In 2015, George Miller finally managed to get the Mad Max film he’d been working on for decades to the screen, with Tom Hardy playing the title character, and it was instantly hailed as one of the greatest action movies ever made. But Fury Road was far from the first movie in the franchise. It was the first Mad Max movie that a lot of modern moviegoers saw, but it was the fourth in the series.
Before Hardy took the role, Max Rockatansky was played by Mel Gibson in a trilogy consisting of two classics of action cinema and a pretty disappointing threequel. There are some fascinating stories from the making of the original movies.
George Miller Raised Mad Max’s Budget By Working As An E.R. Doctor
One thing that not a lot of people know about Mad Max creator George Miller is that he was a physician before becoming a filmmaker. He completed his residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
Miller raised the shoestring $350,000 budget for the first Mad Max film, which was his feature-length directorial debut, by working as a doctor in an emergency room. With an eventual gross of more than $100 million, Mad Max earned the record for most profitable movie ever made, until it was eclipsed by The Blair Witch Project in 1999.
The Dog In Mad Max 2 Was Saved From A Pound
Max’s dog in Mad Max 2 was saved from a local dog pound and trained to perform in the movie. The sound of the car engines upset the dog, so he had to be given special earplugs.
At the end of filming, in order to save the dog from having to go back to the pound, he was adopted by one of the camera operators who worked on the movie.
Beyond Thunderdome Was Not Originally A Mad Max Movie
In its earliest stages of development, Beyond Thunderdome was not a Mad Max movie. It was an unrelated post-apocalyptic story about a Lord of the Flies-esque cult of children living in a bleak wasteland who are joined by an adult.
It was only retooled into a Mad Max movie when George Miller suggested that the adult who finds the kid cult could be Max Rockatansky.
Some Of The First Movie’s Extras Were Paid In Beer
Since the first Mad Max movie had a relatively slim budget of $350,000, the production couldn’t afford to pay all the extras in money. Instead, some of them had to be paid in beer.
Plus, the bikers that appear in the movie belonged to an actual biker gang and had to ride to and from the set in their costumes, which required their prop weapons to be exposed. So, Miller wrote them letters explaining why they needed to carry fake weapons in case they were pulled over by the cops.
Mel Gibson Cut His Own Hair For Mad Max 2
According to George Miller, it was Mel Gibson who suggested that Max should look a lot rougher and grittier in the second movie to insinuate a long period of survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
In order to achieve this look, Gibson cut his own hair and eyebrows, and he also scuffed up his gloves and cut a sleeve off his leather jacket.
Tina Turner Had To Shave Her Head For Her Beyond Thunderdome Wig To Fit
Before Tina Turner was cast to play Auntie Entity in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, the producers considered casting Jane Fonda in the role.
After Turner was cast, her wig didn’t fit properly, so she had to shave her head, which she was surprisingly cool with.
Local Police Surprisingly Supported The First Movie’s Illegal Shoot
George Miller started shooting the first Mad Max movie illegally. The budget couldn’t afford the proper permits to close roads, so the production team just closed them without permission.
However, as the local police caught on, they surprisingly became interested in the shoot and started helping out, closing roads officially to accommodate filming.
George Miller Edited Mad Max 2 With The Sound Off
George Miller edited Mad Max 2 with the sound off so that he could focus entirely on the visuals. He’s a master of visual storytelling, famously saying that he wanted viewers in non-English-speaking countries to be able to understand Fury Road without the subtitles.
In keeping with Mad Max 2 being an almost entirely visual moviegoing experience, Mel Gibson only has 16 lines of dialogue in the whole movie.
Beyond Thunderdome’s Prop Cars Had To Be Tweaked Because Tina Turner Couldn’t Drive A Stick
The script for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome required Tina Turner’s character Auntie Entity to drive a vehicle. The prop team made up all the cars with manual transmissions.
However, it later transpired that Turner couldn’t drive a stick, so the cars had to be tweaked to have an automatic transmission.
Mel Gibson Never Intended To Audition For Mad Max
Although Max Rockatansky would go on to be the role that made Mel Gibson a movie star, he never actually intended to audition for the part. He only went to the casting call to accompany his roommate, who was auditioning. Since Gibson had been in a bar fight the previous night, his face was black and blue from bruising.
The casting people told him to come back in three weeks when they were auditioning “freaks” for the movie. Three weeks later, he arrived at the freak auditions, but his injuries had healed, so he didn’t get cast as a freak, but he was asked to read for the title role and clinched it.