I really liked the development process with George. Everything was constantly evolving. He obviously had something very fleshed out, but when I watch the movie now, a lot of it came from all of those moments that we sat down and came up with ideas. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I didn’t think it was going to be with an action movie, that I was going to be able to explore a character as raw as Furiosa. She really is who she is without ever over-explaining . She just is. I loved that we never even mentioned her f—ing arm. How many times do you see a movie where the first shot is, Oh, she’s got an arm missing, let’s explain that? What really explains her is the thing that drives her, which is this overwhelming feeling of wanting to take ownership of her life. Wanting to go back to a place of safety.

The look of her was tricky from the beginning. We really had a hard time trying to figure out what she was going to look like and how she was going to embody herself in the film, visually. And what that would say about her as a character. I think the biggest thing that really was when we got ready to go to Namibia. I just had this overwhelming sensation where I just went, “All right: I have to shave my head! I have to shave my head.” So I said, “George, I’ve been walking around for the last three days with this feeling like I need to buzz my head. I need to look like one of those boys. I need to really, really look like one of those boys, because then I understand a woman that’s been in hiding in a world where she’s been discarded.“

This is not in the movie: this is stuff that we talked about, backstory about how she ended up with no arm and that she was discarded. She couldn’t breed, and that was all that she was good for. She was stolen from this place, this green place that she’s trying to go back to. She existed for a sole purpose, and when she couldn’t deliver, she was discarded— but she didn’t die. Instead she hid out with those war pups in the world of mechanics, and they almost forgot she was a woman. 

I can say honestly we never considered romance for Max and Furiosa. We never went there. There was always a very clear understanding that these were two people who got stuck with each other and had to survive, and their survival really depended on each other. That was interesting for us. I think Tom and I are both actors who have probably been in situations where the easy answer is to have them kiss. In this case, it’s more interesting and more real, and I think you feel it so much more when we just look at each other, and there’s this recognition of respect.