The wasteland of the “Mad Max” franchise can be brutal, as Anya Taylor-Joy can confirm with plenty of expertise. The star of George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” went through the proverbial wringer to portray a younger version of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. In an interview with Variety, Taylor-Joy discussed how watching a rough cut of the film revealed the toll the project had taken on her. “Within the first three minutes, I’m crying,” she described the viewing experience. “And afterward, I cannot speak. I found it very traumatizing to watch.”

While Taylor-Joy was honored and happy for the opportunity to play the intense Furiosa, the filming process was a challenge. Apart from five-hour makeup chair sessions and absurdly early call times, the experience of working in a post-apocalyptic setting under Miller’s famously detail-oriented direction helped her process as an actor, but also goes a long way toward explaining why watching the end result was so difficult for her.

“This is the wasteland, and any outbreak of emotion is punished by death,” Taylor-Joy said. “Any empathy is punished by death — any kindness, really. It all made sense to me. I think the restrictions that were placed on me by George did create a radiation off the character, because she is being suppressed continuously throughout the film.”

The physical and mental challenges of playing Furiosa

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One aspect of the job that Anya Taylor-Joy found challenging was the sheer physicality of Furiosa. “I was doing weights and they helped for sure,” Taylor-Joy, who has a background in ballet, told Variety. “The stability weights give you, particularly in your shoulders — ballet dancers’ arms are very strong, but it’s all floaty. It was about being able to hold myself up, and to hold these weapons too. I have a slight frame, and these are heavy guns.” She also had to drive in the wild “Mad Max” style despite the fact that she doesn’t actually have a driver’s license, and learn how the aforementioned guns work so she could accurately mimic recoil with the harmless, non-firing prop weapons the production used.

Apart from the physical challenges of the role, Taylor-Joy also struggled with feelings of isolation thanks to the lengthy stints of time she had to spend in her extensive makeup and without other members of the cast. Fortunately, she adopted a cat who kept her company, and figured out how to decompress by learning to enjoy a very specific genre of fiction. “I developed a really strange addiction to stories about people who are fighting evil,” she said. “I found real comfort in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4. I had to have something on my phone that reminded me of the goodness in the world.”

Charlize Theron didn’t count among Taylor-Joy’s many challenges

Anya Taylor-Joy famously replaced Charlize Theron as Furiosa, and Theron has admitted her feelings about the prequel are complicated. “It’s a tough one to swallow,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “Listen, I fully respect George, if not more so in the aftermath of making ‘Fury Road’ with him. He’s a master, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

The fact that Theron understood the situation but was disappointed with not being able to reprise the role herself could potentially have been uncomfortable for Taylor-Joy. After all, Furiosa is one of Theron’s most important characters, which is saying something considering the star is a one-time Academy Award winner and two-time nominee. However, the younger actor soon found that Theron was nothing but supportive toward her. “We emailed a bunch and then finally met up at the Oscars,” Taylor-Joy spoke about Theron in the Variety interview. “She is as wonderful and cool and gracious as you can imagine.”