Chris Hemsworth Breaks Down His Career, from 'Thor' to 'Spiderhead'

I remember sitting in the careers advisory office

in high school and being asked what I wanted to do

when I finished school and I said,

I wanna go to Hollywood.

And they were like, Okay, cool, what's your backup?

And I said, I don't have one.

I just had this

naive obsession about it.

[plucky music]

Hello, I'm Chris Hemsworth

and this is the timeline of my career.

I see.

Excuse me.

Who are you?

He's on you vet, Dr. Whiteside.

Where's Dr. Martin?

He usually fill in for Dr. Judy when she's away.

Dr. Martin is at a conference.

Excuse me.

[horse neighing]

The first thing I did was called The Saddle Club

and it was a TV show about a community

of horse riding young kids.

And I came in as a vet 'cause there was a horse

with an injury.

I must have been 18, 19, so I dunno

how I was a qualified vet at that point,

but you know, creative license and all that.

And I came in and I was so terrified and you can see.

You can hear my voice is kind of way up here,

everything's tense, and I'm flushed red.

And I just remembered that was an out-of-body experience,

that whole shoot, 'cause I was just terrified.

It's the first time I had to speak on camera.

What happened?

Belle's sick and has just collapsed from exhaustion.

Look, I stand by my opinion, okay?

There's nothing wrong with this horse.

And I remember going home and saying to my mom,

That's it, my career's over.

She said, You don't really have

a career to have finished yet.

What are you talking about?

And I said, My future career,

the one I've imagined is not gonna happen 'cause.

I remember telling my mom, I said,

The show gets shown in Canada

and Canada's close to America, which is Hollywood.

So they're gonna see it, right?

Like forget the internet and all that. [laughing]

It was somehow gonna cross the border.

And when I go to Hollywood or LA to do an audition,

they're gonna have seen that show

and they're not gonna employ me based on that performance.

Man, [laughing]

what an outrageous, vivid imagination. [laughing]

Did a great job with Belle.

Well, now that the splinter has been removed

and the area is clean and dressed, everything's set to heal.

Thanks Dr. George.

All decks, this is the captain speaking.

Evacuate the ship immediately.

[speaking covered by sirens and other voices]

That's George's voice.

What's happening?

I got called into J.J. Abram's office

and there was no information about what it was for.

I knew it was for Star Trek,

but I didn't know what character or anything.

And it was basically based on an audition I had

for the lead role who Chris Pine had played 12 months prior.

And I dunno how they'd sifted through it and thought,

oh, he looks a bit similar, let's get him in.

So I came in, he handed me the script

and I just read through the scene, that initial scene

and I did something right.

I don't know.

I remember not really understanding

what I was a part of potentially, which was a good thing.

If I had have known it was gonna be the relaunching

of Star Trek and become the film it became,

I'm sure I would've been a lot more intimidated.

But I auditioned on the Friday or had that interaction

on the Friday and then was shooting on the Monday.

So there wasn't a whole lot of time for me to process

what it was.

There's something that happens with young actors

and you see it with children all the time,

there's just such an honesty and a purity

to how they perform before anyone gets involved.

And I think that a bit about that experience

and a lot of things earlier in my career

when you were just exploring.

There was a freedom to that because I didn't have

a lot of time to imagine a backstory or prep.

It was just sort of like you're in this situation,

how would you react?

What emotion can you pour into this?

And I feel like often at times,

I'm trying to get back to that space.

There's a loss of that initial sort of spontaneity

that might come earlier in your career.

There was talk about me doing the film with Chris Pine

at one point.

The script was sort of put together and then it fell apart.

And if J.J. Abrams called me tomorrow and said Chris Pine

and I wanna do it, I'd probably say, yeah, let's go for it.

He's gonna be named after your dad.

Let's call him Jim.

[inspirational music]

Jim.

Okay, Jim it is.

[uplifting orchestral music]

I'd shot Star Trek and then I had

about eight or nine months where I couldn't get a job.

