See all the photos from Entertainment“ ”Weekly's “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ”cover shoot

Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth are ready to start their engines in Warner Bros.' new "Mad Max: Fury Road" prequel film.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth are ready to hit the road in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The two star in the epic prequel to franchise director George Miller’s Oscar-winning 2015 hit Mad Max: Fury Road, which follows the titular character in the roughly two decades leading up to her becoming the Imperator Furiosa.

In Entertainment Weekly's cover story on the film, Miller, Taylor-Joy, Hemsworth, and fellow costar Tom Burke open up about their plunge into the Wasteland and reveal what audiences can expect from the latest descent into madness. Here, see all of EW's exclusive photos from our Furiosa cover shoot.

Start your engines

Describing his casting process as “purely intuitive,” Miller explains what about Taylor-Joy made him want to cast her as Furiosa.

“There's definitely a mystique to her, but also, there's someone very, very resolute in her. You sense it almost immediately,” he says.

As for Hemsworth, Miller adds, “He had a lot of wisdom about everything: about himself, about the world, about even a story like this, where it's a world in extremis, and about how people would cope with all the moral injuries that happen.”

Pedal to the metal

Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth goofing off at EW's cover shoot is a far cry from the “definitely antagonistic” relationship between their characters, Furiosa and Dementus. As Hemsworth puts it, “She’s trying to kill me this whole movie.”

Vroom vroom

Hemsworth wears a prosthetic nose in Furiosa, of which Taylor-Joy jokes, “It's one of the only times in my entire career that a male costar has been in the makeup chair for as long as I have, so, good on you.”

Spinning your wheels

Hemsworth says he found the role of Dementus to be "a wonderful departure," adding, "To play the villain, transform, and inhabit a completely different physicality was a lot of fun. I loved it. And it was the real attraction."

He adds, “Another attraction to wanting to do the movie, besides working with George, was just to dirty it up and to be messy and ugly and violent and chaotic, rather than being in the somewhat predictable box of the hero in a superhero space. There's a whole lot of rules that you have to stick to [with that]. With this, I could throw that out the window, which was nice.”

It's a mad, mad world

“I wanted something that was going to challenge my body and soul, and it was definitely that,” Taylor-Joy says of her desire to do the film, joking that her “War Rig Workout” is coming soon. “I think I was surprised. What I thought would be difficult was really easy and what I thought would be easy was actually very difficult.”

On the road again

Like another character he's known for playing, Hemsworth's Dementus wears a cape for most of the film. Joking about the coincidence, Taylor-Joy asked her costar the pressing question: “After years of capes, are they annoying?” Without skipping a beat, Hemsworth replies, “Hate ‘em. So impractical.”

Fast and Furiosa

Out of a mutual respect for the character-building process, Taylor-Joy says she did not speak with Charlize Theron, who originated the character in Fury Road, until after filming wrapped. “You have to go on your own journey with it,” Taylor-Joy recalls. “As soon as it was done, I reached out to her because I'm such a fan, not only of her as an actress but her as a person. And she's as wonderful and cool as you could possibly hope and really supportive and classy, so I appreciated it.”

Shiny and chrome

A native Aussie, Hemsworth has been a fan of the Mad Max franchise since he was a kid. “I grew up on this s---, and it was so exciting to be a part of it,” says the actor, adding that he remembers watching the original films as a kid with his dad and brothers, fellow actors Luke and Liam.

Furiosa takes the wheel

As fans of Fury Road know, Furiosa famously sports a shaved head and mechanical arm. While we never learn what happened to her hair or arm in that film, Furiosa finally gives us the backstory. “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 explains.

Although we can't reveal how she loses the appendage, the actress teases that the moment befits her resolute character. “It made sense to me because I think what's incredible about this character is she just refuses to die — really, she refuses,” she says. “And 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.”

Driving Dementus

For Hemsworth, the role was worth spinning his wheels over. “I've heard people talk about how you want to choose the roles that scare you, and, yeah, it's sort of an actor-y thing to say. But I think it was a good thing," he says. "I think it forces you to dig that bit deeper, and the challenges, the adversity — that's where the growth occurs. I feel like I learned more on this film than anything I'd ever done because of what was asked of all of us and how challenging it was in a wonderful way.”

Hell hath no Furiosa

Taylor-Joy pulled from her experience with “very internal characters” to craft her version of Furiosa, who often only communicates with her eyes. She says having those boundaries “created this sense of binding that I think is so prevalent in her life.” She adds, “She's not able to react the way that she wants to; she's not able to do what she wants. She's desperately trying to fulfill a promise [to get back home] in a world run by two insane men. So I felt for her. I was like, ‘Damn sister, that sucks.’"

Hitting the road

"I'm really proud of the dedication and genuine care that has gone into it," Taylor-Joy says of making Furiosa. "And I have a soft spot in my heart for Australia forever now. That was really an incredible place where I got to learn so much about myself and meet some really wonderful people.”

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.