Michael Fassbender said a series of quirky events while auditioning for George Miller’s hit action sci-fi film “Mad Max: Fury Road” led to an “excruciating” experience.
“That was one of the worst auditions, recent auditions … I mean, recent,” Fassbender said while appearing on Thursday’s episode of Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. The host cut in saying that the audition had to be at least 12 years ago.
“Thankfully, I have not had to audition in a while,” Fassbender jokingly added.
Watch the full interview in the video below:
The “X-Men: First Class” actor then went on to explain that the chaotic endeavor began when he got lost on the Warner Bros. lot.
“Oh my God, it was awful. First of all, it was before … You know, I’m always sort of thinking, could I get rid of my phone, my smartphone,” Fassbender said. “And I’m thinking, for the one reason I need Google maps, its like, my sense of direction is terrible, so bad that like, if my intuition says go right, I go the opposite way. So I was going to Warner Bros. in the valley, not complicated. I had those printouts on the seat next to me in the car, you know, ‘take a left here’ or whatever, and I got lost. I ended up getting to the audition almost like an hour late, so I was not in the correct head space … But I arrived and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ And they were like ‘fine.’”
His next hurdle was using an acting coach Miller had tasked with guiding his prospects for the film.
“And then George Miller has this acting coach and it was like so excruciating. It was so excruciating. I have been classically trained, so I have my process of, obviously, there is an objective that the character has and activities that I’m going to play to get it. So I felt like you are teaching your granny how to suck eggs here,” Fassbender explained. “This guy really got on my nerves. And he was like, ‘I want you to say this phrase, get out of the room, but I want you to physicalize it, Michael. Get out of the room, get out of the room.’ So I was like, ‘Get out of the room, get out of the room.’ He was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘I was doing the get out of the room and physical.’”
Where to Stream All the 'Mad Max' Movies
By the end of it, Fassbender said he was quite literally ready to get out of the room.
“It was so, I could not wait to get out of there. So obviously I did not get the part,” Fassbender said. “Obviously, Tom Hardy got the part and deservedly so.”
During an interview with Vulture, Miller said his “Mad Max” franchise will not end with “Furiosa.” In fact, he has already got a new script, though he plans to put it in his back pocket for now.
“We have got another script,” Miller said when asked if he would still make another “Mad Max” movie. “But having been doing this long enough where I’m habituated to storytelling, I find myself with way too many stories — not only in my head, but in the form of screenplays or at least very detailed notes that are within reach of screenplays. I’m a professional daydreamer, really … So, there’s lots of stories. Indeed, one of them is a Mad Max. It is not something I would do next.”
You can watch the clip in the video above. You can listen to the full episode of “Happy Sad Confused” here.
