Actor Chris Hemsworth talks career, ‘self-bashing’ and his new fitness app
He’s one of Hollywood’s hardest working actors but Aussie Chris Hemsworth would have quit acting if it weren’t for one very selfless deed.
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HOLLYWOOD star Chris Hemsworth has revealed he would have quit acting a decade ago if it weren’t for his desire to pay off his parents’ home.
The Australian actor, who covers the March issue of Men’s Health magazine, opened up about his career stall after 2009 film Star Trek and the “self-bashing” he struggled with as an actor.
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“I was about to quit. I always wanted to act, and one of the first things I wanted to do when I got any money was pay my parents’ house off,” Hemsworth, 35, told Men’s Health from his Byron Bay home.
“I’d asked Dad once when he thought he’d pay it off and he said, ‘Honestly, probably never’. I wanted to change that. So I was super active with auditions, and then my mentality changed, which came from being at a point where I was like. ‘I’m going to go back to Australia’.
“I had one more audition where I was like ‘Do this for the house. Think about reasons other than yourself’.”
That audition was for 2011 film Cabin in the Woods, and shortly after that came Red Darn and Thor, a role which has taken the former Home and Away star from paying off his parents’ home to building an empire in Byron Bay, where he returned with wife Elsa Pataky and their three children in 2014.
Hemsworth has since become one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, with 26 film credits to his name in the past decade.
The hyped rivalry between Chris and brother Liam Hemsworth, who also auditioned for the role of Thor, has become an old wives’ tale, he says.
“When it came to acting there was so much fragility, so much vulnerability and anxiety, that you wouldn’t dare pull another down because, trust me, you do enough of that yourself, you know? Self-bashing. I do anyway and I know that Liam and (eldest brother) Luke do as well,” he said.
Continuing to think of reasons outside of himself, Hemsworth has pooled the knowledge of 20 leading health and fitness experts worldwide, including his own fitness team, to launch a health and fitness app Centr globally in February, which costs $19.99 per month.
In a world-first collaboration, he and Pataky feature on dual covers simultaneously in 23 countries, with the Spanish-born actor featuring on Women’s Health’s March cover to promote the app.
“I wanted to create something that embodied the three main elements of healthy living — the movement, the nutrition and the mindfulness,” he told Men’s Health.
Of his famed physique, he added: “It comes hand-in-hand with the roles I play, but, look, occasionally you’ll see paparazzi poking out of the bushes and you’re like, ‘How’s my rig look? Am I on point, or have I slacked off lately?’”
“I maintain my fitness because it makes me feel better.”
Of her life in Byron Bay, Pataky told Women’s Health: “I grew up in the city so … that was my dream, to live in a place like this.”
“My kids and I, we’re all barefoot and outside and they’re running (with) so much freedom. I feel really lucky.”
The March issue of the magazines are on sale today.
Sign up at www.centr.com
Read more: https://www.menshealth.com.au/chris-hemsworth-mens-health-cover-march-2019
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