Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth portrayed Thor Odinson in Thor and will reprise the role in The Avengers.

Significant roles

 * Kim Hyde in Home and Away (2004-2007)
 * George Kirk in Star Trek (2009)

Quotes

 * "I'm an old hand with a hammer. I worked as a builder for a couple of years in Australia. But the hammer fighting is cool. We experimented with different styles, but none of them really worked. In the end, we developed our own style actually built around boxing. You know how Mike Tyson moves? Stance low to the ground, with big powerful hip movements."
 * "Thor starts out as a pretty brash, cocky kind of character, Odin's become older and wiser [and] he realizes that there's a better way of doing things, and so that's also the challenge for him in trying to discipline Thor for the actions he's taking. … [He] sends Thor away to get some humility."
 * "I have the hammer... I have a long blond wig and a nice big red cape and all sorts of armor and interesting bits and pieces. There’s so many different versions of the comic books, they’ve sort of bonded quite a few of them to form this particular story, but it’s all very true to the original stuff."
 * "We just kept trying to humanize it all, and keep it very real. Look into all the research about the comic books that we could, but also bring it back to "Who is this guy as a person, and what’s his relationship with people in the individual scenes?""
 * "I put the costume on for the first time and had the camera test and Anthony Hopkins was there with me", "We looked at each other and he said, 'God, there's no acting required here, is there?'"
 * "It sells the picture and you can't feel like anything but that character when you put that thing on. There's a very iconic sort of moment for myself putting it on but a lot of people who have been involved with the comics and the stories for years just said, 'Wow, this is it.'"
 * "There were a few different versions for different shots — the closeup one, and the stunt one," he said when question about Mjolnir, Thor's magical hammer. "The main one was very heavy, a beautifully polished, metal, wood, leather-looking thing. It was an impressive thing. You feel naked without it after holding it for a while."
 * "That was the transition of coming to Earth, as Thor minus his powers and costume was very much a fish out of water. It probably helped for the story, because he's meant to feel that way."
 * "There's a big transition from, you know, the cocky, brash, young warrior to him learning some humility — and with and without his powers he goes through that journey," As for whether we'll see more of Asgard or Earth, the actor remained pretty tight-lipped but did hint that, "It's pretty evenly spread, I think!"
 * "First, we looked at the comic books and the posturing, the way Thor moves and fights, and a lot of his power seems to be drawn up through the ground," "We talked about boxers, you know, Mike Tyson, very low to the ground and big open chest and big shoulder swings and very sort of brutal but graceful at the same time, and then as we shot stuff things became easier." 
 * "The costume's pretty limiting with the movement, so I had a lot of things to work around!"
 * "I'm extremely excited to see it. I talked with [director] Joss [Whedon] right when he first came on board about his ideas and what he planned on doing about it," "But I have yet to see a script." 
 * "[Whedon] produced 'Cabin in the Woods,' which Drew Goddard directed, and he was very collaborative in the whole process and was fantastic," "I got to know him on a personal level too and have all the confidence in the world in him."
 * "It's been a bit like that for the last year or so. I'm starting to up the calories and head back in the gym and start slowly putting it back on," "helps you feel a bit like the character."
 * "I'm extremely excited to see it. I talked with [director] Joss [Whedon] right when he first came on board about his ideas and what he planned on doing about it," "But I have yet to see a script."
 * "[Whedon] produced 'Cabin in the Woods,' which Drew Goddard directed, and he was very collaborative in the whole process and was fantastic," "I got to know him on a personal level too and have all the confidence in the world in him."
 * "It's been a bit like that for the last year or so. I'm starting to up the calories and head back in the gym and start slowly putting it back on," he said, adding that the pumped-up physique "helps you feel a bit like the character."
 * "I'm trying to sort of maintain the strength I built up. The actual weight, and size wise, has a lot to do with the food intake. So I've lessened that just because half the battle was to eat that much chicken."
 * "My body weight in protein pretty much!" "A number of chicken breasts a day and fish and steak and eggs... There's worse things to complain about but it was certainly an effort."
