While George Miller's 2015 action-adventure film Mad Max: Fury Road is considered by many the greatest action movie of the last two decades, the process of making the film was even more packed with action than what showed up on-screen. The cast and crew of the film have spoken at length about the difficulties of filming in the middle of the desert. In an interview with Metro, Dayna Grant, who was Charlize Theron's stunt double in the role of Imperator Furiosa opposite Tom Hardy's character of Max Rockatansky, revealed that the hostility between the two lead stars was apparent from the start.

"We knew right from the get go. We knew from the beginning that it was happening when we were doing the fight choreography...there was tension then. So we were told what was going on. And we were just told to try and make it work as much as possible, which was challenging, because usually you're all in one big group and working together whereas we were kind of separated."

Since the entire movie was built around Max and Furiosa going from being enemies to friends over the course of one turbulent ride across the desert, many of the action scenes needed Theron and Tom Hardy to cooperate, or at least be in the same space, and according to Grant, that often ended up not happening.

"It was really hard. It was hard because obviously I had to spend time with both of them and both of them didn't want to be together. I had to do everything with [Tom] - so usually Charlize would come in and they'd do scenes together but they didn't want to do scenes together so I was put in her spot to always be with Tom. Tom's double was always put with Charlize, so we actually worked with the opposite characters."

Since the movie came out and became a huge success, the cast appears to have developed a greater appreciation for the tough experience they went through in making the film, and Charlize Theron has stated in the past that she now has a more sympathetic view of the pressure on Hardy when he was working on the project alongside her.

"I didn't have enough empathy to really, truly understand what he must have felt like to step into Mel Gibson's shoes. That is frightening! And I think because of my own fear, we were putting up walls to protect ourselves instead of saying to each other, 'This is scary for you, and it's scary for me, too. Let's be nice to each other.' In a weird way, we were functioning like our characters: Everything was about survival."

For his part, Hardy has also admitted that he did not do enough to rise to the occasion as a co-star to Theron on the sets of Mad Max: Fury Road, and hopes future projects of a similar nature would find him better prepared to deal with the pressure.

"I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways. The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me. That's something that can't be faked. I'd like to think that now that I'm older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion."

This news was first reported by Metro.co.uk.