Abdul-Mateen On Exiting “Furiosa” Role
At one time, Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Wonder Man,” “Aquaman”) was attached to a key role in George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa”.
Specifically Abdul-Mateen II was slated to star in the Praetorian Jack role that ultimately went to British actor Tom Burke and serves as an ally of the young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy).
In a recent interview with Happy Sad Confused, the actor revealed that it was a multi-year shooting schedule with little to no downtime that led to him opting out and having a rest.
He revealed he graduated from drama school in 2015 and essentially jumped right into filmmaking all over the world with Netflix’s “Get Down” in New York, then some indie films, then straight on to “Baywatch,” “The Greatest Showman,” “First Match,” “Aquaman,” “Us,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” HBO’s “Watchmen,” “Black Mirror,” “Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Candyman,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “Ambulance,” “Aquaman 2” and more – all in the span of about four years. By that point he was a bit burned out:
“I won’t call them champagne problems, but these are gifts, these are blessings the entire way, but it did come with something else which was me just being very, very tired, and the world was changing, the world was responding to me differently, just as – all of a sudden – I’m some type of commodity, and people were looking at me differently. I’m just adjusting to this new reality at the same time as the world is changing, and then whatever else it was I had going on in my own personal life, and still having to persevere and perform.”
Miller set up dedicated phone calls and Zooms a year out from production but he was honest with Miller, telling him he didn’t have the energy to deliver what Miller wanted:
“It wasn’t overwhelming. It was so cool; it was actually so cool because he loved it. And it was like the only thing that he cared about and he made the time in his life to do that, and he had his actors involved in the process a year ahead, just having creative and imaginative conversations, and I knew deep down inside that it was too much and that I needed to rest.
I’m so glad that I handled that honestly, that I was honest about the way that I handled that because then I could separate myself from that with integrity and let another actor step in to do a fantastic job and bring everything that they had. And also, it allowed me to rest and rejuvenate and recalibrate and then wait, keep continuing to say no until the right thing showed up.”
After a brief break from the screen, Abdul-Mateen II has been making a comeback this year with “Wonder Man,” the just released “Man on Fire” series, and upcoming films like David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” and “By Any Means”.