The latest installment of the Mad Max series, Mad Max: Fury Road, opens in theaters May 15th. Judging by the trailer it looks to have all the cool costumes, characters, and action scenes of its predecessors. According to an Esquire interview however, this film will have something extra, Feminism.
Unlike the old Mad Max films, this film will strive to add more character development to the mix of action. One of the new female characters named Splendid, played by Rosie Huntington-Whitely, won’t be your typical damsel in distress.
Huntington-Whitely on playing the character Splendid.
Splendid was just so cool to play because she’s so conflicted, so layered. She’s pregnant through rape and she has been held captive her whole life. It was so interesting to think: how would she feel about carrying this child? Does she have these natural maternal instincts that a lot of mother’s feel? Is she enjoying being pregnant? Is she having that time of pure love or is she angry? Does she have any regard for this child? What does she feel about that? I think that I never really knew what she was going to feel because I don’t think even she would know. I think it was all very confusing for her. She was conflicted. That’s why a lot of her actions in this film are reckless.
A Vanity Fair report speculates that George Miller, the movie’s director, “recognized the limitations a male director and three male writers faced in trying to cover every nuance of a story about female exploitation and survival.” It’s for this reason they say that ‘Vagina Monologues’ author Eve Ensler was brought on.
Huntington-Whitely was excited about working with the famous feminist activist and author.
We were so lucky that George arranged for Eve Ensler, who wrote the Vagina Monologues, to fly in and work with us girls for about a week. We did extensive research with her. Eve herself has had a very intense life. She’s spent time in the Congo working with rape victims and women who have had unthinkable things happen to them through the power of men’s hands. We were able to pick her brain for a week. She told us the most tragic stories I’ve ever heard in my life, which gave us so much background to our characters. We really wanted to kind of showcase that. It was a privilege to have her around to make these characters something more then just five beautiful girls.
I’m normally the first person to rail against the push to have feminism injected into male spaces and pop culture, but I don’t see anything wrong in this instance. Ensler it appears, was brought on specifically to impart her knowledge from working with rape victims. Considering the character Splendid is pregnant from rape, and Miller’s commitment to character development, this all makes sense.
I would hope that the women in Mad Max: Fury Road were more than just eye candy props. In that post-apocalyptic world, you wouldn’t survive if you were a weakling that needed saving. Also, I’ve never accepted the feminist narrative that women throughout history were powerless and subjugated by men. This adds more realism to the world Miller is attempting to create, instead of the typical tropes found in action movies, which I applaud.
Let’s hope that’s all that Ensler’s consultation involved though, and we’re not going to be treated to a lecture on power structures, male oppression, and vaginas.