 * "We all met at Comic Con and had very brief, sort of in amongst the madness, introductions and then since then I saw Chris Evans at the Globes, and Robert Downey Jr, and we had a brief chat about it but we're yet to sit down as a group."
 * "I saw a very early draft and it's incredible."
 * "Everything about the story and comic books is huge. You have these huge big superheroes, and huge big egos crammed into one small space,Reading the script, it was just massice. Everything about it was like, "Oh my God." I said to Joss I have no idea how you're going to shoot thing thing, but I'm excited to be on board!"
 * "There's plenty of friction. In the comic books, him and Hulk have their fair share of tangles..."
 * I don't know if he's in Thor. I havent seen the cut yet. He wasnt on the set when I was there, but might be in the final one. He'll certaintly be in The Avengers. I had a chat with him at Comic Con, and he's as excited as the rest of us."
 * "I have seen Thor, yeah. It's fantastic. Being that close to something, it's often pretty hard to watch yourself, but the film in so many ways is so impressive that I was swept along with it like an audience member, and that's a pretty good sign."
 * "I shot 'Thor' a year ago, was cast six months before that, so it's been a long time of anticipation, but it's all heating up and we're very excited,"
 * "The stuff you see in the trailers with Natalie Portman, there's a real sense of humor to it, which I don't think we expected at the time," he said. "Thor is a real fish-out-of-water, and I'd actually just come from shooting the stuff in the other realm or world that we were in, with Anthony Hopkins and big elaborate set pieces and costumes, and he's fantastic and it was all wonderful, and then come to do the Earth stuff with Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgård, and Jane's in a T-shirt."
 * "It felt incredibly uncomfortable, but also there was some comic relief to all that." 
 * Ridiculous. Going from kissing Natalie Portman to working with Anthony Hopkins — the whole experience was like, “What the [frick] am I doing here?” But in a good way. It literally seemed like last week I was still working on Home and Away.
 * You have the massive world that was created by Marvel, and then you have these very intimate actors around you. There was as much character work on this as there would be on a little independent film. So, [I felt] very fortunate in that sense, and I had never had anyone push me in so many different directions or places that Ken did with my character. Instead of trying to track ‘this is who he is and this is what we do’, we’d try one thing and say, “Great, we’ve got that, now let’s give this a go.” By doing that you constantly go, “I didn’t think of that, but I could use that here.” It was a constant evolution, which is a freer way to work. We weren’t on this tightrope of, “Oh [frick], don’t do that, only do this.” And Anthony Hopkins is just incredible to be around — he lifts everybody’s game. You soak up everything he is doing and learn from that.
 * We were lucky in that they had actually built most of the sets. It’s easier having this big fantasy world around you than if there was just a green screen. It was like being a kid playing dress-ups. You do feel like you are this guy — especially with the costume. The first day I put it on, Hopkins looked at me and looked at both of us, and said, “No acting required here.”
 * I did Comic-Con and there were 7000 people. They showed a clip from the film then we did interviews where there were 20 people at each table, so that was the introduction. I was thrown into it — holy shit! I got a real sense of the fan base that Thor has and the buzz around it. You’re plugging away, you’re auditioning and your fingers are crossed. Then you get the part, sign the contract and start to realise millions of people follow this guy and know more about your character than you do. It’s existed for 50 years or something and all of a sudden it’s like, “Oh [frick], there’s a lot of people waiting here to say that’s right, or that’s wrong.” So it’s a funny thing to walk into. Not often do you approach a character where people know more about him than you do.
 * "Yes and no, I guess. It's still sort of surreal to see the billboards come up and you start to see the trailers playing and you say, 'Wow, it's actually happening.' But a year and a half ago when I first got cast, I was certainly informed of how big it was gonna be so I've had that time to think about it, but yeah you still double-take at billboards and go, 'What the hell is that?!'"
 * "The whole thing was just incredible, you know? I not only get to work with some of my favorite actors and people in the business, but I get to play a superhero. As a young kid or as an adult it's still a highlight."
 * "Everybody in the cast? The film starts shooting in a couple of weeks, and then I come on after the Thor press tour, which is around sort of the beginning of May. That's when I enter the scene."
