In 2016, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road made a big splash at the Oscars claiming six Academy Awards from the astonishing 10 nominations. Starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, the 2015 movie is undoubtedly a post-apocalyptic masterpiece. But it was the fruition of the decades-long patience of Miller.
The casting, in particular, had been quite a long process, and inherently, the movie was far from being instantaneous. To begin with, it was nearly unimaginable to have any other actor playing Max after Mel Gibson elevated the character to an epic height in the Miller-directed 1979 movie, Mad Max.
The Temptation of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron Casting In Mad Max: Fury Road Caused An Accident
Before George Miller, casting director Ronna Kress, and Warner Brothers agreed to move forward with Mad Max: Fury Road starring Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as Furiosa, there was a long casting process. Several stars were considered for their roles including Eminem and Jessica Chastain. However, Hardy and Theron’s casting was the ultimate jackpot for the movie. It was so fascinating for Kress that she crashed her car just looking at them. Kyle Buchanan, who authored Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max reflected on the event in his excerpts published on Vulture.
How intense was the first meeting of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron for FURY ROAD? Casting director Ronna Kress crashed her car just looking at them (and sent me the evidence) https://t.co/1q0Dsrx27o pic.twitter.com/rsAiVC57Hc
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 10, 2022
“After the video call, Tom and Charlize and I were in the parking lot. I was looking at them, and they looked so unbelievable together — it was perfect; there was no question in my mind that we had done the right thing — and while I was waving good-bye to them, I backed my car into a pole and crashed the side of my car. Charlize ran up: ‘Oh my God, Ronna, are you okay?’ I said, ‘I’m fine. I was just staring at you guys!” That’s how intense it was,’ Kress said.
Thankfully she was unharmed following the accident, but their charm remained and delivered a spectacle with Miller to claim numerous accolades carrying the legacy of the saga that he had created with Gibson.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron— The Perfect Chemistry
Hardy and Theron possessed everything Miller and Warner Brothers were looking for while hunting for actors. “Charlize is so physically powerful: She’s tall, she’s lean, she’s gorgeous,” said Lora Kennedy, former head of casting at Warner Bros. (via Vulture).
“She’s one of the few people that when you see her in person, she doesn’t disappoint. You’re going, Oh yeah, you’re a movie star. She’s breathtaking, she’s got this inner power and inner strength, and I don’t think she’s afraid of anything. To take on this role and to take on Tom — who’s lovely but hard to work with sometimes — you have to be formidable. This isn’t for a weak actress, that’s for sure.”
But Kress revealed that Hardy was at a halt until they saw him with Theron. The truth of it is that “we didn’t end up casting Tom until we had Tom and Charlize together,” she said.
“At that point, George had gone back to Australia, and we did a video-conference call at Warner Bros. with George so he could talk to Tom and Charlize, because it was really important for him to see them together. Once we saw them, we just knew. It was an indescribable, perfect thing.”
Perfect indeed. The duo brought every essence of the narrative with elegance, including the on-screen fight. The movie claimed an astonishing 97% Rotten Tomatoes score while grossing over $370 million (per The Numbers) at the global box office.
Mad Max: Fury Road is streaming on Apple TV+ and Max.
