\n<\/p>\n
\n\tEmmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II knew he had to be \u201chonest\u201d and true to himself as he stepped away from George Miller\u2018s Mad Max<\/em> followup Furiosa.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tIn a recent interview with Josh Horowitz\u2019s Happy Sad Confused<\/em>, the Wonder Man<\/em> star noted how his years-long busy shooting schedule led him to prioritize rest over the action-thriller project.<\/p>\n \n\tAbdul-Mateen II noted he graduated from Yale School of Drama in 2015 and was already making frequent trips from New Haven, Conn. to New York City to film his breakout role in 2016\u2019s The Get Down<\/em>. After that, he went into filming early projects First Match<\/em> and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd then from there, I go do Baywatch<\/em>, and then from Baywatch<\/em>, I\u2019m doing Greatest Showman<\/em>,\u201d he recounted, \u201cand then I\u2019m in Australia, and then from Australia I go to Canada to go do Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, and then from there I go to Atlanta to go and do Watchmen<\/em>. Then I go to L.A. for a bit, and then I go to Chicago. Then I look up and I\u2019m in New York for a spell doing Trial of the Chicago 7<\/em>, and then boom pandemic, and then I\u2019m off to San Francisco and then Berlin [for Matrix<\/em>]. From Berlin, I come back, I touch down a little bit and I forget what I do after that, but then I\u2019m back in London doing Aquaman 2<\/em>, and it\u2019s 2021 by now, and I\u2019m tired<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAbdul-Mateen II added that he left out his filming stint in Brazil for Black Mirror<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI won\u2019t call them champagne problems, but these are gifts, these are blessings the entire way, but it did come with something else which was me just being very, very tired,\u201d the Us<\/em> actor said, \u201cand the world was changing, the world was responding to me differently, just as \u2014 all of a sudden \u2014 I\u2019m some type of commodity, and people were looking at me differently. I\u2019m just adjusting to this new reality at the same time as the world is changing, and then whatever else it was I had going on in my own personal life, and still having to persevere and perform.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSo when director George Miller, whom he described as \u201con top of it,\u201d set up dedicated phone calls and Zooms a year out from production, despite the actor\u2019s appreciation of his creative vision, he felt he wouldn\u2019t be able to make space to deliver.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t overwhelming. It was so cool; it was actually so cool because he loved it. And it was like the only thing that he cared about and he made the time in his life to do that, and he had his actors involved in the process a year ahead, just having creative and imaginative conversations, and I knew deep down inside that it was too much and that I needed to rest,\u201d Abdul-Mateen II concluded. \u201cI\u2019m so glad that I handled that honestly, that I was honest about the way that I handled that because then I could separate myself from that with integrity and let another actor step in to do a fantastic job and bring everything that they had. And also, it allowed me to rest and rejuvenate and recalibrate and then wait, keep continuing to say no until the right thing showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEventually, Tom Burke replaced the Candyman<\/em> star in the prequel also starring Anya Taylor-Joy. At the time, Deadline reported the exit was due to a scheduling conflict, with sources saying it was related to a secret passion project Abdul-Mateen II had been developing for some time.<\/p>\n \n\tOutside of Wonder Man<\/em> Season 2, Abdul-Mateen has a spate of upcoming projects, including Liminal<\/em>, House of Games, The Adventures of Cliff Booth and By Any Means.<\/em> He was also recently seen in Netflix\u2019s newly released thriller series Man on Fire.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tWatch the clip from the interview below:<\/p>\n \n