When Marvel fans were first introduced to the ‘God of Thunder’, Thor Odinson, in the 2011 film Thor, sparks flew — for here was a superhero, wielding a hammer like no one else could. And portraying the Asgardian superhero for eight years now is Australian actor Chris Hemsworth. The 35-year-old star shot to fame playing Kim Hyde in the TV series Home and Away (2004-07), followed by his big screen debut with Star Trek in 2009.
And then he became Thor which led to the movies like The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and now, Avengers: Endgame. Hemsworth won most awards in his career playing Thor, including the coveted People’s Choice Awards for Favourite Action Movie Actor (2016). Ahead of the April 26 release of Avengers: Endgame, we catch up with the actor for a chat.
Excerpts:
Have you seen Avengers: Endgame yet?
No, we’ve been doing the press tour and everyone is like, “Tell us about the movie!” and we can’t tell you anything. I’ve never felt more like a fan of this whole thing as much as anyone else. I am just as interested to see if I live or die. I have a rough idea about it, but I don’t know how it ends. This [Avengers series] has 22 films now, [made] across 10 to 11 years, and I don’t think anything in cinematic history has ever been building to a film like this — with this kind of a journey.
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If you’re not killed in Endgame, would you do another Marvel movie?
Loki, my brother has come back nine times, and keeps appearing, so who knows what’s in store. Personally, I’d be happy to do more [movies] if they wanted me.
You’ve played Thor under five different directors. Not many actors get to do this outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, save for a James Bond. Do you see yourself having a share of ownership of who Thor is, or do you give in to the director’s vision?
In the first three-four films, I completely gave myself over to whatever the director’s vision was, and some huge positives came from that. But looking back, I wish I would’ve spoken up more, at different times. It was only by the third Thor, that I had a bigger voice of what my creative spin on it would be. Luckily, it was along what the director wanted to do in that movie.
It gave me a greater sense of confidence, coming into Infinity War and Endgame, protective of what the new Thor was, and I said let’s keep doing this. That’s when they said, “Well, we’ve got something different for you again!” At first, I was like “Nah, I’m going to lose control”. But it became this wonderful collaboration and I feel like I did something very different in these two films.
How was the last week on set? How hard was it to let everything sink in?
There was a greater sense of effort — like we wouldn’t rush back to our trials in between setups and every lunch we attended, we’d eat together. We started hanging out a lot more away from the set. It did have a sense of nostalgia, and looking back at what we’ve done in the years — when we first came, when we played this character and (Robert) Downey (Jr) orchestrated that a lot.
He was the first one in and he really was reminding us all, saying “look how special this is”. Not that there was any lack of appreciation from any of us, he was the one who kicked it off the way he did. It’s like the end of school when you ask your friends — “Will I be able to see you after the holidays or not?”