Chris Hemsworth and real-life crims ‘go into battle’ in Furiosa
Source: Warner Bros
Australian actor Chris Hemsworth has revealed that many of the bad guys depicted in the upcoming dystopian blockbuster Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga were actually former bad guys.
Hemsworth – who is virtually unrecognisable as bikie warlord Dementus in the first trailer of Furiosa released this week – revealed the surprising casting during a panel discussion at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
“A lot of the actors in the film were ex-criminals. One was a Hells Angel biker; people from very colourful, interesting, complicated lives,” the Thor star was quoted as saying.
“[Director George Miller] would interview these people and not get them to read a script, but – ’tell me a story, tell me about yourself’,” Hemsworth said.
“He said that all of a sudden, there was such a truth there, that they had been seen for the first time. Someone hadn’t pushed them aside and said ‘Well, you’ve messed up, you’re finished’.
“They were given a second chance. There was a redemption quality to it.”
Filmed across New South Wales outback over the past 12 months, Furiosa stars British actor Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role originally made famous by Charlise Theron.
Hemsworth said the ex-con extras brought a greater degree of dedication to the job on Miller’s set, which included remote locations like the back of Broken Hill, isolated areas around Silverton and the windswept plains north of Hay.
“On those long days – it’s raining or it’s really hot or whatever the complications on set are – they’re all right there ready to go, to follow him into battle.
“Thick or thin, they’re showing up.”
Fifth decade of Mad Max
The original Mad Max, starring Mel Gibson, was made for just $380,000 by George Miller in 1979.
Independently funded at the time, it held the Guinness World Record for the highest box-office-to-budget ratio of any motion picture, according to the National Film and Sound Archive.
Miller went on to direct three sequels of the post-apocalyptic Australian-made action franchise: Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Miller teased this week that “Max is lurking around somewhere in the story” while speaking at the Comic Con CCXP23 panel in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it’s really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be.
“A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it’s new, which we haven’t seen before,” he said.
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‘Thank you to … the crazies’
In June last year, an official synopsis was released with the story set 15 years before Fury Road and decades after the first sequel.
“As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus,” it reads.
“Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.”
Taylor-Joy spent seven months on set and at the end of filming, wrote “What. A. Rideeeee”.
“Thank you to those of the Wasteland – the crazies who have run amok with me up and down this country. The most fun, the most resilient, the most talented.”
Baz Luhrmann, who quizzed Hemsworth about the flick at a forum on the shores of the Red Sea, spoke about how Miller was brave enough to create a fictional universe from scratch.
“Taking [a] leap, doing something different, thinking outside the box,” Arab News reported.
“The fear and the anxiety that comes with that is something to face and overcoming that and choosing to tell a story from your perspective, to be influenced by other people but not to be directly mimicking anyone else … there’s courage to that.”
‘Dying to work with you’
Meanwhile, the two Aussies have not worked togethe, and both expressed a desire to do so.
“We’ve never been on set [together], by the way – I’d love to, I’ll give you my CV,” said Hemsworth.
”I’ll keep you in mind,” quipped Luhrmann.
“Great, done – everyone’s seen that, it’s official,” responded Hemsworth, to which Luhrmann said “I’m dying to work with you, my friend.”
Oscar-winning actresses Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow were also part of the film festival, as was Will Smith.
Arab News reported Smith spoke to a packed audience about his upcoming I Am Legend 2 with Michael B Jordan, and his “adversities” of recent years – a reference to the 2022 Oscars ceremony when he slapped host Chris Rock.
