20 Things You Didn't Know About Mad Max: Fury Road
13. Theron’s Buzz Cut Was Her Idea
If finding a replacement for Mel Gibson was a tough ask, Miller knew it was barely half the battle in the casting process. A number of important roles needed to be filled but one in particular was pivotal to what he hoped to achieve.
Casting Imperator Furiosa, the one-armed female warrior who literally drives the film’s narrative when she smuggles warlord Immortan Joe’s Five Wives aboard the War Rig in a bid to transport them to safety, was a crucial decision in that her character is every bit as important to Fury Road as Max himself.
Miller set his sights on Oscar winner Charlize Theron and was delighted when she agreed to sign up for the film, although apparently some of her co-stars were less than thrilled with her decision to sport a severe buzz cut hairstyle for the role:
“I had to look night-and-day different from the innocent young girls, and I was thinking for a long time the best way to do that. Finally I called George at three in the morning and said ‘I have to shave my head.’ I loved it but everyone hated me because it defined the look for the War Boys and all the stunt people. We had these huge, hardened stuntmen whining, ‘I don’t wanna shave my head.’"