The flame-shooting guitarist is Australian artist/musician Sean Hape, better known as Iota. In an interview on Vice (2013), he said the guitar weighed 132 pounds and shot real gas-powered flames, which he controlled using the whammy bar.
Over eighty percent of the effects seen in the film are practical effects, including stunts, make-up, and sets. CGI was used sparingly, mainly to enhance the Namibian landscape, remove stunt rigging, and for Imperator Furiosa's (Charlize Theron) left arm, which is a prosthetic limb.
Counting the opening voice-overs, and discounting any grunts, Max Rockatansky has exactly 52 lines.
In a Cannes press conference for the movie, Tom Hardy apologized to George Miller for the reportedly complicated relationship between the star and the director during filming. He stated: "There was no way, I mean, I have to apologize to you because I got frustrated. There was no way George could have explained what he could see in the sand when we were out there. Because of the due diligence that was required to make everything safe and so simple, what I saw was a relentless barrage of complexities, simplified for this fairly linear story. I knew he was brilliant, but I didn't know how brilliant until I saw it. So, my first reaction was 'Oh my god, I owe George an apology for being so myopic'." Charlize Theron mentioned similar experiences where she had no idea what she was filming, up to the point where she would ask the director what the hell he was doing. In the end, seeing the finished film greatly exceeded her expectations as well.