+ A
A -
CINDY PEARLMAN
NYT Syndicate
Is this really Thor, the iconic Marvel Comics thunder god?
"Cut his hair, broke his hammer, changed his clothes, changed his world," said Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, who has played Thor in six films in the past five years, counting the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok."You might ask yourself, 'What is going on with Thor these days?' Getting old, hair falling out, ass kicked. Girlfriend dumps him.
"Midlife crisis, I think."
Hemsworth also looks different these days. Leaner now, with darker, shorter hair, he showed up for an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel looking business chic in a sleek blue suit.
"I've played this character five times now," the 34-year-old actor said, settling into a chair to talk about the new film."This is, what, Marvel's 167th film or something? Me personally, I got a bit bored. I knew we had to try something different for the new Thor film. We had to push the envelope and take it to another level.
"What we wanted to do was show people something incredibly different, not only for the Thor world, but for the Marvel Universe."
In Thor: Ragnarok, opening on November 3, the hammer-wielding hero finds himself first entangled in family problems and then imprisoned on the other side of the universe, where he must fight in a gladiatorial arena against a former friend and fellow Avenger, the incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The stakes are high: Unless Thor can free himself, the ruthless death goddess Hela (Cate Blanchett) will destroy Thor's home, Asgard.
Besides Hemsworth and Ruffalo, familiar faces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe include Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr Stephen Strange, Idris Elba as Heimdall and Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Jeff Goldblum debuts as the Machiavellian, games-playing Grandmaster.
The film was directed by New Zealand's Taika Waititi, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film Two Cars, One Night (2004) and later directed the critically lauded What We Do in the Shadows (2014).
"What was different for me this time was this director," Hemsworth said."He had a new sensibility. We still have the epic action and the mythological story of Thor, but we had to do away with what we knew and reinvent.
"Taika was constantly encouraging us to improvise and take risks," he continued."That made it one of the most enjoyable times I've ever had on a set, because it felt like a shedding of something familiar but not entirely necessary anymore.
"You put that with all the bombastic action," Hemsworth said,"and that's a cool movie."
In a separate interview, Waititi also stressed the importance of innovation.
"Just like Chris was bored with what he was up to ... I was also bored with what he was up to," the director said."When he reached out, I saw a friend in need.
"Honestly, I just wanted a fresh take on Thor," Waititi said."I thought Marvel had lost their minds hiring me, but I came in and ignored the scale of this beast. It was a huge film, but it was more about the characters to me. What was most important was two or three people speaking to each other.
"Chris' acting chops expanded here," he added."At the same time, Thor became more powerful than ever."
Superman without his cape. Captain America without his shield. Spider-Man without his webs. What is Thor without Mjolnir, his mystical hammer?
Answer: Unleashed.
"It felt so unfamiliar not to have the hammer during the action scenes that it forced me to move differently and act in another way," Hemsworth said."I didn't miss it.
"Just in case anyone is worried, I've still got a Thor hammer at home," he added."Two of them, actually."
It's also the first time that a Marvel film has featured a female as the leading villain, which also prodded Hemsworth to up his game ” especially since she was being played by a two-time Oscar winner.
"There was the amazing Cate Blanchett in an outfit of all-black Lycra announcing her intention," Hemsworth said."She's no-nonsense and came in to say her line, 'I'm the goddess of death.'"
In a separate interview, Blanchett seemed happy to have made her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"This was a universe I've been happily dragged into because of my kids," she said."The only thing with the new movie is that I didn't fight Chris enough and wanted to do more, as I stood there in my deep middle age in my Lycra."
Oscar winner or no, she wasn't ashamed to turn to Hemsworth, an action-movie veteran, when it came time for the fight scenes, which were heavy on CGI effects to be added later.
"I had to manifest these weapons and throw them at Chris," Blanchett recalled."I could sense his disappointment with the way I was pretending to throw something that was not even there. Chris finally said, 'You have to stop yelling"ha" each time you throw.'"
Hemsworth also provided some practical assistance.
"I put sugar packets in her hand, so at least she would have something real to throw at me," he said.
He and Ruffalo had co-starred in The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), but had almost no screen time together. Ragnarok was different.
"We actually got to spend entire scenes just acting together," Hemsworth said."We've only really fought each other in previous films, but here we got to improvise and invent this chemistry between these two superheroes who need to become a team."
Thor needs as many allies as possible.
"There is an emotional change in Thor this time out," Hemsworth said."He has lost Jane. Someone said that she broke up with him, but he says that he broke up with her. Emotionally, this film is about the development of the relationship between Thor and his brother, Loki.
"Thor is also trying hard to keep a home for his people despite forces more powerful than him."
As always, to play Thor, Hemsworth had to hit the gym and eat clean in order to put on the perfect 20 pounds of muscle for the role.
"As usual, it was intense," he said."In the comic strip Thor is about 500 pounds, so obviously I couldn't make that my goal. But it's always very important for me to look the part and be as powerful and as strong as I can look while still maintaining that element of agility. I always eat a lot of clean food, heavy on the protein, and train a lot before we do these movies."
His regimen includes endless chicken breasts, brown rice, fish and vegetables, along with high-weight, low-rep workouts in the gym. He also does a kettlebell routine and works in the boxing ring.
"The key is that you can't get too thick," the actor said."You get to a certain size and then pull it back a bit and add the cardio. I'd rather do this than be put on some unhealthy weight-gaining diet, although it would be enjoyable to just eat a bunch of pizza."
A native of Melbourne ” also Blanchett's hometown ” Hemsworth grew up with two brothers who also became actors, Liam and Luke Hemsworth. Their mother taught English and their father was a social-services counsellor. The family moved several times before settling down on Phillip Island, near Melbourne, where Hemsworth spent his youth surfing and watching movies.
He always gravitated toward acting, and got his first jobs on Australian television ” notably the popular soap opera 'Home and Away' (2004-2007), on which he played Kim Hyde.
His eyes were already on Hollywood, however, and he made his American-film debut in Star Trek (2009), playing George Kirk, father of the future captain (Chris Pine). He broke through to stardom in Thor (2011), a role he reprised in The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange (2016).
Outside the Marvel universe, Hemsworth has been seen in The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Red Dawn (2012), Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), In the Heart of the Sea (2015), Ghostbusters (2016) and The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), among others.
Next up is Avengers: Infinity War, due next year. He also will star in Horse Soldiers, a drama about the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11, assigned to work with an Afghan warlord to bring down the Taliban.
Between films Hemsworth lives in Australia, where he and his wife, Elsa Pataky, have a home in Byron Bay, New South Wales. The two met through their reps, and now are parents to 5-year-old India Rose and 3-year-old twins, Tristan and Sasha.
"Fame means I get free parking and extra bread sticks at a restaurant," he said."But my friends ride me about being famous, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"At home it's straight back to changing nappies and doing the dishes," Hemsworth said."The other night my daughter even put polish on my nails.
"I'm just a regular dad."
