It Wasn't All Shiny And Chrome Between Charlize Theron And Tom Hardy On The Set of 'Mad Max: Fury Road.'
Perfect casting doesn't always make for perfect co-stars - as we have just learned from Charlize Theron. Evidently, there was much more fury on the Fury Road than we saw on screen back in 2015.
In a new oral history book narrated by Theron, "Blood, Sweat, And Chrome," published by Vanity Fair, the actress and crew go into detail about the animosity Tom Hardy and Charlize had for one another - and it wasn't pretty.
According to camera man Mark Goellnicht, the dust-up started with Hardy's constant lateness, which did not sit well with Theron. First camera assistant Ricky Schamburg confirmed the story,
"Whether that was some kind of power play or not, I don't know, but it felt deliberately provocative. If you ask me, he kind of knew that it was really pissing Charlize off, because she's professional and she turns up really early."
And the problems didn't stop there. One day, Hardy finally made it to set three hours late, prompting a scene-ready Theron to go off on him in a big bad way. Goellnicht elaborates,
"She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, 'Fine the f----ng c--t a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he's held up this crew,' and, 'How disrespectful you are!'
"She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It's so loud, it's so windy - he might've heard some of it, but he charged up to her and went, 'What did you say to me?' He was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened."
Theron added her point of view,
"It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalize some of it, because I didn't feel safe."
That producer was Denise Di Novi, who was eventually not allowed on set by fellow producer Doug Mitchell. Theron recalls her emotions at the time,
"She was parked in the production office, and she was checking in with me and we would talk. But when I was on set, I still felt pretty naked and alone."
Hardy has since come to grips with his unprofessional behavior,
"The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me. That's something that can't be faked. I'd like to think that now that I'm older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion."
Not that this excuses such actions on Hardy's part, the hope is that in the future these such occurrences should be looked into more carefully for the sake of all involved. Pressure or not, that is not the way to act, especially in the public eye.
