Chris Hemsworth names his career’s two greatest roles: “This is going to change everything”
For a while, it felt like life was dominated by two Australian soap operas and the actors who starred in them. There was Kylie Minogue, of course, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Margot Robbie and also Chris Hemsworth, who actually appeared in both.
Those of us who grew up in the 1980s were subjected to an awful lot of Australian soap operas. The double-hit of Home and Away and Neighbours at tea-time, plus a lunchtime repeat, meant that you were never far away from goings on in Melbourne or Sydney, and while there was a rotating cast of hundreds over the years, it’s still surprising to see just how many A-listers got their start in Ramsay Street or Summer Bay, but only Hemsworth spent time in both.
Hailing from Southern Australia, Hemsworth is the middle brother of a trio of siblings all of whom have had major acting success in Hollywood, with older brother Luke appearing in Westworld on HBO and younger brother Liam starring in The Hunger Games series.
After a three-year stint on Home and Away, Chris’ good looks and obvious acting chops helped him secure an agent in the US. Producer JJ Abrams picked him up to star as James T Kirk’s father in 2009’s Star Trek movie, a role originally set aside for Matt Damon.
After a couple of lower-budget movies, including the cult horror hit The Cabin in the Woods, Hemsworth’s life-changing break came when he landed the role of Thor in the film of the same name in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was a revelation and made the character entirely his own. He reprised the role in all of the Avengers movies and stole many a scene; as fond of a swing of his enormous hammer as he was a sardonic quip or a quarrel with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark.
Those movies grossed over $7.7billion and put Hemsworth firmly in Hollywood royalty territory, but he showed his ability to poke fun at his muscle-bound heartthrob image when he took on a brilliantly subversive role as the company secretary in the 2016 all-female reboot of Ghostbusters.
Indeed humour has been at the heart of a huge amount of Hemsworth’s best work on screen, setting aside his all-action performances in the likes of Netflix’s Extraction 1 and 2.
Known for not taking life too seriously, down-to-earth Hemsworth even decided to leave Los Angeles’ bright lights behind to retreat with his family to the more familiar surroundings of Byron Bay back in Australia.
In the same year that Hemsworth filmed his second movie as Thor, he played the legendary British Formula One driver James Hunt in the biopic Rush. Directed by Ron Howard, it told the story of the 1976 race season, which Hunt eventually won after a head-to-head battle with Austrian driver Niki Lauda. Hemsworth received some acclaim for his performance in the movie, which remains one of his favourite experiences in his career.
As he told Vanity Fair: “Ron (Howard) took me out of that typecast space of the muscly action guy and let me play a character with complications and darkness. I remember thinking at the time, ‘Oh, this is going to change everything’”.
His other favourite role in his now more than twenty year career came last year when he filmed the sequel to the 2015 smash Mad Max: Fury Road, named Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. He stars opposite Anya Taylor-Joy in George Miller’s movie as ‘Dementus’, the ruthless leader of a biker horde in a film which picked up widely positive reviews.
Hemsworth realises that the global appetite for more of Thor and his massive mallet is still there however and so will dutifully get back into his armour and cape costume for the upcoming 2026 Avengers update Doomsday.
