Anya Taylor-Joy ‘never been more alone’ than she was filming Mad Max prequel

Anya Taylor-Joy says she felt “alone” while filming the Mad Max prequel in Australia - while also suggesting she grappled with the creative direction.

Anya Taylor-Joy stars in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Anya Taylor-Joy has revealed she’s “never been more alone” than she was while making the Mad Max prequel Furiosa in Australia.

The actress, who was raised in Buenos Aires and London, had only 30 lines of dialogue in the George Miller blockbuster, despite playing the lead role of Furiosa.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Taylor-Joy strongly suggests she struggled during production, which took place across various locations in NSW in 2022, and would go “months” without speaking a single line on-set.

“I’ve never been more alone than making that movie. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard,” Taylor-Joy, 28, told the publication.

When pressed by the journalist to elaborate on what was most “hard”, Taylor-Joy responded, “Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years. Talk to me in 20 years.”

Tayl0r-Joy co-stars alongside Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Picture: Richard Harbaugh/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images

The Queen’s Gambit actress – who co-stars alongside Chris Hemsworth – did, however, go into more detail about her creative disagreements with Australian director Miller, who created the franchise and has been involved in all five films.

Taylor-Joy said she wanted her character to have a ‘breaking point’ moment, but ultimately, Furiosa remains composed in the wake of turmoil, per Miller’s wishes.

“I do want to 100 per cent preface this by saying I love George and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller,” Taylor-Joy said.

“But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie.

“It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have.”

Director George Miller with Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth. Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SiriusXM

She continued, “I am a really strong advocate of female rage. We’re animals, and there’s a point where somebody just snaps …

“There’s one scream in that movie, and I am not joking when I tell you that I fought for that scream for three months. With George, it’s a long game.”

In response to Taylor-Joy’s comments, Miller told The New York Times more restrained performances have often resulted in Oscar wins, citing Holly Hunter in The Piano (1993) and Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948).

Taylor-Joy felt her character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga deserved a moment of eruption.

“If you look at the classic, almost inevitably male heroes — going back to John Wayne and Clint Eastwood — they’re usually very laconic,” he said.

“When you’ve got someone with a lot going on and they’re silent, the audience is getting ahold of a lot of stuff.

“It’s that thing that you can really only do in cinema.”

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits cinemas May 24.

Originally published as Anya Taylor-Joy ‘never been more alone’ than she was filming Mad Max prequel