Furiosa star wanted to "be careful" about romance
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga star Tom Burke has said that he wanted to be “careful” when handling the film’s potential romance.
The latest instalment in George Miller’s action franchise serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, telling the story of Imperator Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she seeks to escape from the clutches of Dr Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).
Burke, who has also appeared in War & Peace and Mank, stars as Praetorian Jack in Furiosa, with the commander serving as a mentor to Taylor-Joy’s character. Though the pair grow closer, their relationship never becomes wholly romantic – a choice that was very much deliberate.
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“I think it gives a really nice context to some of the dynamic she has with Max in Fury Road, both in terms of what's at stake and of her connection with other human beings, and also trust of a man in this very particular world they're in,” Burke told Entertainment Weekly.
“It was really nice to actually build that with Anya, [co-writer] Nico [Lathouris] and George because there was a point when it occurred far earlier in the script," he continued about Furiosa and Jack’s relationship.
"It may have been a hangover from a previous draft because when I read it, it jumped out at me, and I said, 'I think we have to be careful about this because he's kind of a mentor figure. You don't want that to seamlessly change into something else.’
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“What that ended up being – which I really like is, and George was very excited by the whole idea of was that it's not until the very last minute of what you see of them together, almost the last second, they go, oh, now we're in a totally different space.”
Burke recently spoke exclusively with Digital Spy about his part of the film, revealing that he could scarcely believe he was offered the opportunity, saying: “I can't quite believe I'm here. I just look at the [poster] and I'm in that movie. That's amazing.”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in cinemas now.
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