Eminem and Rihanna were considered for the two leads in Mad Max: Fury Road, according to a book covering the making of the movie. After a long, tumultuous period in development hell, the movie from director George Miller finally got a theatrical release in May 2015. The fourth movie in the Mad Max franchise, Fury Road acts as a both a sequel and a reboot as the first Mad Max project for 30 years, with the previous instalment, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, released back in 1985. The film received widespread critical acclaim, grossing $374.7 million globally and winning six of its 10 Academy Award nominations.
Mad Max: Fury Road stars British actor Tom Hardy in the title role, with Charlize Theron playing the role of Imperator Furiosa. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where gasoline and water are rare commodities, the movie follows Furiosa and Max as they join forces to escape cult leader Immortan Joe and his army of followers. The film takes the structure of a road movie and is widely regarded as one of the greatest action films of all time - though the film could have looked very different had some different casting decisions been made.
According to the book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan, there were a host of other well-known actors considered for the roles of Max and Furiosa. In an excerpt shared by Vulture, it's revealed that musicians Eminem and Rihanna were also both considered at one point. Miller met with Rihanna near the end of the process, noting that “Usually, actors turn up dressed very casually, but boy, Rihanna looked spectacular when she walked in. I’m not sure she was even aware of the content of the movie, so she dressed up as Rihanna, which was the right thing to do.” Read Miller's comments below on why he considered Eminem below:
He’d done 8 Mile, and I found that really interesting — I thought, He’s got that quality. We’d done the first Happy Feet with the late Brittany Murphy, and she had done 8 Mile, so I asked her what he was like and would this be something really interesting for him? She had no reservations about saying what a wonderful talent he is. [...] We did get in touch with him, though that’s as far as it went because we were going to shoot it in Australia at that point, and he simply didn’t want to leave home. I think he had the impression that if he could do it out of his home state, then he’d be up for it.
Casting can make such a massive difference to the way in which a movie is received, and, in a lot of cases, it can be the most important part of the process to get right. It's likely anybody who has seen Mad Max: Fury Road would balk at the idea of Eminem and Rihanna in the lead roles, and the decision not to cast them was clearly the right one. Casting against type can sometimes work incredibly well in movies, but typically those in charge of bringing the film to life will think hard about the perfect casting decisions before pulling the trigger.
While there is every chance Rihanna and Eminem may have done well, there is little debate that Theron and Hardy were ideal fits. Whether either performer will appear in any future Mad Max movies remains to be seen, though Hardy has revealed he was contracted for three more following Mad Max: Fury Road. For now, spinoff movie Furiosa has been greenlit with Miller to write and direct and Last Night in Soho star Anya Taylor-Joy set to replace Theron in the lead role.
Source: Blood, Sweat & Chrome (via Vulture)
