When you hear the name of a character in the Mad Max universe, you instantly have a strong idea of what they’re going to be like. Take Immortan Joe, who couldn’t sound more of a self-made ferocious warlord. Or Imperator Furiosa, clearly an absolute force of vengeance. Then there’s the hard-rocking Doof Warrior, or Lord Humungus from The Road Warrior. Or what about Rictus Erectus, who… well, we’ll leave that to the imagination. So when you learn that Chris Hemsworth’s character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller’s sprawling Fury Road prequel – goes by the moniker Dementus, it’s already clear: he’s probably not a sunshine and rainbows kind of guy.
That hunch would be absolutely correct. “He’s a pretty horrible individual,” Hemsworth tells Empire in the world-exclusive Furiosa issue. But like all the best baddies, he doesn’t necessarily think of himself that way. “Through the whole film we kept coming back to, ‘This is evil, but what is the intention behind it?’ It’s not just sadistic insanity. There is a real purpose, the wheels are turning, he’s plotting and planning and ten steps ahead of everyone else.” Amid the harshness of the Wasteland, he even imagines himself as something of a father figure to Furiosa, here played by Anya Taylor-Joy. “I think that’s how he sees himself,” says Hemsworth. “I think there’s a paternal quality and nature to the relationship in his eyes. [Furiosa] would, I’m sure, argue to her death the complete opposite.”
A guy named Dementus in the Mad Max world demands a suitably ludicrous set of wheels – and on that front, filmmaker George Miller was happy to oblige. “The chariot bike is the wildest piece of machinery I’ve ever driven, and I loved every second of it,” Hemsworth raves, teasing more gigantic revved-up action this time around. “I mean, hanging off a crane at one point and being loaded onto a monster truck, and then on the monster truck someone unclips me off a harness and the truck spins away into a burnout. How this world comes from one of the kindest individuals, I’ll never know…” It’s like they say: you don’t have to be as mad as Max to work here – but it helps.
Read Empire’s world-exclusive Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga cover feature – delving into the guzzoline-fuelled madness of the action-packed shoot, with George Miller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and more – in the May 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 14 March. Pre-order a copy online here. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga comes to UK cinemas from 24 May.