Tom Burke is still having a "pinch me" moment over his involvement in George Miller's high-octane Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
The Mank star plays Praetorian Jack in the Mad Max prequel on Imperator Furiosa, with the title character brought to life by Anya Taylor-Joy.
Speaking exclusively with Digital Spy, Burke recalled how he got cast in the highly anticipated movie, which serves as the origin story for the antiheroine portrayed by Charlize Theron in 2015's Fury Road.
Related: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review – Anya Taylor-Joy excels in stunning prequel
It seems that Miller was given a list of names of potential actors for the role of Praetorian Jack. When he landed on Burke's name, who was fourth in the list, the director stopped and decided he'd found the one.
"He only told me that a few days ago, I didn't know that," Burke said.
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"I mean, I knew he'd gone, 'That guy', in some way or another but yeah, I didn't know he'd stopped looking.
"I can't quite believe I'm here. I just look at the [poster] and I'm in that movie. That's amazing."
Reflecting on the relationship between Jack and Furiosa, Burke shared that their connection is "key" to the story penned by Miller and Nico Lathouris, who also co-wrote Fury Road.
"I felt like – not to big up my own [character], it was more about responsibility than anything else – that was very key to the story working," he said.
"It was actually nice to be worrying about that rather than how one plays a certain kind of genre or is cool or anything else that one might go to in a kind of panicked moment, just thinking about how you're telling that story."
Related: George Miller knows exactly when Anya Taylor-Joy became Furiosa
Following its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival, Furiosa has been making headlines for a colossal stunt sequence known as the 'Stowaway to Nowhere', which took a whopping 78 days over nine months to shoot.
Unlike his Furiosa co-star Chris Hemsworth, who was happy to sit that one out, Burke said he felt some sadness once he and Taylor-Joy were done filming the massive scene.
"I was really sad," he said. "It was like, 'OK, we've done it, but I could have just gone on forever'. I loved doing it."
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is released in cinemas on May 24.
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Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
