Jessica Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ruth Negga, and Gal Gadot were the other notable names alongside Charlize Theron to have auditioned for Furiosa.

There are certain roles that you just can’t imagine being played by anyone else. Charlize Theron as Furiosa is one of them. While Anya Taylor-Joy may be incredible as a younger version of Furiosa in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, there’s no doubt that no one can play the older Furiosa like Charlize.

Even though director George Miller’s revamp of the beloved series was plagued with production problems as well as a feud between the two leads, it’s gone down as one of the best action movie of all time. So, there’s no doubt that Charlize is thrilled that she ended up playing the role… Especially after it was made clear to her that the movie studio, Warner Brothers, weren’t exactly rooting for her. Here’s why they didn’t want her to play alongside Tom Hardy in the Oscar-winning 2015 film…

Why Warner Brothers Didn’t Want Charlize Theron To Play Furiosa

Casting Tom Hardy in Mad Max wasn’t an easy process. In fact, the filmmakers weren’t sure who was going to play the titular character until Tom started snarling at his competitor, according to a bombshell interview by Vulture. While the press has talked endlessly about this revelation, they seemed to miss another reveal in the oral history of the casting of Fury Road. That being the fact that Warner Brothers were absolutely not keen on George Miller hiring Charlize for the co-leading role of Furiosa.

According to casting director Ronna Kress, many notable stars read for the woman opposite Mad Max. This includes Jessica Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ruth Negga, and Gal Gadot. The latter even gave an incredible audition that almost landed the role. However, Gal was too young and not a big enough star at that time, according to both George Miller and the actor herself.

But Charlize Theron was being eyed. Only, Warner Brothers wasn’t keen on the filmmakers pursuing her as she was a few years removed from her Academy Award-winning performance in Monster. On top of this, she had a string of flops that made her somewhat undesirable to the money people at WB.

“I was not really being sparked by anything as an actor, and I didn’t act for three years, but I was working my a** off trying to start a production company,” Charlize Theron said in the interview with Vulture. “Actors go through spells where you’re not moved by anything and then you go from one extreme to the other, where you can’t stop thinking about something. That was kind of where I was at. Because I was starting a production company, I thought I might need representation as far as material and I should probably meet with agencies. So I had a meeting at CAA with Bryan Lourd, who represents George. The timing of it all is quite crazy because if I had never had that meeting, I don’t think I would have ever known about that script.”

How Charlize Theron Was Cast As Furiosa In Mad Max: Fury Road

Charlize Theron really wanted to be in a Mad Max movie. She had grown up watching the films in South Africa as a child. When she was invited to have lunch with George Miller, she made it absolutely clear that she wanted the role. Her passion is ultimately what landed her the job then and there.

“I couldn’t believe it. I literally couldn’t believe it,” Charlize said.

“I knew behind that elegant façade, there was some real grit to that person. Even as she’s sitting somewhere having lunch, you understand that. And you see it in her work,” George Miller explained.

According to Ronna Kress, despite Warner Brothers’ disinterest in her, Charlize was the only actor that was cast in the movie who didn’t have to audition.

“The truth of it is that we didn’t end up casting Tom until we had Tom and Charlize together,” Ronna explained. “At that point, George 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.”

“Susan Sarandon said it well: When you’re pairing couples, you always want a female to skew male and a male to skew female,” George Miller said. “She told me, ‘If you look at the great male movie stars, they have a female quality — they’re not effeminate, but there’s a looseness to them that reminds one of the female approach to life. And the female stars have always had a male quality, which is to be very direct.’ The classic example is Hepburn and Tracy: She was very direct, and Spencer Tracy, for all his rough masculinity, has a looseness with him.”

This is precisely the type of balance putting Tom Hardy with Charlize Theron achieved for Mad Max: Fury Road.