George Miller Has A 'Thing' About Anya Taylor-Joy's Mouth & It Changed Her Furiosa
Director George Miller had one major note for Anya Taylor-Joy while they worked on the "Mad Max" film "Furiosa" together — and, weirdly, it had to do with her mouth.
During a cover story in Variety, Taylor-Joy said that while she and Miller worked on the long-awaited prequel to "Mad Max: Fury Road" centered around the warrior Furiosa — played by Charlize Theron in the 2015 film — he kept giving her the same note over and over. "We'd do takes where he'd be like, 'Do it again with your mouth closed,'" the Golden Globe-winning actress said. "He has a thing about my mouth. He thinks when my mouth is open, I look too young." Based on that note, Taylor-Joy would approach every scene with her jaw firmly clamped shut, and she thinks the overall product is better because of it.
So why does Taylor-Joy think her clenched mouth really makes the film's message clear? "This is the wasteland, and any outbreak of emotion is punished by death," she explained to profiler Ramin Setoodeh. "Any empathy is punished by death — any kindness, really. It all made sense to me. I think the restrictions that were placed on me by George did create a radiation off the character, because she is being suppressed continuously throughout the film." Luckily for Taylor-Joy, one of her other facial features did a lot of heavy lifting in her performance.
According to Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa is a silent character — so her facial expressions are that much more important
Anya-Taylor Joy is a striking actress for many reasons, but her enormous, piercing eyes are definitely one of her most recognizable features. According to her, Furiosa's silence — she does speak during the film, but apparently not a whole lot — really allowed Taylor-Joy to use her gaze to the fullest during her performance. "Furiosa doesn't talk much," Taylor-Joy said. "She's a pretty silent character. I hope that's part of the reason George chose me. Until I was doing Furiosa, I didn't quite realize that's been a lot of my career — a lot of my career has played out in my eyes."
At that point during the interview, Ramin Setoodeh noted that, when he first saw the "Furiosa: A Mad Max Story" trailer, he thought the original Furiosa, Charlize Theron, provided the voice-over that explains the character's difficult early years. Taylor-Joy was apparently delighted to hear that Setoodeh was tricked into thinking it was Theron, though she did joke around with him — "You're shocked I'm that good? Acting, darling" — before saying that she realized the character's voice would be raspy and rough. "I was channeling Furiosa's voice," she said. "Gal doesn't talk much. When she opens her mouth, it's rusty in there." (Taylor-Joy also said that she and the Oscar-winner have spoken, saying, "We emailed a bunch and then finally met up at the Oscars. She is as wonderful and cool and gracious as you can imagine.")
Anya Taylor-Joy's transformation into Furiosa sounds absolutely grotesque
Beyond changing her facial expressions to suit director George Miller's sensibilities, Anya Taylor-Joy went through some pretty nasty-sounding stuff to truly transform into Furiosa — including being constantly covered in fake dirt and blood. "You will not believe how dirty I had to be for it to read on camera," Taylor-Joy said, apparently showing Ramin Setoodeh a picture on her phone. "The first time I looked at myself in the mirror I was like, 'Whoa!' I looked like a creature from the Black Lagoon." She also notes that she wore seven layers of dirt and blood, and even asked for more of it. "I'm always the 'More blood!' girl," she joked.
What this all led to for Taylor-Joy is that she did lose some sense of normalcy as she spent months filming in the Australian desert — and one realization about that truly surprised her. "I hadn't seen anybody that wasn't in wasteland hair and makeup in two months," Taylor-Joy told Setoodeh. "I had not seen anybody looking regular."
The happy note here is that Taylor-Joy decided to get a kitten upon arriving in Australia, adopting a cat that she named Kitsune — who she says wasn't even frightened of her covered in fake dirt and blood. Adorably, Kitsune gave Taylor-Joy an outlet while filming "Furiosa." "He came to work with me every day," she said. "I needed to funnel my love into something. My brain told me I needed something to nurture."
There's one physical change Anya Taylor-Joy didn't have to make for Furiosa
Clearly, Anya Taylor-Joy went through quite a lot to play "Furiosa," but there's one thing she didn't have to do ... and that was shave her head. Charlize Theron quite infamously shaved her head to play the adult version of the character in "Mad Max: Fury Road," and Taylor-Joy told Ramin Setoodeh she was more than willing to do the same thing. Apparently, George Miller told her he didn't want her to do that.
Why? When Taylor-Joy initially asked Miller about buzzing her hair off, he wasn't totally sure of the movie's shooting schedule, and for at least part of the movie, Furiosa has long hair (according to the interview, she doesn't shave it off until the "final act of the film"). Miller, whom Taylor-Joy calls a "softie," says that she begged to buzz her hair, but the director was unmoved. "He saw my hair and he said, 'It's beautiful. Don't do it,'" the actress revealed. Fascinatingly, aside from the bald cap that's fitted specifically to her head that she wears once Furiosa shears her locks, she has a second cap just for the hair-cutting scene. "That's a second bald cap that has hair that I can actually cut," Taylor-Joy explained.
"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" hits theaters on May 24, and fans of the franchise — and of Taylor-Joy — will finally be able to see her representation of the character.