George Miller Says There’s ‘No Excuse’ for Tom Hardy’s ‘Mad Max’ Lateness, Charlize Theron Feud

Director George Miller slammed the reported beef that took place on the set of “Mad Max: Fury Road” between actors Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, saying there was “no excuse” for the drama.

“I think there’s a tendency in this business to use great performances as an excuse for other disruption that could be avoided,” Miller said in an interview with The Telegraph out Saturday, adding that he felt at the time that the actors could channel that energy into their characters. “I’m an optimist, so I saw their behavior as mirroring their characters, where they had to learn to co-operate in order to ensure mutual survival.”

The two played the 2015 film’s main characters, Max and Furiosa. A prequel entitled “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the role of Furiosa is set to premiere May 15 at Cannes.

Miller went on to say that Theron and Hardy’s beef was rooted in the “Venom” star being habitually late to filming. Between Theron calling Hardy “disrespectful” to requesting that a female producer be present for the performers’ mediations, the filmmaker said the two simply had outstanding differences.

“They were just two very different performers,” Miller said. “Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it, and whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer. Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set.”

The actors have been open about their feud after the film’s release in 2015, but new details surfaced in 2022 in New York Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan’s oral history of the film “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.”

One of the book’s revelations included Hardy and Theron not speaking during the entirety of filming.

“Tom would want justification for every bit of choreography, not just in the actual action but in the pre-setup of the action and everything else,” cast member Richard Norton noted. “Charlize, her basic want is simple: I just want to f—ing kill him. Let’s shoot it.”

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” hits theaters May 24.

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