Tom Hardy reportedly spat in Armie Hammer’s face while auditioning for his role in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road.
The movie’s creators kicked off with a fairly large list of potential stars for the lead, including Eric Bana, Michael Fassbender and Joel Kinnaman, before whittling it down to Hardy, Hammer and Jeremey Renner.
And, according to Kyle Buchanan’s upcoming book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, Hardy was willing to go the extra mile during his audition to try and bag himself the role.
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An excerpt from the book, published in Vulture, reads: “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.”
Cameraman Todd Matthew Grossman Buchanan: “Jeremy and Armie were equally wonderful, but there was something about Tom in the room where it felt like that was Max, without a doubt.
“He had that kind of suppressed emotional dryness that you’d find in a post-apocalypse and, buried underneath it, disdain for the world. There was this intensity that burned through the lens.”
Miller was also a huge fan of Hardy, admitting that he had the same feeling about the actor as he did about original Mad Max star Mel Gibson.
The book also reveals that Miller had consider casting Eminem after being impressed with his skills in 8 Mile, but it wasn’t to be as it turns out he rapper wasn’t keen on flying out to Australia for the shoot.
Miller revealed: “He’d done 8 Mile, and I found that really interesting — I thought, ‘He’s got that quality’.
“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.”
Topics: Tom Hardy, TV and Film
Claire Reid