Wearing a prosthetic nose in George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga helped Chris Hemsworth lose himself in his warlord character Dementus, the actor says.
“The nose, the beard, the kind of wig, all the sort of prosthetics and the costume, everything was just, look — any of that helps you kind of get out the way of yourself,” Hemsworth told MovieMaker in an interview for our most recent cover story. “The more you can cut loose of yourself and be completely taken on a journey through what the hair and makeup, costume, the sets, have to offer — it makes your job so much easier.”
In the new Mad Max installment, Hemsworth’s Dementus is a cruelly charismatic biker-chariot warlord who steals the Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy, taking over the role previously played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road) from the Green Place of Many Mothers. On a journey across the Wasteland, Dementus fights for dominance against The Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), while Furiosa fights to survive as she plots her way home.
The level of drama and detail of the visual world of Furiosa made it much less of a mental leap to transform into a completely different person, Hemsworth says.
“Look at these costumes, look at these sets. We just gotta not screw up our lines now and not get in the way of it all,” he says. “So it was like an another prop, all of it. And when I would look in the mirror, I’d go, ‘I don’t see myself anymore. This is a great thing.’ So then you start to think differently, start reacting differently, and there’s a knock on effect to that.”
Miller has helmed the Mad Max franchise since its inception in 1979, with the original Mad Max starring Mel Gibson as the title character. He followed it with two more films in the initial trilogy, and then the franchise was dormant until 2015’s reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy as the title character and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. Now, Anya Taylor-Joy picks up her mantle as the tough and war-hardened woman-warrior.
Since the characters of Furiosa live in a dog-eat-dog, post-apocalyptic world, Hemsworth says director Miller would often ask them to consider how they themselves would respond to an apocalypse.
How Chris Hemsworth Would Handle the Apocalypse, With or Without a Prosthetic Nose
“How would we react? George would ask that of all the actors and even everyone in production,” Hemsworth recalls.
Also Read: Furiosa Director George Miller Unpacks Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s Fury Road Feud
“How would you treat this situation? For me, sort of random objects found — how could we make use of them? It spawned a whole level of creative creativity for everyone, as far as, okay, there’s an old engine part there, we could use that for a saucepan or a cup or a funnel, and there’s something else where you could attach it to this, and it could be part of a weapon, or it could be a part of some housing sort of structure. So that’s what he would constantly be investigating and asking of everyone.”
Miller also asked the cast how they would respond emotionally to the apocalypse. In that sense, Hemsworth says it’s important to consider that traits like compassion, empathy and kindness are luxuries that people in the Wasteland don’t have access to.
“Can you afford yourself those emotions in an environment like that? And does that justify the actions that occur?” Hemsworth asks. “It’s easy to sort of, from the outside, point the finger and say that’s a barbaric thing to do, and what violence and aggression. That’s just, like, my character. But then you go, well, look what’s on the line… it sort of begins to stimulate or provoke those questions in an audience, hopefully, and how would you react in that situation? For some, that individual is the villain, to some, it’s the hero, and I love that. I love that conversation.”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga arrives in theaters on May 24.
Main Image: Chris Hemsworth with a prosthetic nose as Dementus in Furiosa, Warner Bros.
Share:
