Max Rockatansky accidentally landed the starring role

Max Rockatansky is one of Mel Gibson’s most iconic roles, but the actor wasn’t always destined to play the grizzled hero.

Initially, George Miller was set on casting ‘Dynasty’ star James Healey as the lead, though no offer ever materialised.

Then Mel came along. He wasn’t even originally in contention for the part at all, as he had accompanied his roommate to their audition.

However, since the actor was covered in bruises due to a recent fight with “half a rugby team”, George found that the young thespian looked the part, and so asked him to come back for his own audition once he had recovered.

Mel recounted: “It was real weird. [George] said, ‘Can you memorize this?’ and it was like two pages of dialogue with a big speech and stuff. I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I went into the other room and just got a gist of what it was and I came out and just ad-libbed what I could remember. I guess they bought it.”

For his work on the movie, Mel Gibson was paid $10,000.