So Much More Than A Marvel
All the way back in 2003, acclaimed award-winning Australian actor, Geoffrey Rush, joked that there was to be an invasion of Australians hitting America designed, as though by some freaky wizardry, in a “secret laboratory in the outback where we clone actors to unleash them zombie-like on an unsuspecting sleepy Hollywood.”
The American reporter laughed along with the gag. Maybe not in a secret laboratory, but over the last decade, Australia has been reproducing serious screen talent for Tinseltown and who’s laughing now?
Film Stills From Extraction, Courtesy of Netflix
Ahhhhh, Australia. The land of Scott Morrison, Home & Away, the Sydney Opera House and the kangaroo. Acting greats like the aforementioned Geoffrey Rush, Crocodile Dundee, Hugh Jackman and Hugo Weaving, too. We love watching our Aussie brothers and sisters take the world by storm, even if we still feel a little deflated after they claimed Russell Crowe as their own.
One of the most recognisable and likeable Australians to grace the Hollywood Walk of Fame though has to be, without a doubt, Chris Hemsworth. That deep, resonant voice, those kind baby-blue eyes and chiselled, muscular body has made an impact the world over, for different reasons.
As well as being an amazing actor who can encapsulate any type of role – be it comedy, drama, horror or action – Hemsworth is also an advocate for animal rights, disaster relief and the environment. He is (no joke) a genuinely cool, down-to-earth guy.
He even donated $1 million to the wildfire relief that raged in his country. Chris Hemsworth could be a cocky, ‘holier than thou’ A-list celebrity, waving the swarms of gannet-like fans away at any given opportunity and gloating of his success to Jimmy Fallon or James Corden, but he just doesn’t. He’s just too nice.
“Never have I rooted for someone to be an unbelievable jerk,” Melissa McCarthy exclaimed on Graham Norton’s sofa in 2016 whilst talking of working with Hemsworth on Ghostbusters. “I just needed something to be wrong with him, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with him!”
Born in Melbourne in 1983 to an English teacher and social services councillor, Hemsworth grew up between Phillip Island and a small cattle station town (not a secret laboratory), Bulman, in the vast Australian Outback. As an adventurous and sporty child, Chris was oftentimes found up-to-his-neck in mischief and gained a fascination with wildlife.
“My earliest memories were on the cattle stations up in the Outback,” Chris told Frank Lovece in a 2011 interview with FilmFestivalTraveler.com. “Then we moved back to Melbourne and then back out there and then back again. Certainly most of my childhood was in Melbourne but probably my most vivid memories were up there [in Bulman] with crocodiles and buffalo. Very different walks of life.”
Another passion of the young Hemsworth was football. The second child to three sons (fellow actors, Liam and Luke), Chris wanted desperately to become a world-class football player. Due to a shoulder injury, his chances of becoming a sports star slowly disappeared. It was then – with no bones at risk to break – he took to drama classes at school instead.
It was in these classes that he truly found himself, going on to star in cameo roles in Australian TV shows, such as Guinevere Jones, as Jamie Kane is the well-known soap, Neighbours and for his Logie Award-winning role as Kim Hyde in Home and Away. It was this initial star power that first elevated into the spotlight on his home soil. Or maybe it was in 2006 when he appeared on the Aussie Dancing With The Stars? It was Hemsworth’s likeable nature coming through, his humble ‘tall-poppy’ humbleness. It was something about Hemsworth that everyone immediately seemed to like about him.
His later movie gigs consisted of supporting roles in thriller film, A Perfect Getaway and with Sean Bean in action-packed, Ca$h, that showed a great deal of range for the young actor. He was witty, likeable, quick-off-the-mark and ready to get his hands dirty for any type of role.
Cut-scene to the post-credit shot in the 2010 Iron Man 2 film where Phil Coulson, high-ranking officer of the special espionage agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., discovered a large hammer – Thor’s Mjöllnir – in a desert. You guessed it, reader…so began Hemsworth’s introduction into the Marvel Universe.
In an interview with Muscle & Fitness, Chris talked honestly about his initial doubts with the part. He got the phone call saying he’d got the role “whilst crossing the road in Vancouver”. After considering the pros and cons, he very nearly turned it down, saying he “was aware of what it was but had no idea if anyone was going to turn up and see it”. Luckily, he took the chance and joined the cast alongside Natalie Portman, (Chris’ acting idol) Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston and Stellan Skarsgård.
