George Miller Breaks Silence On Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s On-Set Feud During ‘Fury Road’ Production

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015), Courtesy of Warner Bros.

With the Cannes Film Festival about to kick off, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ prequel movie ‘Furiosa’ is revving up for both its world premiere on May 15, and its global theatrical release on May 24. Director George Miller recently spoke to The Telegraph and reflected on the notorious feud that sparked tension on-set between leads Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron during the production of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.’ Miller is quoted saying that the main trigger of the feud was that “they were just two very different performers.”

“Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it, and whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer. — Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set,” says George Miller. “There’s no excuse for it, and I think there’s a tendency in this business to use great performances as an excuse for other disruption that could be avoided.”

‘Fury Road’ camera operator Mark Goellnicht said there was one “explosive” encounter that ignited the tension between the performers. His past comments said: “The call on set was eight o’clock. Charlize got there right at eight o’clock, sat in the War Rig, knowing that Tom’s never going to be there at eight even though they made a special request for him to be there on time. He was notorious for never being on time in the morning. If the call time was in the morning, forget it — he didn’t show up” (he explained in the ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ oral history book ‘Blood, Sweat & Chrome’).

In the same book, Charlize Theron explained that it “was like two parents in the front of the car. We were either fighting or we were icing each other — I don’t know which one is worse — and they had to deal with it in the back. It was horrible! We should not have done that; we should have been better. I can own up to that.”

First assistant camera Ricky Schamburg also chimed in: “Whether that was some kind of power play or not, I don’t know, but it felt deliberately provocative. If you ask me, he kind of knew that it was really pissing Charlize off, because she’s professional and she turns up really early.”

Tom Hardy allegedly showed up to set many hours late, while Theron was always on-time waiting for him, in full costume, makeup, and sitting in the War Rig. When Hardy would finally show up to set, Theron told him off for being disrespectful. After this specific confrontation, producer Denise Di Novi flew to the filming location in Namibia and acted as Theron’s shadow to ensure no further conflicts would erupt.

Both have actors have since taken accountability for the ‘Fury Road’ feud, also placing blame on the film’s grueling production schedule on-top-of a lack of trust between co-stars.

View the original trailer for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015) below: