The movie that saw George Miller pay his cast with beer
It’s been a long time since George Miller has needed to scrape pennies together in order to realise his vision, but the financial restrictions imposed by his very first feature ended up having a seismic impact on cinema when it took the world by storm.
A low-budget dystopian action thriller set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and predicated on vehicular carnage was nothing if not ambitious for a debut, even if Miller only had $400,000 to spend bringing Mad Max to life. Determined to deliver the best possible version of the script, the production posed many challenges, which would continue to be a hallmark of the franchise for the next 40 years.
Scheduled to be shot in ten weeks, filming eventually rumbled on for 14 in total after some stunts needed to be reshot, missing second unit footage was picked up, and the actor originally cast as Max Rockatansky’s wife was replaced after being injured in an automotive accident.
Guerrilla filmmaking at its finest, Miller and his crew shot wherever they could whenever they could without securing the necessary permits, all while avoiding the use of their radios to communicate because it was on the same frequency as the local police. Fortunately, the authorities took a vested interest in what was going on and ultimately ended up assisting the crew in any way they could.
Money was so tight that many of the extras – a number of whom were part of a gang called The Vigilantes – couldn’t be paid in legal tender, forcing Miller to come up with a very stereotypically Australian way of ensuring his background players felt well-compensated.
One truck driver was paid $50 and awarded a case of 24 beers to run over a motorbike with his work vehicle, while extras and on-set security alike were paid in cans. It must have seemed like a reasonable exchange at the time, but there might have been a few members of the crew left wishing they’d have gotten at least a bottle of expensive liquor when Mad Max was finally released.
Setting a world record by becoming the most profitable film ever made – an accolade it would hold for a full 20 years until The Blair Witch Project came along – Mad Max was a global sensation that helped launch Mel Gibson to superstardom and put Hollywood on notice that Miller was a directorial talent with boundless potential.
That being said, Miller’s first three behind-the-camera credits came on the original Mad Max trilogy, and when he did eventually head Stateside to helm The Witches of Eastwick in 1987, the results were solid as opposed to spectacular. The franchise that made his name never left him, though, even if it took 30 years for him to return.
Fury Road carried a budget over 300 times greater than the first Mad Max, and would go on to win six Academy Awards from ten nominations, something that would have sounded absolutely preposterous to Miller when he was forced to pay off his extras in beer.
