Before Chris Hemsworth started cashing Marvel’s hefty paychecks, he appeared on a Canadian-Australian kid’s show called The Saddle Club that unfortunately for him but fortunately for us is available online.
“I came in as the young vet, and I remember I was so nervous. And you can see, if you look it up on the Internet, my voice is so high, so tight. I’m, like, pink, red, flushed face, having a proper panic attack on-screen,” he told GQ about the 2003 role. “I remember being close to tears, talking to my mum about it and being like, ‘The show gets shown in Canada, so they’re gonna see it, and Canada is close to America, so Hollywood is gonna see it, and I’m never gonna work again.’ That was my second job.” Fifteen years later, he’s the face (and body) of a literal god in the most successful movie franchise around.
Hemsworth has played Thor in seven Marvel Cinematic Universe films — Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange (in a mid-credits scene), Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers: Infinity War — but he doesn’t share the same level of affection for all of them:
That newfound recognition — that mistakes aren’t always fatal and first impressions aren’t always final — was useful as Hemsworth helped push the Thor trilogy forward in Thor: Ragnarok. “The first one is good, the second one is meh,” Hemsworth says. “What masculinity was, the classic archetype — it just all starts to feel very familiar. I was so aware that we were right on the edge.” Where in the first two films he played his hero character straight, in the third iteration he injected more humanity and created a character truer to his own spirit. (Via)
Critics agree with Hemsworth’s “meh” assessment (mehessment?): Thor: The Dark World has the worst Rotten Tomatoes score of any movie in the MCU (66 percent, or one percent less than The Hulk). No wonder Thor hung out in a pool during Age of Ultron. He needed time to relax and reassess some things.
(Via GQ)