![]() (The shot stayed in the film, and Norris returned to the set a couple days later for a fight scene against Gibson, with his broken leg kept out of the frame.) Stuntman Max Aspin was successfully hurled from a vehicle during a staged crash, but he insisted on a second take and broke a vertebra.Ħ. On one stunt, he went flying off his motorcycle, clipped his leg on a dune buggy, and broke his femur. ![]() Norris was one of several stuntmen seriously injured during production. Then put on different wardrobe and jump again from a different position." He doubled as Mad Max during driving scenes again, 34 years later, when Tom Hardy starred in Miller's " Mad Max: Fury Road."ĥ. "Essentially, every character that jumped onto the tanker was me," he said in 2015. Guy Norris, a 21-year-old professional motorcycle daredevil, served as Gibson's driving double, appeared on camera as marauder Bearclaw Mohawk, did motorcycle stunts for the film, and doubled for several other marauders in fight scenes. Despite being off the beaten path, when the filmmakers staged the explosion of the refinery compound, the blast was so big that they had to alert all jetliners flying over the area and make sure all the mines were closed.Ĥ. The filming location was a remote Australian mining town called Broken Hill. "When my butt cheeks went purple on set," Wells recalled, "they'd send everyone into the bus so we could warm up."ģ. A lot of them had cheek cutaways in the back, but it was actor Vernon Wells (who played magenta-mohawked henchman Wez) whom Gibson nicknamed "Barometer Bum" - because he could tell how cold the weather was by the color of Wells' backside. Many of the costumes came from specialty leather and fetish shops. Miller has said he made "Road Warrior" partly to "overcome all my frustrations on the first 'Mad Max' because that was such a low budget - and such a tough- movie that I had all this sort of pent up energy for the story and the filmmaking."Ģ. The international success of 1979's "Mad Max" gave Miller license to retell Max's story the way he might have if he'd had greater resources. The production saga behind the original "Mad Max" was nearly as wild as what wound up on screen, and the same is true of its first sequel, as you'll see below.ġ. Plus, it made an A-lister out of Mel Gibson, finally made Australian director George Miller's " Mad Max" franchise a success in the U.S., and influenced countless other post-apocalyptic-wasteland sagas. ![]() Mel Gibson's role as Max is often cited as his breakthrough acting role, and was the film that started his career within the film industry, the indie blockbuster making Gibson an internationally recognised face and icon.Thirty-five years after it detonated on these shores (on May 21, 1982), "The Road Warrior" remains one of the greatest action films ever made. Many of the members involved in the casting have, however, dismissed Gibson's recollection as nothing but a tall-tale, insisting that his confidence and charisma were qualities that won him the role on the first day of auditions. This in turn, according to Gibson, won him the role. However, when Gibson returned, his face had cleared up of bruising, which in turn showed off his good looks to the casting directors. Therefore, the casting director asked him to return in a fortnight for they were interested in roguish faces for the casting of the film's villains. Although Gibson wanted to read for the audition, the tale told often states that Gibson was too bruised and bloodied from a previous night's brawl to recite the lines. Gibson's recollection of his audition for Max - one he used to tell quite often - was that he secured the role after he accompanied Steve Bisley (who went on to play Goose) to the auditions.
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