The 78-year-old Jaffer says she and the other actresses did their own stunts. ‘And I got feeling from a lot of the crew members that they didn’t think it was right women of my age to be doing that sort of thing. You know, sometimes they’d come up and say, oh, he shouldn’t ask you to do that. And I would say why? And they’d say, well, because you’re an older woman. I did it, and I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of it.’

Jaffer says it was a box office risk for Miller to cast older women to play such ferocious characters. But she says she jumped at the opportunity. ‘The roles that one is offered at this age, quite frankly, you’re either in a nursing home, you’re in a hospital bed dying, you’re suffering from dementia, or in fact, in two cases, I was offered two characters who’d actually died and come back to life,’ she says. ‘So when this role came along, I thought well, I won’t get another chance like this before I die, and that’s why I took it. It was absolutely wonderful. Wonderful role.’

George Miller says in this hero myth, women of all ages were an organic element. He plans to bring them back in more Mad Max sequels.

The Women Pull No Punches In Fiery, Feminist ‘Mad Max’ by NPR
(via fortinbrasftw)

right now they’re not sure about sequels- I head Fury Road and the planned Furiosa were going to be filmed back to back, but all the money went into this film, so right now there’s no confirmation from Miller or anyone else about future films

(via chrryblssmninja)

Not to mention there’s canon precedent for tough old ladies doing dangerous stuff.  In the original Mad Max, Sheila Florance played May Swaisey at the age of 63.  During filming, not only did she handle an antique shotgun (for fending off hoons), she stumbled in a rabbit hole and broke her damn leg (some accounts say knee).  She went to hospital, got the bone set and put in a plaster cast, and came back the next day to do the rest of her scenes.