 * "Yeah, it's a new team of stunt guys and we're taking it to the next level and probably getting a little more technical with the technique of using the hammer, and incorporating some sort of broadsword techniques. Also, I'm back in the gym again and eating all the protein I can get my hands on. I have a nutritionist this time around who's given me some great advice, so I'm back into the swing of it."
 * "I've been sitting down with Joss [Whedon, the director] talking and the producers and getting ideas. As far as the whole cast, no, just because of everybody's schedule. Until we meet on set that will be the first time that the group is assembled."
 * "I've met them individually at times, all of them, and they're all just wonderful. There's always the nerves that run through your body when opposite actors like this, but the excitement of it all sort of overrides that for me. I didn't get into this business because I was forced into it. I wanted to work with people like this and I love it and it's fun. I look forward to hanging about with these guys. [Robert] Downey, I think, has a real unique technique of playing with the dialogue and improv, and I think that would be fun to try and keep up with."
 * "They both really do love storytelling. Ken talks about Superman being one of his favorite films, and Joss has told me stories about him and his friends getting together and reading Shakespeare. So they're not as dissimilar as they might first appear. Both have an incredible passion for these films and are highly enthusiastic."
 * "With the Marvel secrecy I'm not really allowed to say much, but I'm just looking forward to being in full costume with these guys and I'm sure there will be some tension so that should make for some interesting sequences."
 * Holy [expletive]. I walked onto set, and Anthony Hopkins and I were in our full get-up. We looked at each other and he said, “Well, there's no acting required here, is there?” It was like being a kid playing dress-up, but the costume's worth more than your house.
 * Some of the wire gags and hanging upside down. I'm a pretty active person, but some of that stuff, I was like, “God, get me down from this thing.” It's hard work! It's like you're an actor one minute and an acrobat the next, spinning upside down backward for certain things and just wanting to throw up. But it all looks good once it's up there on the screen.
 * It was really weird because you almost become addicted to it. Then all of a sudden the hand brake is pulled and you're allowed to relax. There's a part of you that doesn't really want to, because it's used to doing this, but you do need to rest.
 * I’m extremely excited. I’m such a fan of all those guys and all those characters. Being able to watch them evolve and established already and now throw them all together, it’s a better way of doing it than if we’d brought them in together first and then branched off. Whereas this, you can relate to everyone in the film because we’ve seen them have their individual moments and now you cram them into a small space and a whole lot of egos. It’ll be an interesting dinner party, won’t it?
 * "I'd never really read a comic book. I never came across them. It's funny but, since I moved to America, you see comic book stores everywhere, far more than I saw growing up in Australia."


 * "But since I got Thor, I've dived into reading this stuff and it's incredible - great writing, incredible art work.
 * "So my hat goes off to an art form that I came to a little late. But I'm very excited to be part of it now."
 * “It’s hard to know where to start when you come in and you get the hammer handed to you,” Hemsworth said, adding that he didn’t want to come off as a lumberjack or an ax murderer onscreen. ”I was working on ‘Red Dawn’ and talked to Tom Cruise [whose son Connor is in the movie] and he asked me, ‘Have you been doing sword-fight training and all of that to get ready [for 'Thor']?’ — he has an interest after ‘The Last Samurai’ — and I said, ‘No, I haven’t, because it’s not really a sword, it’s a hammer.’ We talked about how odd that is.”
 * “It’s not the most practical thing, when you first come to it, to think of a giant, flat hammer as a weapon,” “Realistically, it wouldn’t be weighted right for anyone to use it if the handle was only so long. So the main thing coming in was to make the hammer an extension of Thor. We had to develop a style of movement that was singular, really, to this character. We looked at Mike Tyson and that very low, powerful, very aggressive stance — a big-shoulder, big-hip stance that suggests coiled strength. We had a movement guy come in too, a guy named Paradox Pollack, and we worked together a lot.”
