Tom Burke, the actor who plays War Rig driver Praetorian Jack in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, recently opened up about shooting one of his most brutal scenes in the movie with director George Miller.
If you haven’t watched the movie yet, you might want to skip this because we get into some big spoiler territory.
In the film, Furiosa forms a very close relationship with Jack when she joins his War Rig crew, but that all comes to a tragic end when Dementus and his goons ambush the War Rig at the Bullet Farm.
Jack and Furiosa manage to make it out of that situation alive, and as they are on their journey to find the Green Place and start a new life, Dementus catches up with them and kills their dream.
The ruthless and heartless warlord forces Furiosa to watch while Jack is tied to the back of a motorcycle and dragged in a circle with dogs knawing on him in the process. This is something that Jack does not survive.
During an interview with GQ, Burke talked about shooting this scene saying: “It’s a very unromantic death. [George] wanted the whole being dragged out of the car, Chris talking to us, getting tied up, [all shot in] one take.
“They suddenly said before we started, George wants to do some longer bits on this. Which I love, I think it gives the whole film a whole other quality, something more lyrical.”
The actor went on to say: “And I was like, ‘We’re doing this on my first day? Really? They want to get rid of me.’ I had a little square there.
“Essentially to make sure that the costume didn’t get too rubbed, or scratched, just over my solar plexus. When it’s the high shot, and I’m completely motionless, that’s a mannequin or whatever. They digitally printed the mannequin, it’s very accurately me. But when it’s a dead body, it doesn’t need to be me.”
Furiosa was an awesome movie, and it must’ve been a blast for the cast to shoot.