George Miller wanted Eminem & Rihanna for Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road came together perfectly with the cast that director George Miller assembled but, as it turns out, Miller had some very interesting names in mind during the casting process for the film and they include two music superstars.

A new book called “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road” by pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan, reveals George Miller’s almost two-decade-long struggle to make Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller dealt with issues regarding scouting a multitude of actors to changing filming locations and the well-known behind-the-scenes troubles between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. In an excerpt from the book recently published on Vulture, it is detailed that around 2009, Miller and casting director Ronna Kress began scouting for actors. While casting the five wives Charlize Theron’s Furiosa escapes with in Fury Road, Miller and Kress actually set up a meeting with pop star Rihanna. While she didn’t get the role, she did leave an impression on both Miller and Kress:

“Usually, actors turn up dressed very casually, but boy, Rihanna looked spectacular when she walked in. I’m not sure she was even aware of the content of the movie, so she dressed up as Rihanna, which was the right thing to do.”

Also during this process, Eminem had established himself as a hip-hop superstar and he showcased some acting talent in 8 Mile, which also caught the attention of George Miller:

“He’d done 8 Mile, and I found that really interesting — I thought, He’s got that quality. We’d done the first Happy Feet with the late Brittany Murphy, and she had done 8 Mile, so I asked her what he was like and would this be something really interesting for him? She had no reservations about saying what a wonderful talent he is.”

The Eminem casting idea actually went pretty far. Storyboard artist Mark Sexton created the artwork for a blonde Mad Max and he goes on to say, “I got brought back in to redraw a bunch of storyboards in March 2007 and do a bunch of cut-and-pastes to put blond hair on Max.” Miller further added, “We did get in touch with him, though that’s as far as it went because we were going to shoot it in Australia at that point, and he simply didn’t want to leave home. I think he had the impression that if he could do it out of his home state, then he’d be up for it.”

Gotta love these little secret Hollywood casting stories. Do YOU think Eminem or Rihanna would’ve been good additions to Mad Max: Fury Road?