down one-on-one, or with the group, and just really talking. You can just see in his eyes when something kind of sparks an interest.  He grabs a lot of it, and that’s really nice, to work with a director who values actors that way. Can you talk about who Furiosa is, where she starts out, and your thoughts on the journey she takes in the film? Well, when you watch the movie, you understand certain things about her, but the film is so sparse, and that’s the beauty of it because she really is an enigma. She starts the film in overdrive, helping or kidnapping – we’re not quite sure – these brides of a dictator, Immortan Joe. She basically takes off in one of the trucks, and you don’t quite know whether these girls can trust her, or what she’s planning to do

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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