Chris Hemsworth Once Shared He Almost Passed on ‘Thor’
When Chris Hemsworth fought hard to become the Marvel superhero Thor. But when the role was finally his to play, he and his team briefly considered turning it down.
Chris Hemsworth almost lost his ‘Thor’ role to Liam Hemsworth
Originally, Thor almost went to a different Hemsworth. His younger brother Liam was close to being the superhero. Although the older Hemsworth auditioned for the part, he didn’t receive a call back.
“I think my audition sucked. I think that was the response I got,” Hemsworth told Wired.
His younger brother initially had a more favorable audition for the character. Liam was one of the last few actors being considered for the role when Marvel decided to give Hemsworth another chance.
“They were like, ‘Look, he’s great, but he’s a bit young.’ My manager then said, ‘Well, he does have an older brother,’ which was me,” Hemsworth recalled. “I came back in, re-auditioned a few times and just had a different attitude. Maybe I had a little more sort of motivation that my little brother got a look in and I hadn’t. I also had done a couple of films in between those two auditions, so I had a bit more experience and confidence in what I was going to do.”
Chris Hemsworth almost passed on ‘Thor’
Hemsworth has become well known for his role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and has seen his career flourish because of it. Before being recruited for the Avengers, Hemsworth had a difficult time making a name for himself.
Even after appearances in movies like Star Trek and A Perfect Getaway, Hemsworth still had trouble finding work. Soon he was becoming discouraged by Hollywood altogether.
“I had 12 months where every audition I was getting worse feedback,” Hemsworth said in a 2017 interview with Sydney Morning Herald. “I was getting more and more nervous and uncertain, thinking: what am I doing? Do I even want this? Trying to convince myself I didn’t want it so it didn’t hurt so much. And then something changed. I just said ‘whatever’ and stopped thinking about it so much. Then I got busy again.”
His newfound attitude and persistence would eventually lead to Hemsworth being cast in Thor. But it was an offer that he considered refusing.
“I was crossing the road in Vancouver … and I remember the exact moment getting a call from from my lawyer and my manager saying ‘you got the offer,'” he said. “And then kind of going ‘oh wow, cool. So what is it?’ ‘It’s a superhero thing and it’s a six-picture deal.’ And we were like ‘that’s a lot of films to sign up for. We should pass on this.'”
Of course Hemsworth would commit to the character, which ended up being one of the most rewarding experiences of his career.
Chris Hemsworth felt ridiculous working with so many talented actors for ‘Thor’
Hemsworth found himself acting alongside a couple of accomplished veteran actors for the role. Renee Russo and Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins would play Thor’s mother and father. He’d also have Oscar-winner Natalie Portman as his co-star and love interest for the flick. To Hemsworth, being paired with the cast was an unbelievable time he felt was a bit surreal.
“It was ridiculous. Going from kissing Natalie Portman to working with Anthony Hopkins – the whole experience was like, ‘What the f*** am I doing here? But in a good way. It literally seemed like last week I was still working on Home And Away,” he once told GQ (via Contact Music).
Thor was also being directed by acclaimed director and actor Kenneth Branagh. Hemsworth felt Branagh had a hand in Portman being in the comic book project.
“I think the attraction for Natalie to a film like this was Kenneth Branagh’s involvement. At that time in my life, I wasn’t in a position to pick and choose who I wanted to work with. I just needed to pay the rent, and I was excited to be involved with something on this scale,” he once said on Interview.
