fury road Charlize Theron says 'things kind of came to blows' with Tom Hardy on Mad Max set

Charlize Theron has opened up about the bad blood between her and co-star Tom Hardy while on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road.

George Miller’s 2015 sequel may have received huge acclaim and scored 10 Oscar nominations, but things weren’t so smooth behind the scenes.

In an excerpt from Kyle Buchanan’s new book, Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road (obtained by Vanity Fair), Theron spoke candidly about her strained working relationship with co-star Hardy.

“I don’t want to make excuses for bad behaviour, but it was a tough shoot,” Theron, who played Imperator Furiosa, said.

Discussing their interactions, J Houston Yang, editor of production company Open Road Entertainment, said: “They didn’t want to touch each other, they didn’t want to look at each other, they wouldn’t face each other if the camera wasn’t actively rolling.”

Theron added: “I was in survival mode; I was really scared s***less,” she added.

Director Miller described the film as a story about self-preservation, positing that this mindset really affected the two leads.

Theron shared a similar thought, stating: “We were functioning, in a weird way, like our characters. Everything was about survival.”

The boiling point came when Hardy arrived to set three hours late.

Mark Goellnicht, the film’s camera operator, recounted the moment , saying that Theron repeatedly swore at the actor, which prompted him to “charge up to her”.

From that moment onwards, due to feeling “threatened”, Theron was assigned a producer by her side at all times.

“It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand,” Theron said, adding: “I didn’t feel safe.”

Upon Theron’s request, a woman producer named Denise Di Novi was sent to the film’s set in Namibia, with the Oscar-winning star stating: “I don’t want to rehash things, but it came out of a really bad moment where things kind of came to blows between me and Tom.”

She said Di Novi’s arrival “kind of made me breathe a little bit, because it felt like I would have another woman understanding what I was up against”.

Recollecting on the “horrible” experience, Theron said: ”We should not have done that; we should have been better. I can own up to that.”

In the excerpt, Hardy said: “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,” he added.

The film was a box office hit upon its release, and won six Oscars.