Furiosa Director George Miller Reveals How Chris Hemsworth Adapted the Character

But he also revealed that various things were added to the existing story and credited the film‘s cast with bringing in a lot of new ideas – pointing out one particular way in which Chris Hemsworth brought deeper meaning to his Dementus character.

“In the first concept art done on Furiosa, Dementus had a teddy bear,” Miller explained. “He looked nothing like the Dementus we see in this movie. But he had a teddy bear. And he was just there, with no regard for the story.

“And then as we were rewriting the script as we were getting ready to make the feature film, we added a little bit more about the teddy bear and stuff. And then Chris Hemsworth, when he read the script, had sort of dug deeper – much deeper than I had in many ways, especially from a character perspective.

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“And he started to see some meaning in this teddy bear. And he was able to, you know… he brought a lot to the character.”

Miller also revealed that Hemsworth was responsible for finding a lot of humor in Dementus even though he is extremely mean throughout the film.

“I think that’s what he recognized when he read the script,” he said. “If you look at these characters – warlords or tyrannical figures throughout history, and even their equivalents today… Almost inevitably, they are some sort of showmen, or con artists. They create a sort of cult to their regard.

“And part of that comes from the unpredictability that comes from humor or a kind of showmanship – and you can name any of these characters, present or past throughout the 20th century… and that’s something that Chris recognized and it’s something that we held on to throughout the film.”

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He added that there is an animal element to the unpredictability that can be found in these characters, comparing it to a memorable experience he had in the presence of a dangerous animal in the past.

“If you look at, say, a monkey, or a cat, or a tiger or something like that… you look at them, and you connect with them and they’re beautiful things and you want to touch them. But also, there’s danger for them,” Miller said.

“And I was in the presence of a tiger with an animal trainer once and I was just looking at him, he was watching me. And I just had this urge to pet him. And the animal trainer said : ‘No no no, not too close. It’s that sort of thing, I think, with charismatic leaders – and I think Chris brought that to mine.’

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24 May 2024.

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