On Nearly Catching Fire And Being Naked In Sub-Zero Temperatures

Sometimes Nathan Jones does the killing (as a bloodthirsty behemoth in the homegrown slasher movie Charlie’s Farm); sometimes Jones is the one getting killed (copping a blade in the neck from Brad Pitt in the sword-and-sandal epic Troy). But whether he’s snuffing or being snuffed, Jones – who stands at over 200cm tall weighing in at around 140kg – tends to stand out whenever he appears on screen. And even in the eye-popping visual circus that is George Miller’s post-apocalyptic Mad Max: Fury Road, the former wrestler makes quite the towering, gun-toting impression. Jones plays Rictus Erectus, son of tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who helps lead a war party across the parched, barren desert when Tom Hardy’s Max and Charlize Theron’s one-armed “badass” Imperator Furiosa make a break for freedom with five of Immortan Joe’s young wives in tow. Rictus is not one to be messed with but discussions shaped him into more than merely a blunt-force brute.

"The hydraulics and brakes failed and it jack-knifed. I was thrown in front of the vehicle, hit my head"

And a production like Mad Max: Fury Road definitely needed a great leader at the helm. Three decades since the last Mad Max movie, efforts to get Fury Road up and running were stymied by a variety of snags. The gruelling nine-month shoot eventually relocated to Namibia. “Things got stressful now and then,” chuckles the surprisingly soft-spoken Jones. “It would drop down to minus-two at night while you’re standing around almost naked, and then it would get up to 45 degrees in the middle of the day and people were dropping from heatstroke. But it’s all part of the business. It was a lot of fun, a rollercoaster ride.”“I sat down with George and talked about Rictus a lot, that he was a bit of a contradiction – he’s this huge guy who’s really a bit of a man-child.” Jones met Miller when he signed on to play “a Terminator-like villain” in the director’s Justice League superhero adventure, which fell apart in pre-production. “George is very open-minded; he talks to everyone and listens to everyone – he’s a great leader in that way.”

It was a rollercoaster ride everyone involved rode at their own risk, it seems. “Everything was functional, including the flamethrowers, and when I was on the back of this monster truck, the fuel line broke and I was sprayed. I was yelling but no one could hear me over the roar of the vehicles. I finally got the attention of one of the stuntmen by banging my fist on the truck and he could see that I was covered with fuel while I was close to the engine. He pulled out his knife and cut me away pretty quick. And another time I was on top of the War Rig truck heading down this canyon, and I was attached to it by a cable, but the hydraulics and brakes failed and it jack-knifed. I was thrown in front of the vehicle, hit my head. Luckily it got stuck in the sand and slowed down before anything too bad could happen. I’ve always been a thrill-seeker, so I didn’t mind.”