Charlize Theron has had quite a career over the years, also having won the Academy Award for the 2003 film Monster. She has also been part of major successful projects like Atomic Blonde, the Fast and Furious franchise, and quite especially the Academy Award-winning film, Mad Max: Fury Road. 

The 2015 movie won no less than 4 Oscars and is definitely a shining medal on the shoulders of everyone involved in it, especially the protagonists, Theron and Tom Hardy. However, the making of the film was rife with the drama between the two, and the witnesses are not ashamed to admit it.

Charlize Theron has had several onset altercations throughout her career

Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Charlize Theron talked about tensions on set and how she dealt with them. The 47-year-old admitted, “Every movie I’ve ever done, there’s been a version of that.”

However, she quickly went on to assure that minor altercations do not always lead to a huge fight on set. She confessed,

“I guarantee you that if you ask anybody that [has played a meaningful role] in my career, they’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve definitely been in a situation with Charlize where she’s called me two weeks later and said, ‘You’re right, and I’m totally wrong’.”

One of her feuds with her Mad Max co-actor, Tom Hardy is especially legendary.

Hardy and Theron play the good guys in the post-apocalyptic film and thus had to support each other against the tyrannical regime as they traversed the wasteland. However, behind the scenes, the two had a hard time seeing eye to eye.

The book Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, is a documented oral history of the making of the modern classic. In the text, first assistant director P.J. Voeten discussed the palpable tension between the film’s leads. According to Voeten,

“It seemed to implode in preproduction. We weren’t even shooting and there seemed to be this animosity.”

Meanwhile, according to director George Miller, it was more like method acting for the veterans in their field.

“The story is all about self-preservation: If it’s an advantage to you to kill another character, then you should do it, and you don’t think twice about it. I think that crept into the actors.”

Miller thought it was the staunch internalizing of the intense storyline that led to them acting all serious and gloomy like the characters they played on screen. However, that doesn’t rule out the fact that The Old Guard actress and the Venom actor did have an all-out fight on the set.

Throwback to Tom Hardy pissing off Charlize Theron during the making of Mad Max: Fury Road

Charlize Theron’s Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road

The fully-fledged fight has been recalled in detail by camera operator Mark Goellnicht. He revealed,

“I remember vividly the day. The call on set was eight o’clock. Charlize got there right at eight o’clock, sat in the War Rig, knowing that Tom’s never going to be there at eight even though they made a special request for him to be there on time. He was notorious for never being on time in the morning. If the call time was in the morning, forget it—he didn’t show up.”

The Inception actor casually showed up on set three hours late and the Bombshell actress completely lost it.

“She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f****** c*** a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,’ and ‘How disrespectful you are!’ She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It’s so loud, it’s so windy—he might’ve heard some of it, but he charged up to her up and went, ‘What did you say to me?’”

After the yelling debacle, Theron asked for the presence of Denise Di Novi, one of the film’s producers on the set. She reasoned it later, confessing,

“There was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalize some of it, because I didn’t feel safe.”

However, the tensions between the Peaky Blinders actor and Theron eventually did subside.

Friends make up, eventually

Theron and Hardy managed to square things out eventually

Their reconciliation could not have come about if the 45-year-old did not admit his mistakes like he did. He confessed later on,

“In hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me. That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.”

Although, according to the filmmaking team, things had already begun to resolve between the two during the shooting itself. Goellnicht further shared,

“That scene where you see Tom with Charlize on the bike and all the Vuvalini and the Wives behind, intermingled—that scene was probably the biggest change in seeing Tom really soften to Charlize in real life. He was a different person by the end—a lot easier to deal with, a lot more cooperative, more compassionate.”

It’s a good thing that the two talented and amazing actors could square things out between themselves. Especially keeping in mind that a sequel is in the works with the original cast, and is slated to be released next year.