Mel Gibson’s blunt response to Tom Hardy: ‘I’ve got better things to do’

WHEN Tom Hardy agreed to play Mad Max in Fury Road, he set-up a meeting with Mel Gibson to make sure he was OK with it.

IN the hearts of most movie fans, Mad Max will always be Mel Gibson.

So when Tom Hardy signed on to bring the famous character back to life in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, he lined up a meeting with Mel Gibson to make sure he was cool with him taking over the role.

But as this extract from Luke Buckmaster’s new book Miller and Max reveals, the meeting didn’t quite go to plan:

For Miller the question became: who was going to play Max? Having watched Tom Hardy chew the scenery as notorious criminal Michael Gordon Peterson (aka Charles Bronson) in the 2008 film Bronson, George Miller saw in the London-born actor something he had seen in Gibson and Ledger: a certain volcanic quality. When Hardy signed on for the roles, he asked Miller to set up a meeting with his leather-clad predecessor, Mel Gibson. ‘It wasn’t really a passing of the baton moment or a blessing or anything like that,’ Hardy later said. ‘For me it was about inheriting the legacy.’

Director George Miller with Tom Hardy and Mel Gibson in 2015.

The pair arranged to meet at a Beverly Hills cafe. In the two hours Hardy spent waiting for Gibson, who was ‘ceremonially late’, the Road Warrior-elect consumed a steak and carpaccio (on Gibson’s tab) and was just about to leave when Mel walked in the door. Hardy broke the ice by presenting Gibson with a braided necklace he had made for him, and they talked for a couple of hours ‘about a lot of stuff which had nothing to do with Mad Max’. Reflecting on their meeting, Gibson later said that when Hardy asked for his approval he responded: ‘Sure. It’s fine. Knock yourself out. I’ve got better things to do.’

Tom Hardy in Mad Max Fury Road.

Mel Gibson in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Miller and Max is written by Luke Buckmaster.

This is an edited extract from Miller And Max by Luke Buckmaster, published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $35 and is available in stores nationally

Originally published as Mel Gibson’s blunt response to Tom Hardy: ‘I’ve got better things to do’