Anya Taylor-Joy only has 30 lines of dialog in ‘Furiosa’ even though she’s the protagonist

The lucky few who have already seen ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ (and whose first reviews have made fans incredibly excited) have been incredibly surprised about how little the character played by Anya Taylor-Joy speaks throughout the movie’s 2 hours and 28 minutes runtime. The protagonist of this prequel only has 30 lines of dialogue, making Tom Hardy in ‘Fury Road’ seem eloquent next to her. That guy had his mouth covered for almost the entire movie and still ended up having over 60 spoken lines. This is tendency to the power of silence that George Miller repeats in his projects and has no difficulty in explaining.

“The problem with dialogue is that it tends to slow things down,” the director told The Telegraph, “and film is a medium that’s often best enjoyed at high speed”. As simple as that. For Miller, cinema must be fast and if the characters start chattering the pace collapses.

The example of Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’

Anya Taylor-Joy’s situation in ‘Furiosa’ reminds us of what happened with Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. Although his character was the most talkative, He barely had 15 minutes on screen throughout the film and still managed to be the most remembered and win an Oscar for best-supporting actor. He showed that it’s not a matter of accumulating screen time, but rather the quality of the minutes in which you appear. The same lesson that George Miller’s films teach, but in his case concerning dialogue. You can spend the entire story talking and be unable to convey anything. The magic of cinema.