Chris Hemsworth has revealed the unusual advice Furiosa director George Miller gave him to help him get into the headspace of villain Dementus.
"George suggested to me to journal as the character, which I hadn't done before," the Marvel star tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday April 25, which features the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel on the cover. "It was 2am one night. I was awake, and I just put pen to paper, and just started scribbling down thoughts and ideas as Dementus.
"I didn't think much of it. I went to sleep, and woke up, and was quite shocked at what came out of me in that half-asleep state. I went into rehearsal, and showed George, and we both went, 'That's it. That's the direction we've got to go."
Detailing the events before its predecessor, Furiosa spans a whopping 16 years, and sees Anya Taylor-Joy take over from Charlize Theron as a younger version of the stompy boots-wearing, one-armed Imperator. Having been snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers as a youngster, a 20-something Furiosa finds herself caught up in the antics of the formidable Biker Horde, a gang led by Hemsworth's Dementus.
During their travels through the Wasteland, the group stumbles across the Citadel, sparking a battle for power between Dementus and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Amidst the chaos and carnage, Furiosa strikes up a plan to make it back home.
"There was a great sense of continuity to what had been done before," says Hemsworth. "But what was exciting was, with a lot of the dialogue, there was a sort of Shakespearean tone to it. It's an epic tale. You see a real growth and change in the characters, or the demise in others. You see the environments they inhabit break down. But it has some insane action in it, as well."
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is released on May 24. You can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, April 25.
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