With looks worthy of the gods, it’s a wonder Chris Hemsworth is so grounded. The hunky Aussie actor, who plays Marvel superhero Thor, opened up in a new cover story for Vanity Fair about his rise in Hollywood.
“[My brother] Luke started acting. I followed his path, and then Liam followed mine,” Hemsworth, 32, said of his siblings. “We’re lucky. We’re all there to help each other, give each other perspective, give each other the right amount of slapping as well.”
After a minor role in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, Hemsworth was cast as Thor in the 2011 blockbuster smash. But there was a period of time when he almost gave up on acting all together.
“There were eight months where just everything stopped,” he recalled. “I got more and more anxious. I was about to pack it in. I had an audition before Christmas, and as I got on the plane, I thought, ‘I don’t give a s–t anymore. I’m sick of caring.’”
Luckily, after a failed first audition for Thor, he was reconsidered for the part when his younger brother, Liam Hemsworth, made it to the finals of the selection process.
“I had an audition with [director] Ken [Branagh] that didn’t go very well. I remember walking out thinking, ‘Oh well, there goes that opportunity.’ Then one day Joss [Whedon] and Drew [Goddard] were reading the trades, and on the front was the final four for Thor,” Chris said. “And they pointed to Liam and said, ‘Hey, is that your brother?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And they said, ‘Why the hell aren’t you in the mix?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t get a callback.’ And they were like, ‘This is crazy.’ And I was like, ‘If one of us gets it, that’s cool.’ And they were like, ‘No way. That should be you.’ And when casting opened back up, Joss called Ken and said, ‘Give Chris another shot.’”
Now that he’s a superstar with two Thor movies, another on the way, and two massive Avengers flicks under his golden belt, the father of three has a certain fear of being in an industry that is “set up to turn you into a complete narcissist.”
“You just kind of lose touch with reality a bit here,” he said of Hollywood. “You drive down the street and you’re constantly reminded of everything you’re either involved in or not involved in. It’s exhausting.”