Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is upon us. The spin-off is getting mostly positive reactions, with a bevy of its criticisms coming from the film’s length and pacing. However, the consensus is that 79-year-old George Miller brings back the action and excitement that made Mad Max: Fury Road such a standout spectacle in the sea of frenetic action blockbusters. While praise belongs to Miller and the film’s star, Anya Taylor-Joy, the man of the hour is Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, the villain of the movie.
Hemsworth has recently stated that he would get in his own way by improvising too much on Thor: Love and Thunder. However, a new profile in MovieMaker reveals that Hemsworth found it easier to disappear into his character for Furiosa thanks to his unique look — namely the prosthetic nose. He explained, “The nose, the beard, the kind of wig, all the sort of prosthetics and the costume, everything was just, look — any of that helps you kind of get out the way of yourself. The more you can cut loose of yourself and be completely taken on a journey through what the hair and makeup, costume, the sets, have to offer — it makes your job so much easier.”
The way that Miller was able to create another world on the set of the film worked to the benefit of Hemsworth immersing himself into the character much more. It was a far cry from having to act against a green screen, “Look at these costumes, look at these sets. We just gotta not screw up our lines now and not get in the way of it all. So it was like another prop, all of it. And when I would look in the mirror, I’d go, ‘I don’t see myself anymore. This is a great thing.’ So then you start to think differently, start reacting differently, and there’s a knock-on effect to that.”
Meanwhile, there is still waiting from fans on when Max Rockatansky will be making his return. There is a plan for Mad Max: The Wasteland, but delays have been plaguing it. As recently as 2022, Miller described the story as “still not fully evolved.” There is also a novella of The Wasteland that Miller had also written in addition to the screenplay. Miller explained, “We also wrote, not a screenplay, but almost in novel form, Nico Lathouris and I, what happened to Max in that year before (the events of Mad Max: Fury Road), and that’s something that we’ll look at further down the track later.” Since the story is set “before”, Miller has confirmed that the Furiosa character is not involved.