Furiosa producer says crew on set woke up with ‘reality we could kill somebody’

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga producer Doug Mitchell has said the film crew would wake up and go to set “with the reality that we could injure somebody or kill somebody”.

The latest Mad Max film, directed by George Miller, tells the origin story of Furiosa, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and stars Chris Hemsworth as warlord leader Dementus.

Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, Taylor-Joy, 28, said the action-laden film had an “absolutely unbelievable stunt department”.

Responding to Taylor-Joy’s comments, Mitchell added: “The other aspect of what this film represents is that every day we all wake up, especially George, with the reality that we could injure somebody or kill somebody.

“So the stunt department isn’t just there, as talented as they all are, to manually do something, this is broken down from the get-go.”

He added: “There are 264 women and men on that stunt department. One of the sequences took 79 days to shoot, every day you’re subjected to bad weather, Covid, or just exhaustion.

“And it’s important. Our one priority, led by George, is not to injure anybody. That’s our first responsibility. The second is to make the film that we enjoy.”

The Queen’s Gambit star, Taylor-Joy, also reflected on what it was like to watch the film and said: “It’s really quite extraordinary to experience something through the eyes of an audience.

“I think all of us are so in love with film, but that naturally kind of means that you always have a moment where you know too much, you know too much of the tricks behind the camera, you can’t really distance yourself.

“And yesterday, for the first time, I really felt like I could watch it like an audience member.

“And I was so blown away by it, blown away by the pacing, the sound design, just absolutely every single element that our incredible team brought to it.

“And that’s really a testament to George, because there are people that have worked on this movie that were retired and they come out of retirement for George Miller. They come out of retirement to make Furiosa.”

Miller then joked that he had also come out of retirement.

At the press conference the director, 79, spoke on having Australian voices in the film and said even Hollywood actress Meryl Streep has been unable to “nail” the accent in the past.

Miller, who has served on the jury in Cannes several times, said: “Great people have tried it, really great people. It’s not a common sort of accent.”

After an audience member offered Meryl Streep, who played an Australian woman in the film A Cry In The Dark (1988), as an example, he said: “Well, yes, but even Meryl at that time, genius as she is, didn’t quite nail it, I believe.

“Look, when I first went to the United States and we said we were from Australia, they said: ‘Do you speak English?’ They thought we were Austrian.”

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had its red carpet premiere at Cannes Film Festival on May 15, nine years after Mad Max: Fury Road.

The talent reunited again on Thursday for a photocall, with Taylor-Joy dressed in a chic-looking cropped white jacket and matching skirt.