EMIL Minty only has to hear the growl of a souped-up engine and he flashes back three decades to the desert set of Mad Max 2, where his eight-year-old self was immortalised forever as the Feral Kid.

He’s a jeweller in Sydney’s Gladesville now, a 42-year-old father of two, but the cult status of the Mad Max films means the wild-child with the crazy blonde mullet is still a big part of his life. And it’s about to get bigger.

Mad Max: Fury Road, the long-awaited fourth instalment in George Miller’s franchise, opens around the world on Thursday and it’s revved up a fever of interest in all things Mad Max.

One devoted fan recently brought a Ford Falcon GT Coupe he was customising to look like Max’s hot-rod Interceptor to Chris Lewis Jewellers, where Minty has worked for 23 years.

“He unscrewed the glove box, brought it in to the shop and asked me to sign it,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s all pretty mad.”

media_camera The secret narrator: Child actor Emil Minty in scene from film "Mad Max 2".

media_camera All grown up: Emil Minty is the manager of Chris Lewis Jewellers in Gladesville.

media_camera Emil with Arkie Whitely. media_camera Emil in a scene from the classic film.

Minty understands the obsession. He has watched the 1981 film – considered the best of the existing trilogy – “hundreds of times.”

He can quote every line, even though his cute-but-ferocious character had no dialogue and was only revealed at the end as the narrator. He even keeps the razor-edged boomerang the Feral Kid wielded in the film on hand at his jewellery shop.

“I’m just so thrilled to have been a part of it,” says Minty, who made a few films afterwards but gave up acting when he finished school. “It makes people’s day when they find out I’m the Feral Kid.”

Minty will make his 13-year-old son Jacob’s day on Wednesday when he takes him to the Sydney premiere of Mad Max: Fury Road.

The new film stars Tom Hardy in the old Mel Gibson role as Max, as well as Charlize Theron and local talent including Megan Gale, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Josh Helman.

A-listers Hardy and Theron will not be in Sydney, choosing to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival world premiere instead, despite Fury Road having pocketed the 40 per cent producer offset rebate the Federal government reserves for Australian films.

Minty has no special knowledge of Fury Road other than what he’s seen in the trailers.

“I did see a reference to the little wind-up music box Max gives the Feral Kid [in Mad Max 2] so there’s a little nod to my character,” he says.

“I don’t remember heaps from back then but I know I was excited to be around the incredible

actors and all the crazy costumes. Being eight years old, I had a ball.”