Both Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy got candid about the feud the two had on the set of the 2015 hit movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" in the new book, "Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of 'Mad Max: Fury Road.'"
In an excerpt from the book, written by a New York Times pop-culture reporter, Kyle Buchanan and published by Vanity Fair on Tuesday, both actors and crew members who were witnesses to the spat revealed the moment when things boiled over.
"I remember vividly the day," Mark Goellnicht, a camera operator, said in the book. "The call on set was eight o'clock. Charlize got there right at eight o'clock, sat in the War Rig, knowing that Tom's never going to be there at eight even though they made a special request for him to be there on time."
In the movie, Theron plays Imperator Furiosa, who uses a giant truck known as the "War Rig" to save a group of young women from the clutches of the villain Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and is now on the run. Hardy plays Max, a loner who comes across Furiosa and the women and decides to help them.
Hardy "was notorious for never being on time in the morning," Goellnicht said. "If the call time was in the morning, forget it — he didn't show up."
Hours passed, and Hardy didn't show up. Witnesses said Theron didn't even get out of the truck to use the bathroom. Some felt Hardy was purposely showing up late as a power play because he knew it would make Theron mad.
"Eleven o'clock. She's now in the War Rig, sitting there with her makeup on and a full costume for three hours," Goellnicht said. "Tom turns up, and he walks casually across the desert. She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, 'Fine the fucking cunt a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he's held up this crew,' and 'How disrespectful you are!' She was right. Full rant."
Goellnicht said he believed despite it being windy that day, Theron was screaming so loudly that Hardly likely heard what she said.
"He charged up to her up and went, 'What did you say to me?'" Goellnicht said.
"He was quite aggressive," Goellnicht continued. "She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point, because then she said, 'I want someone as protection.' She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time."
For the rest of filming, the producer Denise Di Novi shadowed Theron, according to the book.
"It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalize some of it, because I didn't feel safe," Theron said.
"In hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways," Hardy said in the book. "The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me. That's something that can't be faked. I'd like to think that now that I'm older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion."
But the book states that as filming went on in the desert, Hardy softened, and he and Theron worked better together.
"That scene where you see Tom with Charlize on the bike and all the Vuvalini and the Wives behind, intermingled — that scene was probably the biggest change in seeing Tom really soften to Charlize in real life," Goellnicht said. "We were all unprepared for how he performed that, and then I walked off and Charlize was walking back, and I said, 'Geez, Charlize, that was amazing. Did a light switch go off? He was great.' She was quite taken aback by it, too."
"He was a different person by the end," Goellnicht continued. "A lot easier to deal with, a lot more cooperative, more compassionate."