The deep voice emanating from the other end of the phone exudes calm and good humor, more laid-back Australia surfer than hammer-wielding Norse God of Thunder.
For the moment, Thor has morphed into Chris Hemsworth, 27-year-old actor and -- for about a nanosecond more -- the least well known of the mighty cast that has been gathering for the Marvel "Avengers" movie. He says he will be on set with director Joss Whedon in New Mexico next week, joining Iron Man, Cap and the rest of the gang.
It's not by chance that actor and director are reconnecting. Mr. Hemsworth has a role in the upcoming remake of "Cabin in the Woods," with a script co-written by Mr. Whedon.
"He was on set quite a lot," Mr. Hemsworth said. "He actually called Ken during the search for the Thor character and said you should take a look at this guy. That sort of got me back in the room, which is very nice."
Very nice, indeed, to be working with "Ken," aka "Thor" director and five-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh, and a giant leap for an actor whose previous credits include a few memorable minutes as James Kirk's doomed father in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek."
Now Chris Hemsworth is the star of a Marvel superhero franchise that's the opening salvo of the 2011 summer blockbuster season.
Earlier this week, Mr. Hemsworth was mentioned by Variety as a frontrunner to star opposite Kristen Stewart in "Snow White and the Huntsman." He's already keeping fine company in "Thor," with co-stars including Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins as King Odin, formidable father of Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and Natalie Portman as scientist/love interest Jane Foster.
Mr. Hemsworth noted Mr. Hopkins' enormous talent and that "the most inspirational thing about him is the enthusiasm he brings to the set. ... On a number of occasions he would look at me and say, "God, isn't this fun?!"
That from the leader of the realm of Asgard, who as the movie begins is disappointed in the reckless, arrogant Thor. We meet the heir to Odin's throne as a warrior itching for a fight and tangling with familial dysfunction, jealousy and betrayal, not to mention red-eyed, blue-skinned Frost Giants.
At 6 feet 3 inches and with his hair and eyebrows bleached blond and in shining armor and red cape, Mr. Hemsworth's Thor might have jumped right off a Marvel comic-book cover and onto the set. Donning the trappings of a god was a bit tricky but helped him find his inner god.
"Up until the point I put the costume on I was really trying to convince myself of how I was going to pull this off, and the minute I put it on I felt like the character for the first time," he said. "There were metal chest plates and leather armor and the cape and holding the hammer; it's all quite restrictive and uncomfortable, but it sells such an image, so you just bite the bullet and get on with it."
In a big special effects movie like "Thor," there were no worries about wardrobe malfunctions caused by bulging muscles or overzealous action.
"There were days I felt like I was going to rip out of the thing, and I would say if I swing the hammer this way, I feel like it's going to tear," he said. "But they said just go for it and we'll repair it; hopefully it doesn't. ... Well, even Ken said in post-production they had to use CGI to do some costume-mending."
When Thor is banished from his Asgard home and forced to make his way on Earth, he gets to relax a little in the T-shirt and jeans of one Donald Blake -- in the movie, Jane's former boyfriend, but in the Marvel comic universe, Thor's mortal alter ego. He also appears shirtless here and there, the better for Jane and her assistant (Kat Dennings) to swoon.
Mr. Hemsworth described Ms. Portman as "fantastic and hard-working." They spent some time on set comparing training programs -- his to prepare for "Thor," hers for her Oscar-winning role in "Black Swan." "They were vastly different," he said, laughing. "I'm sure she was glad to stop dancing for while."
Thor first encounters Ms. Portman's Jane as the man who fell to Earth with a god-sized chip on his shoulder and no super powers. She helps the character tap into his humanity, while director Branagh helped his star by providing "a pile of reading material," Mr. Hemsworth said.
"He said none of it was to quiz you afterward, it was just to spark my interest. There were Norse mythology books and the comic books, obviously, and Herman Hesse's 'Siddhartha.' There were all sorts of different things, and he said on a personal level you might just enjoy the stories. 'Siddhartha' I did enjoy because it's not just beautifully written but it's about a man on his journey through life and finding his place in it and his relationship to it and [the] various experiences which helped to shape it."
Mr. Hemsworth said he wasn't privy to the choices made for the script before he came onboard, but Mr. Branagh gave some hints when he said he was attracted to the many Shakespearean themes that emerged from the family dynamics that shape Thor.
"I'm not a comic book nerd, I'm not an expert like the people in this great room ... So, I knew very little about American comics, I must confess, but the one I loved was Thor," the director admitted to last year's Comic-Con audience in San Diego. "I loved the name. I loved the treatment of it on the page. I loved that the character was a combination of primitive brute strength ... from a very dysfunctional family. I enjoyed that, and that the stories were epic."
He was inspired rather than daunted by the idea of re-creating the exotic, other places of Asgard and Jotunheim, two of the nine worlds in Norse mythology.
"It completely captured my imagination ... so I thought it would be fantastically exciting to evoke the visual and pictorial world if we could do a great story, which these comics brilliantly inspire, and great characters, which these comics absolutely have, and great performances, which is absolutely the key. And, the gods smiled on us, and we had an absolutely fantastic cast."
Then he brought out members of the cast including Mr. Hemsworth and Comic-Con queen Portman (Queen Amidala in "Star Wars") and faced the audience of Thor aficionados.
That was perhaps the first time the man who would be Thor got a taste of the enormity of becoming a Marvel superhero. He's had a few more big moments since then, such as having the movie premiere in Sydney for a gathering of his friends and family, including brother Liam, who has a key role in the upcoming "Hunger Games" saga.
Even getting back into that costume for "The Avengers" and any future Thor movies seems great to the actor, who said he knew exactly what he was signing on for and that the opportunity came at a time "when I desperately needed the work."
Now, his name -- well, the name "Thor" -- is included in the first image from the set of "The Avengers," a grouping of director's chairs emblazoned with character names. At Comic-Con, he was called onto the stage for the big finale, as Robert Downey Jr., aka Iron Man, introduced the castmates.
Mr. Hemsworth stood head and shoulders above the relatively diminutive Mr. Downey, Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).
Although he sounds calm now, there's a relative storm brewing within the God of Thunder as he awaits the world's reaction to "Thor."
"All this stuff, the press tour the last few weeks ... going around the world seeing all the billboards and all the exposure the movie is getting are certainly making it a reality now. It's very exciting. I'm just trying to have a good time with what I'm doing and trying to enjoy the ride."
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Read more about "Thor" at Comic-Con in the POPi blog at post-gazette.com/popi.First published on May 6, 2011 at 12:00 am
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11126/1144450-60-0.stm?cmpid=movievideo.xml
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