Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy open up about struggles, conflict on 'Mad Max: Fury Road' set

2015's post-apocalyptic film "Mad Max: Fury Road" emerged as one of the best action movies of all time and kept up with the legacy of the "Mad Max" franchise. However, what went on behind-the-cameras was rather challenging as they shot the challenging action-packed sequences. In their recent interview, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, the stars of the Oscar-winning movie opened up about their struggles on the movie set.

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy played the leading roles in George Miller's epic production that won a number of prestigious accolades and set new standards for action filmmaking. Truth be told! the two actors had several clashes and feuds as they were shooting Miller's masterpiece and faced the challenges of filming. Five years after the release of the movie, the actors got candid about their struggles in the "Oral History of a Modern Action Classic: Mad Max: Fury Road' as published in NY Times.

As per the report, the movie came out after several delays. It is said that the producers were forced to shut down the production three times because the stars were often clashing with each other. This often left the studio executives "baffled." Theron describes her feelings about the widely acclaimed movie "complicated" and revealed that there is some sort of a "trauma" associated with the shooting of the film.

"I feel a mixture of extreme joy that we achieved what we did, and I also get a little bit of a hole in my stomach. There's a level of 'the body remembers' trauma related to the shooting of this film that's still there for me," Theron says in the article. As for Hardy, it left him "irrevocably changed."

Mad Max is an action movie franchise that was created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy with the first "Max Max" movie in the year 1979 starring Mel Gibson. It was followed by two highly applauded sequels "Mad Max: The Road Warrior," "Beyond Thunderdome" featuring Mel Gibson, who was replaced by Tom Hardy for the fourth film "Fury Road" that was released 20 years after the third one.

"In retrospect, I didn't have enough empathy to really, truly understand what he must have felt like to step into Mel Gibson's shoes," Theron said of Hardy. "That is frightening!"

Theron admitted being fearful of the challenges the production process brought along. This apparently added to the pressure she was going through.

"I think because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, "This is scary for you, and it's scary for me, too. Let's be nice to each other." In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters: Everything was about survival. The biggest thing that was driving that entire production was fear,' she went on," the actress goes on to say.

Meanwhile, Hardy admits that he was often overwhelmed with the pressure.

"The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me,' he explained. '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 explained.

He goes on to explain that the takes were fast with every detail being processed. This left them feeling dazed.

Even though the making of the movie was quite challenging, the results were epic. The film became an instant hit and emerged as critical and commercial success worldwide. The movie got 10 Academy Award nominations and won six.