The behind-the-scenes drama of “Mad Max: Fury Road” is legendary, at this point. There have been so many interviews about how Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy were very contentious. Stories about how difficult it can be to work with George Miller, as he is a bit of a perfectionist. On and on and on again. And judging by a new interview with Anya Taylor-Joy, the star of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the production of the newest entry in the franchise was still incredibly difficult.
Speaking to the New York Times, Anya Taylor-Joy went deep into the production of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” That is to say, she echoed quite a few of the things that franchise veterans like Charlize Theron said about working on these films–it’s a really challenging job. Way more difficult than a typical film, especially for its star.
“I’ve never been more alone than making that movie,” Taylor-Joy said. “I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”
When pressed by the interviewer to dive deeper into what exactly was so hard, the actress replied, “Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years. Talk to me in 20 years.”
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Part of what made her time on “Furiosa” so unique was that Taylor-Joy had extremely limited lines. (George Miller estimates that it’s around 30 lines altogether.) This made for a long time Taylor-Joy would have on set without saying a word.
“Months,” the actress said about how long it would be on set without speaking a line. “I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller. But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have.”
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The way Taylor-Joy describes working on the film almost sounds like a veteran soldier coming back from war. (Obviously, the latter is a very different and difficult situation.) It really does sound like the actress experienced things that she wasn’t expecting. And now, she has kinship with other ‘Mad Max’ veterans.
“I will never regret this experience, on so many different levels, but it’s a very particular story to have,” Taylor-Joy said. “There’s not everyone in the world that has made a ‘Mad Max’ movie, and I swear to God, everyone that I’ve met that has, there’s a look in our eyes: We know. There’s an immediate kinship of like, ‘OK, hey, I see you.’”
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Judging by the early reactions to the film, everyone’s hard work on “Furiosa” paid off. Those who have seen the film are quick to praise it. We’ll just have to wait and see if it earns the same awards season success as ‘Fury Road.’
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” hits theaters on May 24.
