Michael Fassbender relives his “excruciating” audition forMad Max: Fury Roadin which everything went wrong. Released in 2015 and hailing from franchise creator George Miller, the fourth installment in theMad Maxsaga features Tom Hardy in the starring role as Max Rockatansky, a drifter in an apocalyptic wasteland who joins forces withCharlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosaas she seeks out her homeland.Fury Roadwas critically acclaimed and a success at the box office, and there has been continued interest in seeing Hardy reprise his role in the reported follow-up,Mad Max: The Wasteland.
During a recent interview withJosh Horowitzon theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, Fassbender reveals that he was up for theMad Max: Fury Roadrole that eventually ended up going to Hardy. The audition, however, ended up being a fairly disastrous experience, as Fassbender reveals that, not only was he very late after getting lost, but he wasn’t particularly receptive to the instructions from the acting coach present in the audition. Check out Fassbender’s recollection of events below:
“Oh my God, that was one of the worst auditions recent — I mean, recent, that was back… Thankfully I haven’t had to audition in a while. Oh my God, it was awful…
“I was going to Warner Bros. in the Valley — not complicated — and I had those printouts on the seat next to me in the car, you know, ’take a left here, whatever,’ and I got lost. And I ended up getting to the audition almost an hour late, and so I was not in the correct headspace. They were kinda like… [rolls eyes].
“But I arrived and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ And they were like, ‘Fine.’ And then, George Miller has this acting coach. And it was so excruciating. You know, I’m classically trained, so I have my process of, ‘There’s an objective the character has and activities that I’m going to play to get it.’ So I felt, you know, you’re teaching granny how to suck eggs here. This guy really got on my nerves. And he was like, ‘I want you to say this phrase: “Get out of the room.” But I want you to physicalize it, Michael.’
He was like, ‘Get out of the room.’ So I was like, ‘Get out of the room. Get out of the room.’ And he was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I was like, ‘I was doing the get out of the room…physicalize…’ “It was so… I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Obviously, I didn’t get the part. Obviously, Tom Hardy got the part and deservedly so.”
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Since it’s release in 2015,Fury Roadhas become a modern classic. The film currently enjoys a 97% critics' score onRotten Tomatoes, withpraise aimed at Miller’s kinetic direction and the film’s overwhelming portrayal of a violent post-apocalyptic landscape. Though it’s Max’s name in the title, Theron’s performance as Furiosa was widely hailed as a highlight of the film, as she is the character with the meatier emotional arc.
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However,Hardy and Theron infamously did not get alongwhile makingFury Road. It has now been well documented that the two actors adopted very different approaches during the making of the film that put them at odds, with Hardy said to have been not particularly punctual. Though everything evidently turned out well in the end,Fassbender’s casting probably would’ve resulted in a more harmonious work experience. Miller shared details of what exactly happened on theFury Roadset during an interview withThe Telegraph, revealing that it was sometimes a struggle to get Hardy out of his trailer:
“Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it, and whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer. Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set.”
Would He Have Made For A Good Max?
Max inFury Roadis a character of few words, often communicating in grunts or what appears to be dialogue added through ADR (automatic dialogue replacement). The performance is an immensely physical one, something that Hardy is obviously very good at. Though it’s now hard to imagine anyone other than Hardy playing Max inFury Road, there’s certainly reason to believe Fassbender would have done an admirable job.
Hardy recently addressed the possibility of returning as Max inMad Max: The Wasteland, tellingEntertainment Tonight: “No, I haven’t been told anything about it yet, but obviously I’d love to do that.”
Fassbender, for example, has played action-hero-type roles before, including in300(2006),Centurion(2010) andAssassin’s Creed(2016).He’s also very effective when it comes to physically imposing roles with minimal dialogue, withThe Killer(2023) standing as a strong example of this.Mad Max: Fury Road, however, obviously turned out as it was supposed to, and Hardy, despite the frustration on set, ended up being a very strong Max.