 * “I met him on ‘Star Trek,’” “He was teaching all the people who were playing aliens how to move around. How do you get that job? He’s a fascinating guy. He’s got a circus background and acrobatics and he was a real help. He came in on this and he had read every ‘Thor’ comic book and he had a lot to show me about the hands and postures and these poses that evoke the comic book character and then how, as an actor, you could do some of those things to put it on the screen. He had this idea too of this electricity, this energy, that’s surrounding Thor. There’s an aura of thunder and lighting and energy around him, and if you start with that, then there’s a way you can move that kind of fits with that. And it affects the relation to everybody else, the way he interacts; if this exists and it extends to out here then you wouldn’t stand that close to a 9-foot monster. It was all very helpful to me.”
 * "[It's great] to have my brother there. Even if we don't get along. Hiddleston] is fantastic. [He gave] an incredible, incredible performance in the film, and he's going to do the same in this one."
 * "There's certainly some tension. You've got big egos on these superheroes. None of them want to be told what to do or form an alliance with these people who they don't understand anything about," he said. "In the comic books, you see that it's not an easy mix; that's definitely in [the movie]."
 * "Well, you'd want it, wouldn't you? Otherwise, why are we all there? I think it would be safe to say you can expect something like that."
 * During filming, I didn’t think about it at all. The film I was doing was my focus. But I certainly now take away from that experience and say, okay, I’ve got to bring that back now and keep it consistent to some degree. As far as the character goes, I hope for some sort of evolution, that he has new challenges and conflicts and whatnot, and that also is the director and the writer’s decision. But having read the script, there certainly is it is that next step for Thor, and I feel like it is he has matured in a sense, and I couldn’t be happier with what I got to work with in this
 * No, I haven’t received any phone calls about it. My start date is still the same. I think it was a pretty old script, though. I got off the plane the other day and I found that out, but I know that script changed a lot, so it’s not the most recent version of it anyway.
 * Yeah, definitely. Certainly you feel more equipped. Especially having to stand in among these other big superheroes, it was nice to have shot your own first (laughs). Now it’s looking at, okay, he’s sort of matured in some way, and now you don’t want to repeat the same mistakes in the character; you want to do something different. So that’s also a thing – the challenge is in doing sequels is you can’t go through the same arc again, and you want to sort of approach it with a new maturity that makes a new challenge in some way to it.
 * I read the Avengers comics first, oddly – that was what was given to me by Drew Goddard, who shot “Cabin in the Woods.” And I just remembered sort of seeing Thor in the comic books meet, I think it was Iron Man or somebody for the first time, and them saying, oh, he’s not really a god, and then him just kind of chuckling to himself and all of a sudden making it rain and a storm starts to come (laughs). I remember thinking, oh, that’s pretty cool. I really remember enjoying watching them attempt to form an alliance and all of their sort of egos clashing – all of these sort of strong-footed attitudes.
 * Avengers is next, and if we did a “Thor 2,” it wouldn’t be for another year or so, or longer. So there’s certainly a period where I want to definitely jump into something else. You’ve got to feed that different part of your soul or whatever it is – and not wear a big heavy costume with a cape again (laughs).
 * “I think it’s the fantasy element [that people like] – the larger-than-life characters.“All through history, we’ve had heroes of some kind, whether they be folk myths or legends or comic books, no
 * “I’m sure that’s up there on the list of possibilities, that would be something to see at some point,” “I’ve thought about that too.”
 * “I have brothers so I know about competing with someone at the same time you’re cheering for them,”
 * “Jeremy, Chris Evans, Scarlett, Mark Ruffalo, all of them, wow, it’s going to be fun,” said Hemsworth, who before “Thor” was best known to American audiences for a fleeting appearance in the J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” film. “I really feel like a fan in all of this because I’ve seen all these individual characters come to life. Now to throw them together, you feel like a kid in a way, there’s really a giddy feeling. I’m looking forward to being in a room with not just those actors but those characters, these larger-than-life characters, and seeing how that turns out. I want to see how Captain America and Thor and Iron Man react to one another.”
 * I’ve worked with Joss on ‘Cabin in the Woods’ — he wrote it with Drew Goddard and Drew directed but Joss was on set and very collaborative with ideas, so I got a sense of his personality and who he was. So I feel less cautious now, knowing him and really liking him. I’m really excited to work with Joss and to see where he takes Thor and all of the Marvel characters.”