CHARLIZE Theron and her co-star Tom Hardy fell out on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road, according to the cast and crew.
The actress, 46, is said to have branded Tom, 44, “a f****** c***” after he left her waiting on set for hours one day as their relationship reached breaking point.
Things reportedly got so bad between the pair, that Charlize requested the company of a female producer with her at all times for “protection” against the actor.
In a series of new interviews for New York Times columnist Kyle Buchanan’s new book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild And True Story Of Mad Max: Fury Road, those working on the film have opened up about the simmering tensions.
Charlize played Imperator Furiosa in the 2015 movie, while Tom starred as Max Rockatansky.
Stunt double Natascha Hopkins recalled that Charlize was a new mum at the time of filming and didn’t want to waste time on set.
But it’s claimed that Tom was often late to set and on one particular occasion he didn’t show up until gone 11am – despite Charlize being ready and waiting.
Camera operator Mark Goellnicht remembers what happened when he finally arrived.
“She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f**king c*** a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,’ and ‘How disrespectful you are!’”, he said.
“She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It’s so loud, it’s so windy — he might’ve heard some of it, but he charged up to her up and went, ‘What did you say to me?’”.
Mark describes Hardy as being “quite aggressive”, adding: “That was the turning point, because then she said, ‘I want someone as protection.’ She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time.”
Charlize described producer Doug Mitchell as “a man forgiving another man”, and said she wanted a woman in a position of power to “maybe equalise” some of the tension.
She said: “It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalise some of it.
“A lot of what I felt was coming my way from Doug was … oh, [screw] it. I’ll just say it. It was a man forgiving another man for really bad behavior, and I didn’t feel safe.”
Producer Denise Di Novi was called in to help, but Tom branded the idea Charlize was “intimidated” by him as “b*******”.
He said: “Charlize is an intense woman. Very intense, actually. In a good way. I mean, look at her in ‘Monster’ – that’s not somebody walking in the park.
“You don’t just summon up that kind of authenticity without bringing a tremendous wealth of artistic ability.
“She’s a very serious actor. So, I don’t see why she would ever be intimidated by me or in any way feel frightened. I think that was more b*******.”
A Mad Max prequel is currently in the works – but Charlize has been replaced by Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Hardy is also not involved.
