Mad Max: Fury Road proved a huge critical and commercial hit when it was released in 2015, but its journey to the big screen was notoriously difficult – with its production being halted numerous times over three decades and actors clashing behind-the-scenes.
Now, stars Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy and Zoë Kravitz have opened up about their on-set conflicts and how the pressure of living up to the earlier instalments in the action franchise likely played a role in them.
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"Tom really had moments of frustration, of anger," Kravitz recalled in a new in-depth interview with The New York Times. "Charlize did, too, but I feel like he's the one who really took it out on [director] George [Miller] the most, and that was a bummer to see.
"But you know, in some ways, you also can't blame him, because a lot was being asked of these actors and there were a lot of unanswered questions," she added, touching on the movie's tough shooting conditions in both Namibia and West Sydney.
Theron went to add that she didn't "truly understand" how "frightening" it must have been for Hardy to step into Mel Gibson's shoes, and that her own fear got in the way of showing empathy towards her co-star.
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"We were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, 'This is scary for you, and it's scary for me, too. Let's be nice to each other.' In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters – everything was about survival," the Bombshell star admitted.
"I would agree," Hardy chimed in. "I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times."
He concluded by claiming that Theron needed "a better, perhaps more experienced, partner" and said that he likes to believe he could deliver that now that he's "older and uglier".
Mad Max: Fury Road is available on Blu-ray, DVD and streaming.
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