Recent months have seen Michael Fassbender and Kat Dennings both describe their auditions for Mad Max: Fury Road as gruelling and "excruciating" experiences involving a confusing, bizarre process run by an acting coach working for George Miller.
Dennings, for example, endured a six-hour chemistry read with Tom Hardy, calling it "an acting class, if it was the worst day of your life." After Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot said she read for Charlize Theron's Furiosa with Avengers: Doomsday's Tom Hiddleston, the British actor reflected on his own unique audition experience.
While the role of Max Rockatansky ultimately went to The Dark Knight Rises' Tom Hardy, Hiddleston was put through the wringer with an audition process as bizarre as the one seen in Marvel Television's Wonder Man!
Here's what Hiddleston had to say about what he described as an "extraordinary" day in his career (via SFFGazette.com):
"It was a whole day. I remember we had been; well, initially we'd been given speeches from iconic movies. I did the speech from Network. The meltdown. It was such a great piece of writing. And then the next round was these pairings there. A pairing of a man and a woman together."
"It was probably like 5 hours or 6 hours with Gal Gadot. We'd never met before, and I felt at the end of the day, we had played every single scene that was possible to play. She was extraordinary. She was so available and so committed, and I remember there was this I don't think anyone else has told this story but we were asked by George Miller's acting coach. She was given the line 'I love you,' and I was given the line. 'I'm sorry.' And that was all you were allowed to say."
"Then we had to play the scene. I had to invent a scene out of nothing with those two lines, and you could say your line as many times as you like, and all she could say was, 'I love you.' And all I could say was, 'I'm sorry.' And we went on a journey, is all I was said. It was about 25 minutes. And then here's the kicker. We finished. We'd wept and struggled, and she'd left the room and come back and then the exercise was stopped. George Miller's acting coach said, 'Okay, now Tom and Gal switch lines. We go again.' So I had 'I love you,' and she had 'I'm sorry.'"
"What's interesting, having seen the discourse now. There's obviously an extended discourse. Michael Fassbender. Kat Dennings. I don't think anyone can top Tom Hardy at Mom's House until 11:00 at night, just shooting the breeze. It sounds like every audition was slightly different, but I do remember feeling that it was a workout. That was an acting workout."
The whole thing sounds a little humiliating, and it's hard to understand what Miller was looking for with these gruelling auditions. The filmmaker chose well with Hardy and Theron, though they did end up butting heads on set.
Miller, who is 81, is planning his exit from the franchise but wants to go out with a bang. In June, we learned that he intends to make one final Mad Max movie, followed by a TV series. Then, he'll sell the rights to the property to the highest bidder.
Warner Bros.' film and television divisions passed on the chance to reunite with Miller, though that isn't overly surprising. While Mad Max: Fury Road received plenty of critical acclaim—including six Oscars—it grossed a so-so $380 million on a budget of at least $150 million.
That was released in 2015, with Miller returning for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in 2024. That was a box office flop, grossing only $174 million against a reported $168 million budget. With that in mind, it's easy to see why Warner Bros. is ready to move on.
You can hear more from Hiddleston in the player below.