Eminem and Rihanna made magic when they linked up on "Love the Way You Lie" in 2010, but did you know that the two recording artists almost collaborated again just a few years later on one of 2015's biggest movies? An excerpt from Kyle Buchanan's upcoming book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road shared by Vulture reveals that both stars were considered for roles in the action epic.
When speaking on BadGal RiRi's audition, franchise director George Miller said, "Usually, actors turn up dressed very casually, but boy, Rihanna looked spectacular when she walked in. I'm not sure she was even aware of the content of the movie, so she dressed up as Rihanna, which was the right thing to do."
The role that the "Sex With Me" singer was being considered for was one of the five Wives, and as Complex notes, The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence and The Wolf of Wall Street actress Margot Robbie were also in the running. In the end, though, it was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton who were cast as the ensemble.
For Eminem's part, Miller explained that the rapper's impressive 8 Mile performance caught his attention, but unfortunately, conversations never surmounted to an audition. "We did get in touch with him, though that’s as far as it went because we were going to shoot it in Australia at that point, and he simply didn’t want to leave home."
"I think he had the impression that if he could do it out of his home state, then he’d be up for it," the director continued.
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One last name that came to Miller's mind, according to Buchanan's book, was the late, great Heath Ledger. "The person who was foremost in my mind was Heath. Every time he’d come through Sydney, he’d pop in and we’d talk generally about things and then we started to talk about Mad Max."
"We lost him, which was such a pity – not for Mad Max but because he was an exceptional person. He had a very powerful sense of inquiry and was amazingly humble."
Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road arrives on Tuesday, February 22nd – read the full Vulture excerpt here.