The Feral Kid in Mad Max 2 might not have delivered a comprehensible line during the film, but that didn’t hold him back from becoming a fan favourite.
And although he was only eight at the time, the youngster who played him managed to win the role by wowing producers with his own suggested backstory for the character.
It secured him the part in what would be the second of the four Mad Max films that have now collectively taken about $225million at the US box office.
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A young Emil Minty played the role, which saw him grunt his way through the film, but is now in his 50s and works as a jeweller.
“My story was that my mum, dad and I were flying, we ran out of fuel and landed; my father went to go find fuel, and did not return,” he told Yahoo Movies.
“My mother left to go find my father and she also never returned, which left me to fend for myself.”
Emil also played a key part in designing his costume for the film. It was him who suggested covering his boots with real animal skins.
And although he got to keep that iconic razor-sharp boomerang after the film wrapped, he nearly wasn’t allowed in to watch the premiere.
“We received a letter to inform me that I was unable to attend the premiere due to the film’s classification being R-rated,” he told Yahoo Movies.
Fortunately, the film was reclassified, and that allowed him to get in for the screening.
More than 30 years later, Emil took his 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter to see Mad Max Fury Road when it was released in 2015.
He said at the time that along with his wife, they all “live life like most ordinary families”.
Emil didn’t hang around in the film industry for long.
He followed his Mad Max 2 role with small parts in Fluteman and The Winds Of Jarrah, and he was also in a handful of episodes of A Country Practice in 1990.
But when he grew up he became a jeweller in Sydney rather than opting for a career in front of the cameras.
However, he remains a fan favourite. He'll be at a Mad Max 2 event due to be held next year in Silverton, New South Wales, which is billed as marking “40 (and a bit) years of the greatest film ever made”.
