Chris Hemsworth reveals what he ‘stole’ from Russell Crowe

The god of thunder revealed he “stole” something from Russell Crowe when he joined the Marvel movies.

If you ever thought there was something familiar about Chris Hemsworth’s voice in the Thor movies, that’s because it was inspired by another famous performance – or even, in his words, stolen.

The god of thunder revealed onstage at the AACTA Awards that he was very deliberately copying Russell Crowe’s voice performance from Gladiator.

In his speech accepting the AACTA Trailblazer Award, Hemsworth thanked the man who presented him the honour, Crowe, and revealed the backstory to how he came to mimic Maximus Decimus Meridius.

“I want to thank Russell Crowe, actually. Because all of his films have inspired me from when I was a young actor, particularly when I was first cast as Thor,” Hemsworth said.

“[Thor director] Kenneth Branagh gave me a copy of Gladiator and said, ‘This is a good vocal quality, the tone for the character.’ So I spent the next 10 years doing my best Maximus.”

The Marvel star then launched into an impression, lowering the octaves of his voice and quoting one of Gladiator’s most famous lines of dialogue – “Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife” – to the delight of the hundreds of attendees in the room.

Russell Crowe hands the AACTA award to Chris Hemsworth. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AFI

Hemsworth then went on to explain what happened when he found himself acting opposite Crowe while in character as Thor.

“I found myself on the set of [Thor:] Love And Thunder and there’s Russell Crowe and he’s playing Zeus. He’s brilliant, and there I am, I’m playing Russell Crowe, a bad version, and I kept waiting for him to say, ‘What are you doing mate? That’s my voice, have you got something original or what?’

“Thankfully he didn’t say that.

“If you’re going to steal, steal from the best of them and I want to thank Russell for the inspiration. He has been my idol, and someone I’ve looked up to for many years. So, thank you, mate.”

Crowe was cast by director Taika Waititi in the role of Zeus, an over-the-top and egomaniacal god of gods whose golden breastplate was a cheeky visual nod to his famous Gladiator character.

Chris Hemsworth started playing Thor in 2011.

Russell Crowe’s Gladiator voice was an inspiration in Thor’s characterisation.

Hemsworth was awarded the AACTA Trailblazer gong for his contribution to the Australian screen industry, as someone who has leveraged his power to attract productions to his home country.

The two most recent Thor movies were shot locally (Ragnarok in Queensland and Love And Thunder in NSW) while his action movie Spiderhead was also filmed in Queensland.

Hemsworth is best known for his portrayal of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in four Thor standalone films and four Avengers movies.

He has played the character since 2011, when it started off as a more serious superhero before Waititi’s involvement relaunched Thor to play up Hemsworth’s comedic sensibilities.

There is no confirmation – yet – of any future Hemsworth appearances in the MCU.

The AACTA Awards celebrate the local screen industry across film and television with the big winners this year being Elvis, Mystery Road: Origins and Heartbreak High.

Originally published as Chris Hemsworth reveals what he ‘stole’ from Russell Crowe