One of Australia’s biggest Hollywood stars has come home for Australia’s famed film franchise in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Chris Hemsworth plays the evil warlord Dementus in the fifth instalment of the action series, his first time playing the villain in a film of this scale.
Coming to such a culturally significant series was “nerve-racking” for the Thor star.
“To be part of something so iconically Australian warranted a certain ‘don’t drop the ball’ feeling,” he told AAP.
“But that just spurred all of us to dig deeper and search for how we could pay our respects to what had been done, but also bring something unique to it.”
Wanting to match the Australiana-inspired feel of the Mad Max world, Hemsworth based Dementus’ voice on his grandfather’s, as well as old Australian horseracing commentary and film interviews.
“They have an odd nasality that’s quite specific but also feels unique in this day and age,” he said.
Furiosa is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and follows that film’s iconic supporting character Imperator Furiosa from childhood as she becomes the now-iconic desert warrior.
The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the titular role from Charlize Theron.
“Mad Max is something that Australians are so rightfully proud of,” Taylor-Joy told AAP.
“And Australians are also so rightfully proud of (Hemsworth), and the two combined together, you kind of can’t go wrong.”
Director and series creator George Miller developed the screenplay for Furiosa in tandem with Fury Road’s and has waited close to a decade to complete the film.
Miller said the series resonated because hero Max Rockatansky’s story was not specific to Australia but had an “Australian feel about it”.
“(The international audience) recognised something about the Australian landscape and our vehicle culture and that had a resonance,” Miller told AAP.
While never setting out to make an authentically Australian film, Miller is passionate about Aussie culture and history and is proud to have helped expose it to a global audience.
He points to the infamous choice to dub the original film with American actors for the US release, whereas no one in production took issue with the Australian accents in Furiosa.
“When Chris Hemsworth decided to do an accent, it really fitted in and there’s never been any question about it,” he said.
The director sees parallels between the new film’s story and Indigenous history.
“Starting at the centre of Australia, in a desert with a ‘Green Place’ where people can survive by being isolated, it goes right back to the Indigenous culture,” Miller said.
“Which is, aside from the Opera House, I believe the most unique thing we have in Australian culture.”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens in Australia on May 24.