‘I didn’t feel safe’: Tom Hardy’s treatment of Charlize Theron on ‘Mad Max’ says a lot about toxic masculinityFinding out that co-stars didn’t get on is always a bit jarring, but Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron have made no secret of the fraught nature of their relationship.is still widely considered to be one of the greatest action films of all time and one of the best movies to come out of the 2010s.
However, things ultimately came to a head when Tom arrived to set several hours after call time. Hardy was due on set at 8am and producers even made a “special request” for him to be punctual. However, he was still more than three hours late, all the while Theron – a new mother whose baby was in childcare nearby while she worked – was punctual.
Commenting that “it got to a place where it was kind of out of hand”, Theron said that she felt having someone else nearby would help. “There was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer down could maybe equalise some of it, because I didn’t feel safe,” she admitted. And so a female producer named Denise Di Novi was sent to the film’s set in Namibia.
Surprisingly, Tom echoed what Charlize said in that same interview. “I would agree,” he added. “I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.”