20 Things You Didn't Know About Mad Max: Fury Road
17. Heath Ledger Was Lined Up As Gibson’s Replacement
Before long Miller would again press on with his quest to make Fury Road a reality, and his next challenge was to find a new leading man.
Mel Gibson's career fell apart when, arrested on suspicion of drink driving in 2006, he embarked on an embarrassing anti-Semitic rant that effectively torpedoed his A-list status. Several subsequent incidents compounded the problem, but in truth Gibson’s age was already a factor as regards playing Mad Max again.
As it happened, Miller didn’t need to cast his net far and wide to find a viable replacement: in fellow Aussie Heath Ledger, he found exactly the characteristics and temperament he was looking for:
“He had that same thing that Mel [had] – that maleness, charisma, and restless energy, which you need to play a relatively still character. The world lost someone great when he went.”
How right he was.
Ledger’s desperately sad, untimely death from an accidental intoxication from prescription drugs in January 2008 was another spanner in the works for Miller; more pertinently, it robbed the acting community of one of its brightest lights.