Tom Hardy spat in Armie Hammer's face while the pair read scenes for the
lead role in Mad Max: Fury Road, a new book has claimed.
The
actor, who eventually landed the part of Max Rockatansky in the
critically-acclaimed 2015 film, was tasked with running lines opposite Armie
during the audition process, and quickly got into character by 'gnashing his
teeth and spitting.'
The book, titled Blood, Sweat & Chrome:
The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, has been penned by New York
Times columnist Kyle Buchanan, and details the film's turbulent history
before finally reaching the big screen.
In a excerpt published by Vulture, Kyle details the tough
competition from some of Hollywood's biggest actors who wanted to play the
lead role in the Mad Max sequel.
The final shortlist saw Tom
competing with Armie and Jeremy Renner, after a lengthy search that saw
stars including Michael Fassbender, Joel Kinnaman and Heath Ledger audition
for the role.
Kyle said: 'Near the end of the process, Hardy
emerged as a front-runner alongside Jeremy Renner and Armie Hammer.
'Hardy and Hammer even read together as part of their audition,
and when Hardy gnashed his teeth and spat at his scene partner, Hammer told
Miller that Hardy needed to be Max more than he did.'
In the
book, audition cameraman Todd Matthew Grossman also said: ''Jeremy and Armie
were equally wonderful, but there was something about Tom in the room where
it felt like that was Max, without a doubt.
'He had that kind of suppressed emotional dryness that you’d
find in a post-apocalypse and, buried underneath it, disdain for the world.
There was this intensity that burned through the lens.'
Director
George Miller compared his reaction to Tom to that of Mel Gibson when he
walked into the room for the first time, with the Oscar winner going onto
star in the first three films in the Mad Max series.
Tom added:
'I was excited to get the job. It’s such a big fish to land that the seesaw
effect, the other side of that, was everybody loves Mel as Max and nobody’s
gonna want me. So it’s like being the new boy at school and set up in some
way for failure immediately.'
Mad Max: Fury Road went onto
become one of the most acclaimed action films in history, lauded by critics
for its use of practical special effects over CGI, and landed 10 Oscar
nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
MailOnline
has contacted representatives for Armie Hammer and Tom Hardy for comment.
It comes after Armie was at the centre of much controversy in
2021 when he was accused of rape.
In March of last year, a woman
named Effie accused the Social Network actor of a 'violent incident' that
occurred in 2017.
The Los Angeles Police Department later
investigated the claims, and after nine months it sent the findings to the
Los Angeles District Attorney's office, though sources told TMZ on December
8 that 'charges appear unlikely' in the matter.
The woman
previously shared several messages allegedly sent by Hamer on her Instagram
account @houseofeffie. The messages included conversations about extreme
sexual bondage and disturbing cannibalistic urges.
'I want
to eat you...I am 100% a cannibal,' read one message, while others included
troubling admissions of desires to eat a woman's ribs and cut off her
toes.
Although Hammer was accused of sending the messages, they
have never been proven to originate with him.
The actor's
ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze also spoke out about his alleged 'dangerous,
emotionally and psychologically damaging' behavior.
In a conversation with DailyMailTV, she claimed that he had
carved a letter 'A' into her private parts with a knife.
The
allegations proved to be catastrophic for Hammer's career, and he was
subsequently dropped by the talent agency WME, as well as by his personal
publicist.
He was replaced in Jennifer Lopez's upcoming rom-com
Shotgun wedding by Josh Duhamel, and Miles Teller took over his role in the
TV series The Offer, which dramatizes the making of Francis Ford Coppola's
classic film The Godfather.
