Chris Hemsworth: ‘I know what it’s like to be pregnant’
The Aussie superstar opens up about having the “greatest wife in the world”, what it felt like playing Fat Thor in The Avengers - and why he’d rather live in Byron Bay than LA.
Actor Chris Hemsworth on having the “greatest wife in the world”, what being Fat Thor in The Avengers felt like and why he’d rather live in Byron Bay than LA.
You’ve had a busy year with a few movies coming out — including one which has gone on to become the second biggest film of all time, Avengers: Endgame. What’s it like to be a part of something like that?
It’s a bit like finishing high school [laughs]. It is a rite of passage and now you’re on your own, kid.
But I just kept trying to enjoy the moment as opposed to looking for the next thing. So I’m just going to be home now for the next six months and be with the family and not work. You know, kind of shack it up and appreciate it and enjoy it.
There is something I may do in January but it’s not 100 per cent locked in. But I like the unknown. There is so much I feel like over the past 10 years that I have known three or four years ahead what was planned.
It’s nice not to know what’s coming and be a little bit more experimental with my choices and see what’s next.
Playing Fat Thor required you to wear a prosthetic suit and evidently people kept coming up to you to rub your belly. That’s got to make for a pretty strange day at work.
[Laughs.] A very strange day at work, yeah. It weighed around 40kg so it was very heavy. It’s a silicon sort of prosthetic suit with a zip at the back, and at any moment people would come up and rub my stomach. I know how my wife feels now when she was pregnant!
I had weights in my wrist and my ankles to make me move differently, but I enjoyed the transformation and freedom to do whatever I wanted with the character.
Especially playing him again and again, you get locked in to certain expectations. That kind of broke the mould completely and allowed me to swing for the fences.
We annoying journalists always ask working mothers in interviews “How do you juggle it all?” so I’d like to ask you, as a working father, how do you juggle work and family?
Yeah, it’s hard; we have been lucky enough to travel together for most of the work I’ve done.
I have the greatest wife in the world [Elsa Pataky, 42, with whom he has a daughter, India Rose, seven, and twin sons, Tristan and Sasha, five] who basically keeps things in check and takes care of the things that I can’t, but it’s teamwork and it’s a constant reassessment.
But someone said to me once [when] you come back in the door from being away, that first reaction is the most important.
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I always think of that after I get off a plane, and if I’m stressed to shake that off before I walk in the door so I walk in not carrying that... When you’re home, you make sure you’re home.
And the truth is I travel a lot. But my dad worked 48 to 50 weeks a year, nine to five or more, so I compare [what I do] to a normal job and I’m actually home a lot more. But everyone has the same sort of challenges.
You’re also an ambassador for TAG Heuer. You must be approached by a lot of brands asking you to work with them. What do you look for before agreeing to sign on?
I just have to like the product and believe it. Way back when I shot Rush with Ron Howard [the 2013 film about Formula 1 racing] and was first introduced to the people at TAG, there’s been this adventurous spirit.
We’ve been to the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix and the Singapore Grand Prix. So a great amount of travel, which doesn’t always go along with a lot of other brands.
We went to the TAG factory in Switzerland and saw from step one to the finished product. There’s this sense of pride in the making of those watches. It’s been an easy interaction and collaboration.
It’s a role that confirms, at age 35, you’ve become known for your sense of style — but is that something that has come naturally to you?
Ummm no, you could dig up some photos [laughs] and “style” was definitely not in my vocabulary. I think back to high school with big baggy jeans, an earring and an undercut...
Despite your work commitments overseas, you call Byron Bay home. A lot of Australian actors don’t manage that balance, so how is that something you’ve been able to pull off?
Five years ago it had gotten to a point I didn’t need to be in LA as much and I didn’t need to do face-to-face meetings or auditions.
I was very lucky that things were coming to me so it could just be a phone call with a director.
But I noticed every time I was back home since we made the move the massive improvement on myself and my family — and you’re able to take that into your work.
Living in LA you feel almost a bit suffocated at times, and you stop having conversations about life and you sort of stop meeting people outside the business.
I love the place, it’s given me everything so I don’t want to talk negatively about it, but I felt I could switch off much easier when I came home and reset and ground myself.
Then I would look forward to going to Hollywood or to a set because it was new and fresh.
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