Furiosa Doesn’t Give Star Anya Taylor-Joy Many Lines, Admits Director George Miller

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will bring moviegoers back to the dystopian world of writer/director George Miller, and his roving bands of nitro-fueled vehicular mayhem across the wasteland. In this chapter, Mad Max: Fury Road’s breakout character Furiosa (originally played by Charlize Theron) has her backstory revealed – with actress Anya Taylor-Joy (Split, Queen’s Gambit) stepping into the role of a younger Furisoa. 

The first reviews of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga have praised Miller for once again delivering a high-octane thrill ride at the movies; however, there have been notable mentions that Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa doesn’t have a lot of dialogue in the film. 

A new featured interview with George Miller notes that in Furiosa’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime, Anya Taylor-Joy only has approximately 30 lines of dialogue. 

According to Miller, that’s not only not a problem, but an intentional stylistic choice. Miller admitted in the the interview that he is a student of the silent era of films, and the philosophy behind them, which “Hitchcock defined as movies where they don’t have to read the subtitles when they’re screened in Japan”.

It’s hard to imagine that there are that many moviegoers coming to Furiosa without having first seen Mad Max: Fury Road. For everyone who did see Fury Road, it should come as no surprise at all that George Miller didn’t give his lead character a lot of dialogue. Tom Hardy’s Mad Max only had 63 lines of dialogue in Fury Road – with much of that being dialogue exchanges with Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. 

The premise of this Furiosa prequel film will see the young girl go from her home in “The Green Place” and end up sold into servitude – ultimately driving and fighting her way into being “Imperator” and “War Rig” driver for warlord Immortan Joe. In that kind of framework, it’s understandable if Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa doesn’t spend much time having heart-to-heart talks with others, rather than biding her time, plotting, and ultimately battling for her freedom. 

There’s a good chance that a major thematic arc of the prequel will revolve around the idea of Furiosa being overlooked or underestimated by the male tribal leaders around her (like Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus) before proving that she’s the threat they always should’ve kept their eye on. Furiosa getting more “voice” as the film goes on would be a great use of dialogue as character development. 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be in theaters on May 24th.