And then the film came out and it gave me some momentum

and I had auditioned for Thor a few times,

didn't get a call back.

I then had the opportunity to have another call back.

Star Trek had come out, Kenneth Branagh had seen it.

I do think it helped in many, many ways.

And I think J.J. Abrams and Kenneth had a conversation.

The initial audition I sent or the tape was with my mum

and I, and my mum was reading as Anthony Hopkins.

So I don't know, maybe it was her read

that somehow influenced or swayed the vote there.

It's unwise to be in my company right now, Brother.

This was to be my day of triumph.

It'll come.

This was like a three-day period

where we both got flown out just outside of London

and this beautiful farm homestead environment.

We were all in Kenneth Branagh's pool and having a swim

and talking and Tom and I were chatting just going,

wow, I think this is gonna be pretty special.

And there he and I were, two young actors going,

wow, this is it, this could be our big shot.

This could be our big moment.

Yeah, it was really, it did and that's what it was.

That's where it launched both of our careers

and I think back to that moment and that time period a lot

just about the uncertainty, the unknown, the possibilities,

all of it was so fresh and exciting and wonderful.

One of the most vivid memories I have of realizing,

wow, that I think this is gonna work was at Comic Con

and there were two or 3,000 people in the room

and they played the teaser trailer.

And at the end of it, the crowd erupted

and they were on screaming and cheering and so on.

And I really, at that moment went, oh, wow,

I think this is gonna work.

There was so much effort and hard work

and anxiety about what we were doing

and are the fans gonna be happy?

Are people gonna see it?

Are people gonna want to see this film?

To get that response and that immediate response

from an audience, which,

being in front of the camera with the crew,

you don't get that.

If you do theater or you're playing in a stadium

or whatever, you feel that.

We hadn't experienced that yet.

Are these your chambers?

Uh, it's more of a temporary living situation.

Oh, I'm sorry, I don't usually have guests.

[cans rattling]

Actually. I never have guests.

Hey, what is there?

What?

In the lake, right there?

Oh, come on.

No guys, I'm serious, right there.

There, there.

It looks just like my girlfriend.

[girl screaming]

[water splashing] [Chris laughing]

I remember understanding what the archetype

of the character was.

He was the jock, essentially.

And I thought, okay, cool.

I know what that looks like and I had to inhabit that space.

And then there were, I think, some improvisation there done,

but also we had a script and it was more

about taking direction from Drew Goddard

and I think he wanted to see, can I ask you to do X, Y, Z?

Can you follow those instructions?

Da, da, dah, and are you collaborative and whatever?

And I just hit it off with him in the room

and we had a great discussion about the character,

about why this individual may be this way,

what's his experiences, et cetera.

And we tried the scene in a number of different ways

and just an incredible storyteller.

One of my favorite writers at the time,

just you could see the creativity pouring outta him,

the excitement he has about the world,

the excitement he had about this character

and the places we were gonna explore.

The enthusiasm, I remember very vividly.

It struck me about him and I thought this guy's gonna,

he's gonna be a lot of fun and he certainly knows

where his creative compass is pointing. [laughing]

I'm coming back with cops and choppers

and large fucking guns and those things are gonna pay.

For Jules.

[dramatic music]

[rock music]

[nurse speaking indistinctly]

Hello, I think the racetrack telephoned ahead

that I was coming.

Hunt, James Hunt.

I really wanted to work with Ron Howard.

I started to do some research about the world

and this character and immediately just fell

in love with it.

I think Ron Howard's first response was,

oh, the guy from Thor.

He's not right.

And which was understandable

because I was 220 pounds in that film

and for a race car driver, I needed to be

probably 185 pounds.

By the time I had done this tape,

I had lost a bit of weight, but knew I could lose more.

I think he said something about the accent

and the charisma and the cheekiness came through.

And then that's was kind of the guiding light

for the character for me.

There was a sort of a youthfulness to him,

which I had to sort of tap into and stick with.

It's great because it's about the unpredictable nature.

I think that's the most exciting stuff to watch on screen.

