Warner Bros/Disney
- Tom Hardy famously played Max Rockatansky in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Hardy beat out the likes of Jeremy Renner and Armie Hammer for the role.
- According to a new oral history about the film, Hardy allegedly spat at Hammer during the audition.
Ever since the film was released in 2015, it’s been generally accepted by all types of moviegoers that Mad Max: Fury Road is not only one of the best action films ever made but one of the generation’s greatest films. Such is the technical expertise on display in George Miller’s post-apocalyptic high-octane fever dream.
As the story famously goes, though, the only thing that rival’s the film’s undoubted excellence was its arduous making-of, as it took Miller “over two decades of setbacks and production shutdowns” to get the now-legendary film over the line.
Luckily for us, a new book titled Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road will be delving into the film’s infamously troubled production, detailing all of the stops-and-starts along the way, including the process of casting the new Max Rockatansky.
As the story goes, Miller and the Fury Road team narrowed down the search to three names: Jeremy Renner, Armie Hammer, and Tom Hardy. Oddly enough, as part of the audition, the latter two actually read a scene together, which led to Hardy — who would, as we now know, land the role — allegedly spitting at Hammer.
Near the end of the process, Hardy emerged as a front-runner alongside Jeremy Renner and Armie Hammer. Hardy and Hammer even read together as part of their audition, and when Hardy gnashed his teeth and spat at his scene partner, Hammer told Miller that Hardy needed to be Max more than he did. [Vulture via Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road]
While Hardy’s past is far from perfect — the 44-year-old actor has been open about his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine when he was younger — none of his personal issues have ever come close to the disturbing allegations made against Hammer, who is effectively persona-non-grata in Hollywood these days.
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