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Chris Hemsworth on Getting Buff for Thor: “I’ve Come to See Size as a Prop”

Chris Hemsworth on the cover of the September 2013 Esquire
Chris Hemsworth refers to his weight gain and loss for upcoming roles in Rush and Thor "a kind of prop."

Chris Hemsworth is juggling a few different projects at the moment and has had to lose and gain weight accordingly, he tells the September 2013 issue of Esquire.

“Thor is large,” he says of playing the Marvel Comics superhero, a role he reprises in this fall’s Thor: The Dark World, later this year. “For that I had to add some muscle, which hasn’t been all that hard so far. I like training just fine, thanks.” 

Related: PHOTOS: India Hemsworth's life so far

“But to play a Formula One driver, I had to drop quite a bit of that. You know, slim it down,” he continues, referring to his role as race car driver James Hunt in upcoming flick Rush. “First time I looked at a Formula One car in person, I just stared at the cockpit, figuring I’d never get in there. The drivers wear the whole car like a tight-fitting suit. So I just started training differently, shedding all that Thor. I’ve come to see size as just a kind of prop.”

Chris Hemsworth - Esquire

The 29-year-old actor, who has played a wide variety of roles, including an American jock in Cabin in the Woods and a curmudgeonly hunter in Snow White and the Huntsman, adds that being out of his element has become his go-to mantra.

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“The challenge in the first installment was this fish-out-of-water quality, this naivete about everything that makes up earth,” he says of playing Thor. “That was a familiar dynamic to me. A Crocodile Dundee thing, really.” 

Hemsworth and wife Elsa Pataky have most recently been spending time in London, where the actor was filming both Rush and the Thor sequel. Pataky, a Spanish actress who appeared in Fast & Furious 6, previously told Us Weekly that the couple and their 13-month-old daughter India feel most at home whenever they are together — or by the water.

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“She loves being at the beach,” Pataky, 36, told Us earlier this year of India. “And she loves little dogs and all animals. I like having her around nature.”

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