Making Furiosa Left Anya Taylor-Joy "More Alone" Than Ever Before

Later this month, Anya Taylor-Joy is following in Charlize Theron's footsteps as the lead character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The upcoming prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road is also Taylor-Joy's first leading role in an action film. But according to the actress, it was also a difficult experience that she hasn't entirely processed.

"I knew I was going to need the two years that it took for the movie to come out to deal with it," Taylor-Joy told The New York Times. "I've never been more alone than making that movie... I don't want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard."

When asked to elaborate about her experiences on the set, Taylor-Joy declined to answer directly. "Talk to me in 20 years," replied Taylor-Joy. "Talk to me in 20 years."

As previously reported, Taylor-Joy's Furiosa only has 30 lines in the entire film. Taylor-Joy indicated that "months" passed between scenes where her character would speak. And it was a challenge to convey Furiosa's thoughts and emotions with just her eyes.

"I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller," related Taylor-Joy. "But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa's war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.' That's it, that's all you have."

Taylor-Joy also said that she had to push for a scene where Furiosa finally lets out her pent up emotions.

"We're animals, and there's a point where somebody just snaps," noted Taylor-Joy. "There's one scream in that movie, and I am not joking when I tell you that I fought for that scream for three months."

"I will never regret this experience, on so many different levels, but it's a very particular story to have," added Taylor-Joy. "There's not everyone in the world that has made a Mad Max movie, and I swear to God, everyone that I've met that has, there's a look in our eyes: We know. There's an immediate kinship of like, 'OK, hey, I see you.'"

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hit theaters on May 24. For more, check out our Furiosa review.