Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy’s Mad Max: Fury Road was memorable in more ways than one. Having been released in 2015, the action-adventure masterpiece went on to win six Academy Awards out of the ten it was nominated for. However, making your mark in the genre was not an easy task for the film as it came with its own obstacles, just like any other film.
The biggest obstacle, though, was the fact that the lead actors, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, were out for each other’s blood. The crew of Mad Max: Fury Road was right there to witness one of the most problematic off-screen relationships on a film set. In the oral history of the film, written by Kyle Buchanan, the cast and crew get candid about the animosity between the two actors, which even stopped Charlize Theron from using the bathroom out of spite once.
Charlize Theron Tries to Teach Tom Hardy a Lesson
The New York Times reporter, Kyle Buchanan, interviewed 20 members of the cast and crew of Fury Road five years after the film’s release in the oral history titled Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road. While talking about Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s relationship on the sets of George Millerv’s film, they recalled an incident when Hardy showed up three hours late on set despite a special request made asking him to be on time.
Cinematographer Mark Goellnicht stated (via Vanity Fair),
“I remember vividly the day. 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.”
Goellnicht also recalled how Theron would just sit there in the War Rig and refuse to do anything else, whether it was taking a stroll to pass her time or taking a bathroom break.
“Gets to nine o’clock, still no Tom. ‘Charlize, do you want to get out of the War Rig and walk around, or do you want to… ‘No, I’m going to stay here.’ She was really going to make a point. She didn’t go to the bathroom, didn’t do anything. She just sat in the War Rig.”
Another crew member, Ricky Schamburg, felt as if Hardy’s habit of never being on time was some kind of power move against Theron and he deliberately showed up late to anger his co-actor. As for why the Atomic Blonde actress, she simply wanted to wrap her work up as soon as possible and go back home as she was a new mom at that time.
Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy Get into A Fight
Finally, at eleven o’clock, Hardy decides to show up on set. Keep in mind that the Venom actor was three hours late at this point and Theron was absolutely fuming. As soon as Hardy came on set, Theron launched herself toward the actor and ripped him a new one, as loud as possible.
Goellnicht stated,
“Eleven o’clock. She’s now in the War Rig, sitting there with her makeup on and a full costume for three hours. Tom turns up, and he walks casually across the desert. She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f**king c*nt a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,’ and ‘How disrespectful you are!’ She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It’s so loud, it’s so windy—he might’ve heard some of it, but he charged up to her up and went, ‘What did you say to me?’”
After Hardy retaliated more aggressively than expected, Theron decided to have a producer assigned specially for her protection.
“He was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point, because then she said, ‘I want someone as protection.’ She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time.”
Yikes, it looks like the heat of filming an action film got the best of both the lead actors, and the thin line between reel and real quickly dissipated. After all, filming for hours on end, every day, is not an easy task!
You can stream Mad Max: Fury Road on Max.
