What is the best thing about being a twin?
The shared experience. We spent the first 20 years of our lives together every day. We both have a similar curiosity about the world, and he practised as a doctor for 50 years. His take on human behaviour was really amusing, funny and very wise. It was always interesting to have conversations with him, so we would just compare notes. It’s why I love collaborating with people because it’s always about the discourse.
Where do you keep your Oscar?
I swear, I don’t know. My partner, Margaret [Sixel], also has an Oscar for Fury Road. It’s weird, we don’t have them anywhere. It’s not how our house works.
What film stuck with you as a child?
The first Disney Pinocchio really got me thinking. It was the first film in which I had the idea of the “good” and “bad” voices in your head, like Jiminy Cricket. There was some sort of redemption in the story: the yearning of a parent to have a child, so you had a puppet who becomes a child. It was an enormous story about temptation. The rich biblical allegory stuck with me.
Is there a particularly scene from a film that always makes you emotional?
I remember once reading a review which said, “I couldn’t hear the dialogue because of the sobbing in the audience”. It was a film called The Other Side of the Mountain. There was a moment at the end of the film where the father of its main character gets a phone call, and he’s obviously heard some bad news about her fiance. The way the father is trying to do everything to hold his emotions in, and when he looks at his daughter and she looks back at him – that’s when the audience started sobbing. I remember that moment very well.
If you were to bring one thing into the Wasteland, what would it be?
Water. I was going to say information, but we can’t carry that into the Wasteland. It’s all in the head, that’s why you have the History Man who is a walking encyclopedia. It’s just basic survival out there.
If you could be a penguin, which species would you be?
An emperor penguin. A tap-dancing one.
What’s your oldest possession and why do you still have it?
My twin brother and I had one teddy bear which we shared. Like all teddy bears, we had it until we were teenagers, and it was pretty worn at that point. I don’t know what happened to it. My mum kept some report cards, but they’re gone now.
If you could listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. It’s always so transporting.
What’s the most rogue thing you’ve ever done?
Without a doubt, venturing forth into movies, particularly the first Mad Max film. If I could speak to my younger self, I’d say, “Don’t even attempt it, you have no idea how difficult it’s going to be”. But probably the most ridiculously rogue thing I’ve done was learn to tap dance for a wrap party – and believe it or not, that led to Happy Feet.
Describe filming Furiosa in just three words.
Rigorous. Relaxed. Gratifying.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is out in Australia on 23 May, and in the US and UK on 24 May
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