Mad Max: Fury Road Director Wanted Eminem For Lead Role

Mad Max: Fury Road could have been very different, as creator George Miller admits he originally wanted legendary rapper Eminem for the title role.

During an interview with Vulture, the Fury Road director explained why he wanted the prolific rapper for the role of Max Rockatansky.

“He’d done 8 Mile, and I found that really interesting,” he said. “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.”

It wasn’t just a pipe dream, either. Miller revealed that Eminem was contacted about the role, and he was interested in joining the movie… under one condition.

“We did get in touch with him, though that’s as far as it went,” he said. “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.”

Of course, the role eventually went to Tom Hardy, who was widely praised for his performance. But not before a very interesting audition…

Per the Vulture piece, “Near the end of the process, Hardy emerged as a front-runner alongside Jeremy Renner and Armie Hammer. Hardy and Hammer even read together as part of their audition, and when Hardy gnashed his teeth and spat at his scene partner, Hammer told Miller that Hardy needed to be Max more than he did.”

Although Eminem was in consideration for the role of Max, he wasn’t the only musician being considered for the movie, as Rihanna also read for the role of Furiosa eventually played by Charlize Theron.

“Usually, actors turn up dressed very casually, but boy, Rihanna looked spectacular when she walked in,” said Miller. “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.”

IGN’s own review said: “Mad Max: Fury Road arrives like a gut-punch, a visceral return to the sort of R-rated genre pictures of yore that never underestimated their audience, nor took them for granted.”

An upcoming Mad Max spin-off will star Any Taylor-Joy as a young Furiosa but was recently delayed until 2024.

Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa alongside Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and Josh Helman. George Miller directed the film based on a script he co-wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.