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'I was scared s***less': Charlize Theron felt threatened by Tom Hardy after clash on set of 'Mad Max: Fury Road'

Kevin Polowy·Senior Correspondent, Yahoo EntertainmentFebruary 23, 2022, 4:32 PM·4 min readIn this article:

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• Charlize TheronActress
• Tom HardyBritish actor, screenwriter and producer

New York Times awards columnist Kyle Buchanan’s new book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road is being hailed as the definitive oral history behind George Miller’s unlikely 2015 Oscar winner and fan favorite-reboot of the filmmaker’s Mel Gibson-starring trilogy.

But there’s one section in particular that’s raising eyebrows from here to the furthest reaches of desert wastelands: the volatile on-set relationship depicted between stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

Theron and multiple crew members tell Buchanan that Hardy’s persistent lateness to the film’s Namibia desert set led to a tense exchange between the actors, leaving Theron shook to the point where she requested protection from her co-star.

“I remember vividly the day,” camera operator Mark Goellnicht recalled in an excerpt posted on Vanity Fair. “The call on set was eight o’clock. Charlize got there right at eight o’clock, sat in the War Rig, knowing that Tom’s never going to be there at eight even though they made a special request for him to be there on time. He was notorious for never being on time in the morning. If the call time was in the morning, forget it — he didn’t show up.”

Theron sat in the War Rig in full makeup and costume, and waited. And waited. And waited. “She didn’t go to the bathroom, didn’t do anything,” Goellnicht added.

Hardy, who played post-apocalyptic survivor Max Rockatansky, finally arrived — three hours late — much to the chagrin of Theron, who co-starred as revolting war captain Furiosa and was a new mother whose baby was looked after at a nearby childcare center.

“She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f***ing c*** a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,’ and ‘How disrespectful you are!'” Goellnicht said. “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?'”

(editor：)