In this Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Anya Taylor-Joy plays a young Furiosa, a character made iconic by Charlize Theron in the original movie
For 45 years, one name has ruled the wasteland: Max ‘Mad Max’ Rockatansky. Debuting in the scrappy, low-budget Australian movie Mad Max — which would go on to become a franchise — the character was played by Mel Gibson in the first three films, then by Tom Hardy in the fourth entry, Mad Max: Fury Road. That movie became a critical hit, winning six Oscars, and is now regarded as one of the best action movies of the last decade. Despite Mad Max: Fury Road’s title, Max often took a backseat to Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron’s character. And not unfairly so — with her intense and steely gazed but also occasionally tender portrayal of Furiosa, Theron imbued the heroine with both fieriness and vulnerability, making her compelling to watch. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel to Fury Road, we finally discover her riveting backstory.
In post-apocalyptic Australia, young Furiosa (played by Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy at different ages) lives in the Green Place of Many Mothers, an oasis in the middle of the scorched earth. She is kidnapped by the Biker Horde, followers of the tyrannical warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Furiosa’s mother, Mary Jabassa (Charlee Fraser), attempts to rescue her. Furiosa eventually gets caught up in a negotiation between Dementus and rival warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), who presides over the Citadel. Furiosa teams up with war rig driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), learning to drive the rig herself and earning the title of Imperator. She plots her revenge on Dementus, searching for a way back to the Green Place.
Furiosa is directed and co-written by George Miller, who has personally helmed every entry in the franchise since 1979’s Mad Max. During the long development process of Fury Road, Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris developed detailed backstories for each of the characters, including Furiosa. Theron was initially set to reprise her role, with the plan being that she would be digitally de-aged, before Miller decided the technology didn’t completely work and elected to cast a younger actress instead.
Anya Taylor-Joy, one of the biggest rising stars of her generation, steps into the role that Theron made so iconic. “She had huge, huge shoes to fill,” Miller tells Rolling Stone, saying he had an “intuitive sense” and a “hunch” that she could take on the role. “The first thing I ever saw her in was an early cut of Last Night in Soho, and I thought, ‘God, there’s such a presence here’. She kind of feels timeless. There’s an intense quality about it. There’s a ferocity when it’s needed, and there’s something regal, for want of a better word, about her.” Miller approached Last Night in Soho director Edgar Wright, who strongly advocated for Taylor-Joy to be cast in Furiosa.
Furiosa’s journey is no cakewalk, and Taylor-Joy plunged herself into the intense and demanding role. “I’ve never been more alone than making that movie,” she tells the New York Times. “I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.” Taylor-Joy is just 28 but has already taken on several unforgettable roles in movies such as The Witch and The Menu, and TV shows like The Queen’s Gambit. Still, Furiosa is unlike anything she’s done before. “I wanted to be changed,” she says. “I wanted to be put in a situation in extremis where I would have no choice but to grow. And I got it.”
Taylor-Joy is at the centre of a massive production that shot across various locations in New South Wales, Australia. “You’ve got a thousand people needing latrines, food, and accommodation,” producer Doug Mitchell tells Time Out. “There are 119,000 meals served across a film like this and millions and millions of dollars of hotel room[s]. The infrastructure is vast.” The movie was shot over eight months to capture a story spanning 15 years. The standout action set piece, a 15-minute-long war rig chase involving powered paragliders swooping down onto the rig and Furiosa clambering underneath the chassis, took 72 days, 40 cameras, and 250 stunt people to execute.
Starring opposite Taylor-Joy is Chris Hemsworth, also playing a role unlike anything he has before. Hemsworth sheds his typically heroic screen persona to embody a truly unhinged, sadistic, yet constantly amusing villain. “As sick and twisted as the character is, I enjoyed it a lot. I don’t know what that says about me,” Hemsworth quips to Variety. “It was a script that allowed me the opportunity to do something I’d never done before and with an individual who had such depth and knowledge about the world,” he says about Miller. “At the same time, he was completely open to my interpretation of the character and welcomed the collaboration.” Hemsworth’s creation is an indelible one and a worthy addition to the canon of colourful, terrifying villains across the Mad Max series.
While Furiosa was not a box office success, it received glowing reviews praising its stars and director Miller’s continued world-building. Immersive, transportive, and expansive, Furiosa truly earns its designation as a “saga”.
As the world fell, young Furiosa was snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and fell into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus.
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