Chris Hemsworth got candid about his regrets with regard to playing Thor in the Marvel franchise. Photo / Disney
Chris Hemsworth got candid about his regrets with regard to playing Thor in the Marvel franchise. Photo / Disney
Chris Hemsworth was thrust into the spotlight thanks to his role as hammer-throwing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, despite the film franchise’s major success, the Aussie actor has revealed why the Asgardian hero felt “pretty replaceable”.
Hemsworth got candid about the fourth Thor instalment Love andThunder in a sit-down with Vanity Fair, revealing he blames himself for the negative response to the Taika Waititi-directed flick.
Waititi and Hemsworth were both keen to “tweak the Thor character”, which led to the duo having a fair bit of fun with the third and fourth Thor films.
However, while Ragnarokbrought in an overwhelmingly positive array of reviews, reactions to its follow-up were a mixed bag.
“I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself. I didn’t stick the landing,” he said.
Hemsworth - who portrayed the quirky Marvel hero in eight different MCU films - then admitted his frustrations with his time as Thor.
“Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” he said. “I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, ‘Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun. What’s my character doing?’”
Hemsworth added, “It was always about, ‘You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?’ Yeah, I’m part of this big thing, but I’m probably pretty replaceable.”
Taika Waititi and daughters Matewa Kiritapu and Te Hinekahu attend the Sydney premiere of Thor: Love And Thunder at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter on June 27, 2022 in Sydney. Photo / Getty Images
“First off, Thor as a character was super-tricky to adapt - lots of implied limitations - but he and Ken Branagh figured out how to transcend, make him somehow relatable but God-like,” he said.
“Hemsworth is, in my opinion, the most complex psyche out of all us Avengers. He’s got wit and gravitas, but also such restraint, fire and gentleness.”
Hemsworth is currently getting ready for the release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel to 2015′s Mad Max: Fury Road. However, the actor hasn’t hung up his hammer just yet and has admitted the MCU fandom deserves another Thor movie.
“The one side of my brain tells me, ‘Oh, you took too much time off and now the train’s passed you by’,” he said. “The more rational mind is like, ‘You’ve turned down a lot of stuff too - big action films where there wasn’t a solid script’.”