Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s onscreen chemistry sizzles in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but what is it like to experience that chemistry in person? For “Fury Road” casting director Ronna Kress, the answer is downright overwhelming. As part of Kyle Buchanan’s upcoming oral history book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road,” Kress revealed that she crashed her car after staring at the “intense” chemistry between Hardy and Theron for the first time.
“The truth of it is that we didn’t end up casting Tom until we had Tom and Charlize together,” Kress said. “At that point, [director George Miller] had gone back to Australia, and we did a video-conference call at Warner Bros. with George so he could talk to Tom and Charlize, because it was really important for him to see them together. Once we saw them, we just knew. It was an indescribable, perfect thing.”
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Kress continued, “After the video call, Tom and Charlize and I were in the parking lot. I was looking at them, and they looked so unbelievable together — it was perfect; there was no question in my mind that we had done the right thing — and while I was waving goodbye to them, I backed my car into a pole and crashed the side of my car. Charlize ran up: ‘Oh my God, Ronna, are you okay?’ I said, ‘I’m fine. I was just staring at you guys!’ That’s how intense it was.”
Buchanan, who is also the awards season columnist for the New York Times, shared a photo to social media of the damage Kress did to her car after crashing it (see the image below).
Landing on Hardy and Theron for the lead roles in “Mad Max: Fury Road” was a months-long journey. Hardy landed the part of Max Rockatansky after Miller had already considered the likes of Armie Hammer, Michael Fassbender, Joel Kinnaman, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana, Eminem and more. For Theron’s Furiosa role, Miller considered Gal Gadot and Rihanna, among others.
“Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road” releases Feb. 22 and is now available for pre-order. Head over to Vulture’s website to read the excerpt in its entirety.
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