Chris Hemsworth perfect candidate to take Australia to the world
WHILE Chris Hemsworth basked in the success of Tourism Australia’s Dundee ad, which aired during this week’s Super Bowl, the most important sales job had already been sealed — on his wife Elsa Pataky
Confidential
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PROMOTING Australia is not a new job for Chris Hemsworth. While the Thor star basked in the success of Tourism Australia’s Dundee ad, which aired during this week’s Super Bowl, the most important sales job had already been sealed — on his wife Elsa Pataky.
Before the Hollywood couple chose to raise their family in Australia, Hemsworth had to first sell the idea to the Spanish model and actor.
“I just needed to show it to her,” Hemsworth tells BW Magazine. “I just needed to bring her here and then it was hard to get her to leave.”
The Hollywood heavyweight was the perfect choice to star in Tourism Australia’s $36 million ad, hyped as a “trailer” for the mythical movie Crocodile Dundee IV and revealed to an audience of more than 110 million in the US alone.
After all, Hemsworth has been putting his money where his mouth is for years now.
“LA in particular can be pretty suffocating and overwhelming in the sense that everyone you meet is somehow involved in the entertainment industry,” Hemsworth says.
“Living here, or anywhere in (Australia), people do all sorts of different jobs and professions. And then there’s the people, the laid-back, warm, welcoming attitude is something my wife instantly responded to and that I wanted my kids to embody, I wanted my kids to be influenced by that sort of attitude as well.
“When my wife and I were living in LA for a number of years, we kept looking at places we’d holiday when we were not working and realised when we were not at work we didn’t really want to stay at home either.
“So, we thought let’s pick the place that feels like it’s a constant holiday and that place is here,” he says of the family’s NSW north coast home.
“The diversity of the coast, the mix of great cultures and influences and food and music and art scenes, that’s why we set up here. We come home and even on holidays, we don’t tend to leave either.”
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No one could have predicted the success of the ad, designed to lure Americans to Australia. It stars Hemsworth in the role of Wally Jr, who meets Mick Dundee’s son Brian, played by US comedian Danny McBride, on his first visit to the Aussie Outback.
The ad also features a who’s who of Aussie stars including Margot Robbie, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Jessica Mauboy, Ruby Rose, Liam Hemsworth, Isla Fisher and Paul Hogan himself in a classic cameo role.
Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan says the ad was rated in the top five to air during the Super Bowl, out of 65. He says getting the list of heavyweights to sign on was easier than expected.
“Once Chris and Danny (McBride) were locked in, we showed it to (Hugh) Jackman and he jumped in,” O’Sullivan says.
“Jackman was almost like a recruiter-in-chief and he sent it on to some of his contacts. In fact, Hugh was the reason we got Russell (Crowe). It just all snowballed from there.
“I remember the moment I was sitting in a meeting in November last year and I got a call from our chief marketing officer to tell me Margot was in. I had to keep a deadpan face and do a little silent scream and fist-pump.
“Ultimately, what all these stars jumping on board shows is how passionate they are about Australia.”
The strength of the line-up and its success at the Super Bowl has garnered a tidal wave in support to make the film the spoof trailer was meant to promote.
The hashtag #BringBackDundee has found support in the strangest places, from Donald Trump Jr to Australia’s ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey.
It’s an idea that Hemsworth says he would get behind under the right circumstances.
“(McBride and I) kinds joked about it when we were making the commercial but we certainly didn’t expect this level of enthusiasm and response,” Hemsworth tells BW Magazine.
“I’m in agreement, I think there could be something pretty fun to do there, especially with us playing these characters.
“I don’t know if I’d want to take on the iconic role of Mick Dundee, I like the Wally Jr character I was playing in the commercial. I think it’s fun, a different and dynamic spin on the original.
“I’d love to get that whole cast together, sit in a room and see if we can come up with a great script and an idea and take it from there.”
It’s an idea that would be the proverbial gift that keeps on giving, as far as Tourism Australia is concerned.
“It would be cool to see a commercial for tourism become a movie,” O’Sullivan says.
“I’m not in the movie business, but from a tourism point of view, we’d be delighted to see that happen. The original films were absolute tourism gold.”
O’Sullivan says that while the ad’s initial success is great, there are big hopes hanging on whether it translates to an increase in Americans visiting our shores.
The US is the second most valuable international market for Australian tourism, after China. At the moment about 780,000 visitors come to Australia each year from the US.
But with Qantas now flying to five cities in the US, the strategic plan is to expand this market considerably, O’Sullivan says.
The commercial, which is just one part of the overall campaign, took less than four months to complete, with the last cameos (those of Robbie, Fisher and Rose) shot as recently as January 9. While it may not be the most expensive campaign Tourism Australia has produced, it was the most complex.
“It was a mammoth logistics task,” O’Sullivan says.
“It was our most complex campaign if not the biggest, in terms of marrying different stars’ diaries etc. But we are really happy with how it’s been received.
“We really believe one of the best tools to use to promote our country is real people and these stars are fantastic ambassadors for Australia.”
O’Sullivan adds, however, that getting the go-ahead from Paul Hogan to use the likeness and the character of the original Mick Dundee was crucial. Hoges was involved throughout the production and pivotal in how the character of Brian Dundee was handled.
“We needed to get him on board first,” O’Sullivan says.
“He doesn’t have a mobile phone, so I had to get someone else to contact him and get him to call me, which he eventually did. This guy was my childhood hero, I grew up watching The Paul Hogan Show, and here he was in my car going to a meeting.”
While Hemsworth was just a toddler when the original Crocodile Dundee movie was released in 1986, he says the image of Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee is still relevant, particularly to audiences in the US.
“You just have to look at the response (the ad) has had, it’s pretty incredible,” he says.
“I know when I moved to America people instantly brought up that movie and there’s such an enthusiasm and love for the outback in America. Also the sense of humour that film embodies and the sense of adventure, people really warm to that still.
“I do think it’s still relevant, and will be for as long as people are enthusiastic about it. It certainly doesn’t seem to be slowing down in that sense.”
Hemsworth has lived in various parts of Australia — including an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, coastal Victoria and Sydney — throughout his life, making him a perfect ambassador to promote the width and breadth of the country.
“We moved around a lot and I feel incredibly fortunate to have had that experience,” he says.
“I try to do the same thing with my kids now, have them travel as much as possible and see different areas of the country and all around the world, to experience different cultures. It’s the best education.”
While he spends a large part of the year working around the world, Hemsworth says Australia will always mean home to him.
“I’m in a fortunate enough position to be able to, from a distance, do meetings and choose what I want to work on and be a part of,” he says.
“That’s such a luxury. Obviously at the start of my career I couldn’t have done that and who knows what will happen in the future. But for as long as possible, I want to stay here. (This is home) absolutely.”
Originally published as Chris Hemsworth perfect candidate to take Australia to the world
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