Charlize Theron has opened up about her fraught relationship with Mad Max: Fury Road co-star Tom Hardy on set.

The actor, who played Imperator Furiosa in George Miller’s 2015 film, described feeling “scared shitless” while filming, in an interview with Kyle Buchanan for his new book Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.

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“I don’t want to make excuses for bad behaviour, but it was a tough shoot,” Theron said, in an extract published by Vanity Fair.

J Houston Yang, editor of production company Open Road Entertainment, discussed Theron and Hardy’s interactions saying: “They didn’t want to touch each other, they didn’t want to look at each other, they wouldn’t face each other if the camera wasn’t actively rolling.”

“I was in survival mode; I was really scared shitless,” Theron added. “It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand. I didn’t feel safe. I don’t want to rehash things, but it came out of a really bad moment where things kind of came to blows between me and Tom.”

Theron also explained Hardy was more than three hours late on set one day, despite producers having made a “special request” for the actor to be punctual.

When Hardy arrived, Theron reportedly asked him “how disrespectful are you?” and said the producers should “fine the fucking cunt a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew”.

Hardy reportedly responded by “charging up to” Theron and saying ““What did you say to me?”. Camera operator Mark Goellnicht said Hardy seemed “quite aggressive” and that Theron “really felt threatened.”

Hardy addressed Theron’s claim in conversation with Buchanan as well, acknowledging he was “in over [his] head in many ways”.

Last year, Charlize Theron said she would be keen to star in a gender-flipped Die Hard reboot. The actress spoke out in favour of a fan’s idea of a lesbian take on the Christmas movie, first responding to a tweet by saying: “Where do I sign?”

The initial tweet read: “Lesbian Christmas rom coms are all well and good but what I REALLY want is a Die Hard where Charlize Theron goes on a rampage to save her wife.”