Tom Hardy praises Mad Max Fury Road co-star Charlize Theron after she called out his ‘bad beahviour’ on set

George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was a beast of a movie, with some of the best action ever seen.

On the silver screen and stunts that are hard to believe were done physically instead of using CGI. It was a production of elephantine proportions as can be witnessed in behind-the-scenes, but it was not without its hiccups.

It is well-known now that the two main stars of the movie, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, who played the respective roles of Imperator Furiosa and the titular Max Rockatansky, did not share a friendly relationship and often engaged in spats, and this naturally created problems for rest of the cast and crew members.

Recently, Charlize had revealed that she and Hardy once almost came to blows after the latter was tardy on the set. Hardy, however, has praised his co-star in a feature published by The Guardian.

He said, “Charlize laid down the finest lead character in an action movie, and that credit is much deserved; both to her as a phenomenal talent and to George for recognising from the very start of the process that it was time to pass Mel [Gibson]’s shoes on to Furiosa, which was not only refreshing but incredibly smart.”

Charlize had told Kyle Buchanan for Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, “I don’t want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot. Now, I have a very clear perspective on what went down.

I don’t think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode; I was really scared shitless,” she said. She recalled a bad moment when things “kind of came to blows between me and Tom.”

While Max was the nominal protagonist of the movie, Furiosa was given most of the agency in the story, making her the de facto main character of the movie.

Fury Road was a huge commercial and critical success for Warner Bros. It scored an impressive 97 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus reads, “With exhilarating action and a surprising amount of narrative heft, Mad Max: Fury Road brings George Miller’s post-apocalyptic franchise roaring vigorously back to life.”

Meanwhile, Miller is directing a prequel on Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular lead role of a younger version of the character. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke starring in supporting roles.