It's often the most exciting characteristics

that someone can have in real life where you interact with.

It's exciting to watch.

You don't know what they're gonna do next,

there's something very spontaneous and fun about that.

And yeah, I guess that's what I meant by not being

able to pin him down in one sentence because he was

many different things on many different days.

And that, again, just allowed us to have a very rich,

layered character that wasn't two-dimensional or expected.

[Man] What are you talking about?

You did it!

Did what?

Jesus, you crazy bastard.

You came third, you got the points.

You're champion of the world.

[Announcer] James Hunt.

As first mate?

Mm hm.

Mr. Mason, you promised me command of a ship

after my last voyage when I brought you back 1,500 barrels,

do you remember?

You gave me your word.

I think because Rush was something I was so proud of

and he'd been able to pull out a performance of me

that I hadn't done elsewhere, I wanted

that opportunity again because of the collaboration.

And when I handed in the script and his response was,

Wow, I love it, I'd love to do it.

Obviously and off we went.

Someone of his level and talent and experience sees

something in it, then let's go for it.

And again, very different world, very different character

than I had inhabited before.

That's what it's about.

It's about kind of pushing yourself

in these different directions, taking risks,

not repeating the same thing over and over.

And this was a vehicle for that.

I think that the real, kind of final ingredient

that was right between action and cut

or right before action is Ron will throw me an idea or ask

a question of me and I don't have to answer it right there,

I'll just roll camera and I allow that to come

to the surface of the interpretation of the character.

And that's all great directors.

They ask questions of you to force you to think deeper

and look at it in a different way, as opposed to saying

this is the answer, this is what it is.

Because then you're kind of puppeteering to an extent,

or you're trying to hit someone else's target

as opposed to it being a truthful expression

of your own experience.

It's clear that full disclosure will have ramifications,

terrible ramifications for the whole industry,

that a whale brought down the Essex.

But it's the truth.

[crowd cheering] [Hulk screaming]

Hey, hey!

We know each other.

He's a friend from work.

I wasn't stoked with what I'd done in Thor 2.

I was a little disappointed in what I'd done.

I didn't think I grew the character in any way,

I didn't think I showed an audience

something unexpected and different.

And then when Ragnarok came along,

outta my own frustration of what I had done.

And this is not on any other director or anyone,

this was my own performance.

I really wanted to break the mold.

And I said this to Taika and I think the conversation

we had was, I said, I'm really bored of Thor.

And he said, Yeah, I'm really bored of Thor, too.

And then we decided not to be bored

and any time that feeling came into play,

we'd go in a different direction.

And so we just dismantled the character,

we wanted to have him be a little more unpredictable,

we wanted him to be in a different set of circumstances

than he'd been in before

and also have the humor come through.

I had a great relationship with Taika and we had

a great sense of humor and banter with us.

And I thought, let's make sure we cram that into this space.

And the character he played of Korg then was there.

So it was kind of a lot of it was him and I improvising

and him and I, as our most truthful version of ourselves.

Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Korg I'm kind of like the leader in here.

I'm made of rocks, as you can see,

but don't let that intimidate you.

You don't need to be afraid unless you're made of scissors.

[Korg giggling]

Sometimes it doesn't work.

You have to keep kind of reigning yourself in and bring

it back to the truth of the moment and what is it?

Does this serve the greater story,

not just this individual gag or this individual joke?

And that's a real trapping I find with improvisation,

especially in this sort of comedic space is

you just get caught in sort of doing skits [chuckling]

and they can be really funny and everyone can laugh on set

and then you watch it in its entirety with the film

and you go, oh, it's funny, but what are we saying?

What's the purpose?

What emotion is it driving ultimately?

And you have to take risks;

you don't know that as you're doing it.

And some of it works, some of it doesn't,

but I find it incredibly freeing.

I find you're able to shake out all the creases

and it just becomes a lot more fluid than when there's

a back and forth between you, especially when it works,

when you and other actors are in sync and there is

this beautiful sort of bat and ball game occurring.

But I just love playing the character.

