Luke Hemsworth on tough times, moving home, Westworld and working with his brothers
The oldest Hemsworth brother, Westworld star Luke, was pondering his future in acting but a shock sacking from a big payday proved to be a blessing in disguise.
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Getting fired might just be the best thing that happened to Luke Hemsworth’s career.
After blazing a trail for his younger siblings Chris and Liam on Neighbours and in Australian TV, the Melbourne-based actor had finally snagged a lead role in a US TV series in the drama Lucky 7 in 2013.
It came at just the right time too, after a stint running a flooring company and several lean years in the acting game – during which time Chris and Liam become huge stars thanks to Thor and The Hunger Games respectively – it was both a confidence booster and a big payday to support his young family, who’d followed him from Melbourne to London to Los Angeles. But two days into production in Toronto he was let go for not being “authentic New York” enough, leaving him questioning his very future in his chosen career.
“I got a job early on, which was ridiculous money, as the lead in this pilot and then day two that I had been in Toronto, they told me they were going to recast my role,” he recalls.
“So I was kind of left in the wind, and I remember walking the streets of Toronto and it must have been -15C just going ‘what the f--- am I doing? How do I come back from this?’”
But the brutal axing turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Lucky 7 had the worst debut for a drama in ABC history and was pulled after just two episodes. A few months later, after three auditions, Hemsworth snagged a role in Westworld, alongside acting luminaries Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton.
Not only did the complex HBO sci-fi drama about a futuristic theme park populated by lifelike androids called “hosts” become an instant critical and ratings hit, it also allowed him to film close to his adopted home in Malibu. And as third season started on Foxtel this week, Hemsworth is still counting the blessings of the show and his character, Westworld head of security Ashley Stubbs.
“It’s absolutely been a godsend for my career and my acting and my life,” he says. “It was so fortunate that it shot in LA – I could drive to work and then drive home and see the kids at the end of the day. It’s really hard to find anything to complain about with this show. And there was always a ‘no dickhead’ policy on the show – as soon as someone ruffled the wrong feathers, they were gone. So I’m very lucky.”
The first two seasons of Westworld were praised for their outstanding acting and intricate, brain-bending plots tackling big questions about artificial intelligence, free will and the nature of being human. But while the episodes always demanded the audience’s full attention, some felt that the second season in particular became so cerebral it was nigh on impossible to follow. Hemsworth says it’s a topic that comes up a lot when he discusses Westworld, but he doesn’t agree.
“I didn’t really feel that with season 2,” he says. “It’s definitely complex but I think the scale of things was so grand that maybe people were overwhelmed by that. And I think this season is perhaps a little more linear – although that still remains to be seen.
“But I think it’s a strength and that complexity adds to the experience and adds to it having longevity and you being able to revisit this stuff. I think if you take away that complexity, the show is a different show and it doesn’t have quite the same impact.”
Hemsworth says that if the first season with its multiple timelines was about the ‘when’ of Westworld, and the contemplative last season was about the ‘why’, then this season is about the ‘where’. Having turned on their human overlords in a bloody rebellion ending in a massacre at the park, some of the “hosts” have entered the wider world, with vengeance on their minds.
“We’re dipping our foot into a future that is not a stretch to think that we might end up in this place,” Hemsworth says. “And the nature of what we see as the future is that it’s shining and functioning but underneath it’s kind of rotting and there is a lot of chaotic s--- that’s about to explode.”
The final episode of season two ended on a cliffhanger for Stubbs too, when it was strongly hinted the character hitherto assumed to be human, was indeed a host himself. Hemsworth says he was shocked by the revelation – a last-minute idea by creator Jonathan Nolan – but it didn’t fundamentally change the way he approached his job.
“As an audience member we find out – but Stubbs has known all along,” he says. “So my performance can’t change, it still has to come from the same place. Everything that these hosts are experiencing is real so there was never any discussion or thought about changing that performance in any way. I just get to add another layer – I get to do diagnostic mode and all of that beautiful stuff. But I have been able to see Evan Rachel Wood do it and Jeffrey and Thandie and all these incredibly subtle actors, write the rule book for what exactly that is.”
Hemsworth says he didn’t have to dig deeply to find some of the more protective, honourable aspects of Stubbs. His father Craig was a social-services counsellor who “hated bullies” and instilled his sons with a similar sense of injustice.
“Both Mum and Dad ended up working in child protection services for a long time and he always instilled in us that sense of right and wrong and standing up for the people who couldn’t protect themselves,” he says. “And I think Stubbs does that to a degree.”
Hemsworth moved back to Australia last December to be closer to his family, all of whom now live in Byron Bay. With the three brothers now reunited in the idyllic northern NSW surfing haven, Luke says he’s open to them all doing a movie together, but that it would need to be “something special” to get them all together on screen.
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“None of us want to jump the gun on that one but I hope it will come,” he says. “I’d love to – and I hope the others want to – but it’s a matter of timing, it’s a matter of the right project and the right director. I think it would be lot of fun.”
WATCH: Westworld Season 3, Monday, noon, Fox Showcase and streaming on demand.