Anya Taylor-Joy only has 30 lines of dialogue in Fury Road prequel Furiosa, despite the Mad Max movie's 2.5-hour runtime

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"The problem with dialogue is that it tends to slow things down"

Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in Furiosa
(Image credit: Warner Bros)

Imperator Furiosa is a woman of few words. Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the titular character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, only has 30 lines of dialogue in the movie, according to The Telegraph.  

Considering the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel clocks in at two hours and 28 minutes and the movie follows 15 years of Furiosa's life, that leaves a lot of room for silence, but director George Miller has his reasons. "The problem with dialogue," he told the publication, "is that it tends to slow things down, and film is a medium that’s often best enjoyed at high speed."

One thing's for sure, though: a lack of dialogue is going to make this movie anything but quiet. Furiosa features a 15-minute action sequence that took 200 stunt people 78 days to film, and it's a pivotal moment for Taylor-Joy's character. "George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long," the actor previously told Total Film. 

"It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot."

Furiosa hits the big screen on May 24. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of this year's biggest upcoming movies. 

Emily Garbutt
Emily Garbutt
Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related. I help bring you all the latest news, features, and reviews, as well as helming our Big Screen Spotlight column. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.