I love the journey I've been on with him,

not only as Thor, but just my life.

The two have been side by side for 10, 11 years now

and have both crossed over into each other's world

from time to time.

Being able to work with Taika again.

I dunno that I would've done another one

if Taika hadn't said yes, he was gonna do it.

And he had written this beautiful script, which was a wacky,

crazy, romantic comedy set in space

and that I hadn't seen before.

And I thought, cool, I have a way into this

and it sounds like a lot of fun.

You're Banner's friend.

I'm not Banner's friend, I prefer you.

Banner's friend.

I don't even like Banner.

I'm into numbers and science and stuff.

So I'm guessing you're Father Flynn,

which makes the dead guy, Laramie Seymour Sullivan.

And you, Miss, must be Darlene Sweet, hm?

That was a really interesting one.

I think I said yes to that before I'd even read the script

based on my relationship to Drew Goddard

and my love of his storytelling.

There was a lot of danger and unpredictable nature

to the character, but a very twisted individual, too.

And trying to dissect that and understand

well, okay, how does he get to this place?

What are the experiences that have come before?

And what is it that he's trying to achieve?

What is it based on?

And then so much of that guy was ego.

Everything was sort of sexualized

and everything was about control and dominance

and very awful traits.

Amazing script and dialogue that we we were able to use

and chew into

and everything he was doing was about intimidation

and he's trying to dissect information,

but is very manipulative and it was kind of fun.

I'd like to think I speak to everyone on the set,

we were kind of laughing in between takes going,

This guy is a narcissistic creep.

It was just,

this is what's fun about playing characters.

You get to dress up as an individual and do some strange

and odd things which don't hold consequence.

And he was sick and twisted and so on,

but there wasn't anything that went too far into the realm

of something that I might have carried home with me.

I think the energy of the character,

I would carry a bit with me.

There was a sort of frenetic, sort of unsettling vibe to him

which I definitely would have to shake out

at the end of a day.

And even when running the lines and rehearsing,

it was like, oh, there's a real twisted tension here,

which was interesting to tap into.

I was shooting in Vancouver and my wife was back

in Australia, so she didn't have to look at me too often,

which was probably a good thing. [laughing]

Really?

Where's a girl like you get

all this kind of money from, huh?

I earned it,

singing.

[Chris chuckling]

Yeah, she seems nice.

You like that word, but no,

I mean, how attractive is she?

Why, Steve?

Can't see for yourself?

Heather, can you shut up, please?

I'm asking Jeff.

Jeff, how's she looking?

Come on.

On a scale of one to 10?

The appeal was something I hadn't done before,

a world I hadn't been a part of.

And this script was new and fresh and unique

and I saw a way into the individual

that I don't think initially was on the page.

I saw something else there.

I saw a very manipulative charisma that he would use

to his advantage to move the pieces of the puzzle

on the chessboard to achieve whatever he wanted to achieve.

And he was sort of a mastermind of that.

Highly intelligent, but inability to really feel empathy,

I think, but also enough intelligence to understand

he might be missing that component in his emotional makeup.

And that was really fun to play with because it made

for a very dangerous character.

You're not sure what he's gonna do next

and he's doing it with a smile.

I wanted there to be an intrigue with the character

and an interest, but also a danger.

And it was very much like a play

and very refreshing for me coming off either Extraction,

full of action or Thor, full of action and special effects

and so on and big, heavy costumes.

This was like casual sort of outfit, just you and the actor

or the actress and the crew and that was it.

It was a very collaborative, family setting.

I think I was, for a lot of the films I've done, trying

to work out what an audience wanted

and do they wanna see me in this or that?

I've now just tried to simplify it and go,

does this speak to me in some way?

Do I have something to say as this character?

And will it be an enjoyable experience and one that

if I'm gonna be away from my family and my kids,

it better be worth it and just keep it in that space,

not get too caught up in the larger orchestration of it.

Because then it takes it away from the creative journey

and I think some of the purity is lost in that sense.

So just keep it simple.