‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Star Natalie Portman Addresses How Chris Hemsworth Has Changed Since They Made the First ‘Thor’
Even going back to Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios demonstrated a knack for casting. Fresh off of winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Black Swan, Natalie Portman made her MCU debut as astrophysicist Jane Foster in 2011’s Thor. Now, for the first time since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, Portman is back in Thor: Love and Thunder. And she set the record straight about how Chris Hemsworth has changed since they first teamed up.
Chris Hemsworth was a relative unknown in 2011’s ‘Thor’
While Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans weren’t mega-stars at the time, they were known Hollywood actors before they joined the MCU. Downey had been starring in movies since the 1980s, and Evans had already starred as another Marvel hero, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, in two Fantastic Four films. Hemsworth, by comparison, was a newbie to Hollywood.
Before Thor, he had only appeared in a few movies. Most notably, Hemsworth played George Kirk, father to Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk, in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot. Playing the MCU’s God of Thunder catapulted him to superstardom. And since then, Hemsworth has popped up in more than 20 films, including eight appearances as Thor throughout the MCU.
Natalie Portman returns to the MCU in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
Portman’s return to the MCU after nearly a decade highlights just how far Hemsworth’s career has come since the last time the two actors shared the screen. And in an interview with IMDb, the Oscar-winning Portman has made it very clear how much Hemsworth has changed.
“On the first [Thor], [Chris] was kind of like this not unknown but not certainly as known as he is today actor who got this big part. And he was just so sweet, so talented, so hard-working. And now, after all this success and all this fame, he’s exactly the same human. He’s a dream of a person.”
Portman describes how Hemsworth is “always reading something interesting,” such as poems by Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda. Taken aback by this discovery, Portman admitted she wondered if anything about Hemsworth was “not perfect,” a sentiment many fans agree with.
Will Chris Hemsworth return to star in a fifth ‘Thor’ movie?
Hemsworth’s Thor has already broken the MCU mold. To date, no other Marvel hero has headlined four solo movies. Both Downey and Evans capped out at a definitive trilogy for Tony Stark’s Iron Man and Steve Rogers’ Captain America. But with the success of Thor: Love and Thunder, there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for Hemsworth’s time in the MCU.
The actor has expressed his interest in continuing to play the God of Thunder as long as the character continues to evolve. After two entries directed by Taika Waititi, it might be time another filmmaker gets to pick up the character’s story from here. After all, the end credits of Thor: Love and Thunder promise “Thor will return.” But it’s unclear when and where that will happen.
