George Miller starstruck by Anya Taylor-Joy's stellar performance in 'Furiosa'

Edgar Wright sent friend George Miller a cut of his neo-noir thriller Last Night in Soho before Focus Features released it in October 2021. The Australian filmmaker returned to Wright with an idea after being deeply impressed by the performance of the lead actress, Anya Taylor-Joy.

“I said, ‘Gee, she’d be good for…,’” detailed Miller, who then said Wright interjected before he could finish the thought. “[He said], ‘Do it, do it. She’s great.’”

After considering Wright's succinct counsel, Miller decided to cast Taylor-Joy in the lead role in Warner Bros. Pictures' Furiosa, the most recent instalment of his successful Mad Max series.

She portrays a young lady in a dystopian world who was abducted from her family and later found herself in the hands of the powerful Biker Horde, who is commanded by Chris Hemsworth's character, the Warlord of Dementus. Then, while she pieces together a plan to get home, Furiosa is forced to endure several hardships.

Miller made a trip to Las Vegas on Monday ahead of the movie's May 24 release. There, he accepted a worldwide career accomplishment in filmmaking award from CinemaCon and the National Association of Theatre Owners while standing on the Palace Ballroom stage of Caesars Palace.

Following the award presentation, there was a fireside chat where Miller talked about working with both Taylor-Joy and her arch-enemy Hemsworth from Furiosa.

“There’s something mystical about her, and yet, there’s an accessibility. I learned that she was somebody who is very, very disciplined, even though she’s very young. She was a ballet dancer. [Charlize Theron] was a ballet dancer,” he said of the Oscar-winning actress, who played the role in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. 

“I understand the physical discipline as well as the emotional discipline they have. So all of that led to Anya being in Furiosa.”

As for Hemsworth, Miller said of his Aussie comrade, “I knew the character but I never thought of Chris until we met and we talked, and I realized he was somebody with a lot more dimensions to him that I had initially thought. I mean, for me, he is, as they say in Australia, the complete article. He’s somebody who in every way is exemplary. He responded very well to the material.”