There’s never been an action movie quite like Mad Max: Fury Road . What began as a hopeless pipedream resulted in an Oscar-worthy film and one of the greatest action films of the 2010s.
The only thing crazier than the film itself, is the story of how it almost never got made!
Have a look and check out these 10+ behind the scenes secrets about Mad Max: Fury Road fans didn’t know.
1. The Doof Warrior’s flamethrower guitar was incredibly heavy.
“Yes, I was up on the truck and we were tearing through the desert and I had bungies on my hips and the guitar had bungies on it as well because it weighs about 60 kilos (132 pounds). It’s impossible to hold up.”
2. Mel Gibson’s personal problems cost him the lead role.
“By the time we got there, not only had Mel hit all the turbulence in his life, but this is not a ‘Mad Max’ in which he’s an old warrior,” said director George Miller.
Miller went on to say his vision for *Mad Max* was similar to that of James Bond.
“He’s meant to be that same contemporary warrior . I guess in the same way that James Bond had been played by various people, it was time to hand over the mantle.”
3. Director George Miller originally wanted the movie to be black & white.
George describes watching what he calls a sacrificial black and white print for Mad Max 2 .
“I was struck by how much more ‘iconic’ the images felt – more elemental , abstract and ‘authentic’. Ever since I wanted to see a Mad Max movie in black and white.”
4. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy didn’t get along.
“We [expletive] went at it, yeah. And on other days, he and George went at it,” Theron stated bluntly.
I can understand how working in the hot desert for months on end would make anyone cranky.
When she was asked what it was that led to all the confrontation, Charlize had this to say:
“It was the isolation, and the fact that we were stuck in a rig for the entire shoot. We shot a war movie on a moving truck—there’s very little green screen. It was like a family road trip that just never went anywhere.”
5. Jeremy Renner came incredibly close to being cast as Mad Max.
According to an interview that fellow castmate Zoe Kravitz gave, she even did a chemistry test with Renner before production reached out to Tom Hardy.
Uma Therman was also being considered for the role of Furiosa.
6. Intense rains delayed filming.
Before cameras began to roll, the barren desert that would serve as the setting for Mad Max: Fury Road saw its first rainfall in fifteen years.
“What was meant to be flat, red earth is now a flower garden,” director George Miller told the BBC.
7. Noted feminist Eve Ensler consulted on the film.
“He asked me if I would be willing to come to Namibia for a week where they were shooting and work with the cast members—particularly the wives. He wanted me to give them a perspective on violence against women around the world, particularly in war zones.”
9. Filming caused irreparable harm to the desert ecosystem.
“They are doing the best of what they can do under the circumstances, but they can’t undo the damage done, to the environment and their reputation,” said ecologist Joh Henschel.
10. The film was seriously over budget.
So much so that Warner Bros. even sent a studio watchdog to keep an eye on things!
According to Group President Jeff Robinov, “It’s easier having someone there who has experience and who can keep us posted on the day’s events.”
11. World renowned cinematographer John Seale came out of retirement for the film.
“I’ve had wonderful opportunities to work after Fury Road , as you can imagine, and I’ve passed on all of them,” Seale said flatly.
“But on Fury Road , I told George, ‘If anybody else rings, I’m retired. If you ring, we’ll have lunch.’ And seven years later, he rang.”
12. Actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley lost all her eyebrows.
“They had to put a cast over my head, it was a very weird, surreal moment, and when they took it off it pulled out all my eyelashes,” Rosie said during an interview.
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If you think that’s bad, it took three whole months for them to grow back!
“Because the – not wax – but the cast had got into my eyelashes and pulled them all out so for about three months I had no eyelashes.”
13. Tom Hardy thought that a lot of the stunts were extremely unsafe.
“Bottom line is the stunts are not really that safe. If they don’t take care they will lose legs and they will, you know, have traumas and break things.”