Charlize Theron Admits She and Tom Hardy “Struggled With Each Other” on Mad Max: Fury Road

While Max and Furiosa may have begrudgingly come around to the side of besties over the course of Mad Max: Fury Road, it turns out that the distrust between their characters may not have been entirely based in fiction. In the initial months leading up to the film’s release, Tom Hardy tried to avoid any outright mention that he and co-star Charlize Theron hadn’t gotten along during filming, having nothing but kind things to say about her as an actress. (However, he did offer a public apology to director George Miller at Cannes, citing that he may have been a difficult person on the set.)

Now, Theron is telling her side to the story–and it looks like her real-life relationship with Hardy on set may have been closer to their characters than anyone realized. In an interview profiling her for The Wall Street Journal, she admits that if things had been less contentious between them, the film may not have turned out the way it did. “From what I hear, he’s not like that on every movie–I hear he’s had good experiences. Maybe the movie is what it is because we struggled so much with each other, and those characters had to struggle so much with each other. If we were chum-chum, maybe the movie would have been 10 times worse.” According to the piece, Hardy declined to comment.

However, George Miller’s remarks also seem to be in line with what Theron is saying–that things weren’t always so friendly between the two actors. “I’m not saying that they were seething right through, but the trajectory of the characters can’t help but seep into the work,” he said. “When they first meet each other, they’re trying to kill each other. As the two characters come together out of necessity and rather reluctantly, they have to find a degree of trust. And to some extent that was the trajectory of their relationship as well.”

Given that reveal, I’m not sure if it causes me to look at the film in a different light, but signs point to no. Mad Max: Fury Road is still a phenomenal movie–and sometimes, it’s almost better to watch and enjoy a movie before you have to find out about all the goings-on behind-the-scenes.

(via The Wall Street Journal)

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