Even Charlize Theron had it easy than Anya Taylor-Joy’s experience of filming her Mad Max movie.

The Mad Max movies are always a crazy fiasco of action, adventure, and chaos against a backdrop of a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. Known for their horrendous and exhaustive shoot, the movies are not easy to film and the characters are definitely not easy to portray. And it was something that Anya Taylor-Joy learned the hard way when she figured out everything she was expecting to be easy was hard.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Despite knowing that it was not going to be easy shooting Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the actress seems to have suffered much worse and more than Charlize Theron did on the sets of her Oscar-winning Mad Max movie.

Anya Taylor-Joy Had The Worst Time of Her Life on Sets of Furiosa

Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road
The production of Mad Max: Fury Road is infamous for being one of the worst and toughest ones ever, in the history of cinema. From countless production halts to shooting in extreme, deserted locations and performing deadly stunts in real life, even experienced stuntmen and filmmakers wonder how the cast and crew survived after it all (see The New York Times).

And it was particularly hard for Charlize Theron, the lead character along with Tom Hardy‘s Mad Max. Apart from feeling particularly alone and unheard, Theron suffered the most due to her co-star Hardy. From being late on set to angry outbursts, the two co-stars’ feud was triggered even more due to the production’s uncertain conditions (via Vanity Fair).

While hearing this all would make any actor more than happy to walk away from a Mad Max movie, Anya Taylor-Joy was up for the challenge to portray the younger version of Theron’s character. However, the reality soon hit her and she discovered how nightmarish it was to film the Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, as she revealed in a recent interview with The New York Times.

“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.”

Despite having wrapped up with the shoot in November 2022, the actress can still not get over the emotional and physically traumatizing experience she had. Apart from stunt driving, strength training, and action choreography, the actress spent months filming 197 action scenes without speaking a word of dialogue.

While the shoot was already hard, the lack of dialogue and specifically being asked by Miller to use just her eyes made her experience even more tough and tiring.

George Miller Had Told Anya Taylor-Joy to Use Her Eyes to Convey Emotions

Anya Taylor-Joy in a still from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Filming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was already tough for Anya Taylor-Joy, but it was made even tougher for the actress when Goerge Miller specifically asked her to use her eyes more than her face or words to convey emotions. The limit placed on her performance only added to her woes and made her feel even more restricted in terms of her abilities.

“But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have.”

The actress remarked to The New York Times. Adding on, she revealed how she fought with Miller for three months, the same way Theron had done for this scene, to include a single scream in the upcoming movie.

Although she doesn’t regret the experience, she knows that for a long time to come, it will continue to affect her emotionally.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hit theatres on May 24, 2024.