10 Actors Who Shot Movie Scenes Without Permission

Despite being made for just $400,000 Australian back in 1979 - around $1.5 million U.S. today - George Miller's original Mad Max is a relatively polished, even handsome film all things considered.

Still, Miller has characterised the entire experience as an exercise in guerrilla filmmaking, that his cast and crew would quite literally close roads of their own accord and start filming without permits.

Complicating matters, the crew were unable to communicate through walkie talkies as is common on film shoots, for fear that the frequency would be picked up by the local police and clue them into what they were doing.

One brief-but-notable scene that was "stolen" involved villain Johnny the Boy (Tim Burn) breaking the chain off a payphone to make a call to his fellow gang members.

In the scene, Johnny appears to be doing so in quite the rush, yet this wasn't so much for narrative reasons but because Miller didn't have permission to be filming on this Melbourne overpass, and so had to get the shot quickly without detection.

Somewhat ironically, in the later stages of production the Victoria Police did learn about the shoot and actually opted to help Miller close down roads and escort vehicles. A happy ending for all, then.