Anya Taylor-Joy Had a Miserable Time on ‘Furiosa,’ But She Still Refuses to Talk About It

We already know about the mythic behind-the-scenes chaos on the set of George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” It’s been well researched and reported for over 10 years, and culminated in Kyle Buchanan’s excellent book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome.”

There have been many anecdotes about Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy clashing on set, as well as stories about how difficult it can be to work with a perfectionist like Miller. The filmmaker’s insistence on physical realism meant that the cast and crew often had to repeat long, grueling sequences in harsh conditions until the exact visual rhythm was achieved—one reason the film has earned a reputation as a technically extraordinary achievement.

It looks like the chaos continued on in “Furiosa.” Anya Taylor-Joy, the star of Miller’s film, had previously been very cryptic about what she endured during the shoot, echoing Theron’s earlier comments regarding working on one of these “Mad Max” movies and the challenging experience—both physical and mental—that comes with them. It seems to be a typical day’s work on the set of a George Miller movie. Here’s Taylor-Joy …

I’ve never been more alone than making that movie […] I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.

When pressed by the interviewer to go deeper into what was so “hard,” and what made her feel so “alone,” the actress replied, “Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years. Talk to me in 20 years.”

Two years later, in a new THR interview, journalist Seth Abramovitch tries to get something out of Taylor-Joy about her experience on Furiosa, and once again she is cryptic, but makes it clear that there are still lingering scars from the film’s shoot:

She is careful about how much she’ll say about Miller. “It’s a very difficult conversation to have,” she says. “If I were to be completely honest about my experience, it would hurt nobody but myself.” She can look at the film now and understand what he was going for.

Taylor-Joy spent six months in Australia filming “Furiosa,” much of it on location in the Australian outback and desert regions under very remote conditions — they reportedly spent 78 days shooting what ultimately amounted to a 15-minute action sequence.

Miller has a reputation as a precise, highly demanding director who typically relies on extensive storyboarding and pre-visualization, with a strong emphasis on technical accuracy. Taken together, it’s easy to see why Theron, Hardy, and Taylor-Joy were physically and psychologically pummelled working with Miller.

One can only assume a fuller story may emerge one day about what Taylor-Joy is hinting at here, or maybe again a whole book about the film’s making, but it does sound like she went through a very challenging time making it.