Anya Taylor-Joy shares her reaction to how her character loses her arm in “Furiosa”

Plus, why the moment is so important to understanding the Imperator.

When Mad Max: Fury Road first revved into theaters and introduced the world to Imperator Furiosa, it did so without explaining how she lost her arm or why she shaved her head. The film's prequel, the forthcoming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, finally answers those questions.

To say much more would spoil the high-octane fun, but as part of Entertainment Weekly's Furiosa cover story, Anya Taylor-Joy shared her reaction to reading the moment in the script.

"It made sense to me because I think what's incredible about this character is she just refuses to die — really, she refuses," she said. "It made sense to me that she would lose her arm in the pursuit of something that she thought was bigger than herself. That made a lot of sense to me."

The film follows the titular character roughly two decades before the events of Fury Road, charting her journey to return to the home she was taken from — and seek vengeance from those who took her. "The loss of the arm and the loss of the hair actually both were important steps that we had to take if we were going to be able to chart the journey of how this little girl became a character that now we all know and love," Taylor-Joy said.

Director and co-writer George Miller said those pivotal moments were plotted before Fury Road. "How did she lose her arm? How did she make that thing? How did she get the skill to be a really good driver? All of those things we had to understand," Miller explained. "She's just not an action hero who turns up and can do it without us knowing why. So we had to understand all of that, how she was resourceful enough to be able to endure whatever came her way. And all of that had to be understood before we started. And that in order to shoot Fury Road, it was all decided back then."

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which also stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, speeds into theaters May 24.

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Related content:

• Hitting the Fury Road: Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth go inside Furiosa, their full-throttle Mad Max prequel

• George Miller breaks down all the head-shaving, lore-filled, epic moments in new Furiosa trailer

• Witness her! Furiosa trailer reveals Anya Taylor-Joy in Mad Max prequel

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.