Would Max still be Max if he wasn’t Mad?Ĭhristian Bale in Terminator: Salvation. Toxic masculinity is polling badly these days except when it is harnessed for the good of a movie. But news of an actor throwing a hissy fit, even to the point of sending co-stars and crew members ducking for cover, retains a bizarre but stubborn whiff of Hollywood lawlessness. Sexual harassment, pay inequality, lack of diversity: none of these problems are remotely sexy. If nothing comparable is being done about the enduring macho spirit that persists in cases such as 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, that may be because it is indivisible from the mystery surrounding the craft of acting, and a general unwillingness to tamper with it. And stars such as Frances McDormand and Michael B Jordan have pledged to feature “inclusion riders” in their contracts to guarantee diversity on the sets of their movies. There is an increased awareness of the need for gender pay parity, even if that ideal hasn’t yet been reached. The industry has responded to the #MeToo movement by bringing in measures such as intimacy coordinators for sex scenes, as well as a heightened presence on sets from the human resources departments to whom cast and crew members can bring complaints in confidentiality. What is depressing is not so much that a star has behaved like a brute – power corrupts, after all – but that the system does nothing to discourage such behaviour.
How reassuring for an actor to know that a director will “probably” have her back. The director, George Miller, says that if he were faced again with the same situation, “I would probably be more mindful”. His response included “charging up to her” and saying, “What did you say to me?” Theron, whose baby daughter was with her in Namibia, requested that a female producer, Denise Di Novi, should be present to protect her – “I was really scared shitless,” Theron said – but this was overruled by another producer, Doug Mitchell, who blocked Di Novi’s attendance. One morning, after he kept her and the crew waiting for more than three hours, she suggested the producers should “fine the fucking cunt $100,000 for every minute that he’s held up this crew”.
To cut a long standoff short, it seems – after weeks of tension and bubbling aggression – that Theron berated Hardy for his persistent lateness, which had resulted in many hours of delays on set in the Namibian desert.
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