Anya Taylor-Joy’s “Cryptic” Comments About How “Hard” Her Experience On The “Mad Max” Prequel’s Set Was Has Left Fans With A Whole Bunch Of Questions

In 2022, Charlize Theron revealed that she felt so threatened by her costar Tom Hardy on set that she required protection. She also claimed that producers forgave his “really bad behavior” because he was a man.

In Kyle Buchanan’s tell-all book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, more than 150 people who were involved in the almost-two-decade making of the movie didn’t hold back as they recounted their grueling days in the desert. 

In the book, Charlize admits that she “didn’t feel safe” and requested a woman producer be drafted in to help “equalize” the tension during filming. However, when Denise Di Novi was hired, director George Miller barred her from the set — which Charlize said left her feeling “pretty naked and alone.”

Tom denied that Charlize ever felt threatened by him, saying: “She’s a very serious actor. So, I don’t see why she would ever be intimidated by me or in any way feel frightened. I think that was more bollocks,” however, other stars from the movie verified that there was a bad atmosphere on set.

In 2017, Zoë Kravitz also pointed out that the tension may have been exacerbated by the environment that they spent six months filming in, explaining: “[We were] also in the desert for so long, I think everyone was tired, and confused, and homesick. We saw nothing but sand for six months; you go crazy.”

Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, Mad Max: Fury Road was a huge success and received 10 Academy Award nominations — and its highly-anticipated prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is due for release later this month.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Anya repeatedly referenced how difficult the shoot had been for her, even admitting that when it wrapped in 2022, she knew she was “going to need the two years that it took for the movie to come out to deal with it.”

Interviewed by the same journalist who had written the tell-all book, Anya added: “I’ve never been more alone than making that movie. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”

Buchanan writes: “Sensing that she was skirting a sensitive issue, I asked Taylor-Joy what exactly it was about Furiosa that had proved more difficult than she expected. For five long seconds, she contemplated giving me an answer. ‘Next question, sorry,’ she said.”

“There was a faraway look in her eyes, as if a part of her had been left behind in that wasteland,” he goes on, before quoting Anya telling him: “Talk to me in 20 years. Talk to me in 20 years.”

Addressing the limits that Mad Max’s director put on her performance, she explained: “I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George, and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller.”

“But he had a very, very strict idea of what [Anya’s character] Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have,” Anya added. 

Defending his direction, George told the publication: “When you’ve got someone with a lot going on and they’re silent, the audience is getting ahold of a lot of stuff. It’s that thing that you can really only do in cinema.”

Anya went on to reveal that she even ended up breaking down in tears as she tried to plead her case with her director. 

George apparently reacted by telling her: “You care so much, it’s beautiful.”

Interestingly, Charlize previously recalled a similar experience during filming for Fury Road, saying that she approached George and demanded her character have a cathartic outburst. 

This ultimately led to Charlize improvising a scene in which she drops to her knees and lets out a primal scream — something that is widely considered to be one of the stand-out moments in the movie.

Speaking to Access Hollywood, she said of the Australian actor: "He’s just the most wonderful, kind-hearted, big-hearted individual. We have a lot of fun. [I’m] very lucky."

Anya also acknowledged: “Making this film wanting to kill your co-star would be really difficult.”

“I will never regret this experience, on so many different levels, but it’s a very particular story to have,” Anya explained. “There’s not everyone in the world that has made a Mad Max movie, and I swear to God, everyone that I’ve met that has, there’s a look in our eyes: We know. There’s an immediate kinship of like, ‘OK, hey, I see you.’”

Referencing Charlize directly, she added: “We are due a sit-down, hash-it-out dinner.”