Asgardian warrior, hammerless and banished to Earth in Ken Branagh’s Thor, Hemsworth was literally a world away from Summer Bay. The 2011 Thor film came riding on the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and audiences were initially concerned. They were concerned at a literacy-thick retelling of the 1960’s Marvel character directed by a well-versed Shakesperian thespian, Kenneth Branagh.
With Thor arriving on screen as one of Marvel Universe’s first cinematic attempts (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk appearing a year or two before), there were a lot of outlandish elements to overcome. Was it the whacky costumes? The obviously-a-wig Thor hair? The tongue-tying dialogue? Or the impending fear of the reception?
Though less well-received than the other Marvel characters, Hemsworth’s portrayal of the Freudian-style Norse God was garnered by critics world-wide and was surely the character that introduced him to the world stage. And, by golly, he deserved it.
After the immense financial success of Branagh’s Thor (earning $449.3 million worldwide), two sequels were released – Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World in 2013 and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. The character also joined forces with other Marvel superheros in several The Avengers films, most notably in the 2019 Endgame where Hemsworth (spoiler alert) donned a very impressive fat-suit and looked more like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers than a well-spoken warrior out to defeat Thanos. The fat-suit weighed at least 40kg!
“It was the hottest I’ve ever been,” he laughed in behind-the-scenes footage of the film. The fact that Hemsworth was named 2014’s People Sexiest Man Alive made this joke even the more witty. Or perhaps he was alluding to the actual heat he must have been suffering trying to lug the costume around.
As well as juggling that role of Thor with time spent back home in Australia, Hemsworth used his versatile acting to exercise his artistic muscles. He acted in horror/comedy flick, Cabin in the Woods, as well as the Huntsman in dark fantasy film, Snow White and the Huntsman in 2012. He sharpened his sporting teeth as British Formula One driver, James Hunt in Rush in 2013 and gave the world a taste of action in the 2018 war drama 12 Strong, amongst many others that showed his range as a true, blue Aussie superstar.
Taking the role of Captain Mitch Nelson in 12 Strong, directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, was an opportunity for the actor to get fully enveloped into the art of action. Yes, he had his challenges, but don’t we all in a day at work? One challenge was the hard strain of training. He said in an interview with Screen Rant, “We had numbers of military advisors on set. We did our training.”
“I didn’t want to do an impersonation of Mark,” he said. “But I wanted to sort of embody his intention, his heart, and get inside his head to figure out what it takes for someone to stand up and go to war. When it is basically a suicide mission, there is not a hesitation. They just go straight into it.”
Though it only got a two-and-a-half stars on Rotten Tomatoes, the role must have sparked something in the actor that allowed him to pastiche the character of a nitty-gritty old-school war hero. Hemsworth’s most recent Netflix action film, Extraction has the rejoicing of such a character. Put down the hammer, Thor, and pick up your semi-automatic weapon. Blood is going to be spilt. Lots of it.
Old-school violence in films is something you would never associate with Hemsworth. Replace the name with Quentin Tarantino and, sure, you’ve got yourself a movie. But the directorial debut of American stuntman, Sam Hargreaves and produced by the Russo brothers (who directed Hemsworth in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), Extraction holds no stops. It’s blood-thirsty and stars Hemsworth as an Aussie, heavy-drinking ex-SAS soldier. What’s not to like?
Hemsworth’s character, Tyler Rake, with an infinite amount of cool sunglasses, is set to rescue Ovi Mahajan Jr., the son of India’s biggest drug lord, who is in deep waters with another big drug lord, Amir Asif. The fight scenes are bountiful, the violence gruesome. It seems that no matter what was thrown at him, Hemsworth, covered in blood and mud, gets the job done.
“I got to invent a new character that isn’t held to any restrictions from something done before or a comic book or a real-life figure,” he told Indian news media group, The Hindu, in February this year.
As you’d expect, the job that Rake gets set goes horribly awry and Asif finds every way to ensure that he and Ovi never escape the Bangladesh city of Dhaka. Enter every member of law enforcement be it the military, police and criminal underworld and queue the action sequences. Deeply entertaining and well executed from the Aussie actor, Extraction 2 has even been booked for production.
“It becomes a redemption tale,” Chris told Joe Deckelmeier from Screen Rant about the film, “in a way for a man seeking to sort of right his wrongs. And I found that emotional resonance and heartbeat in the story really impressive within an action film like this. I don’t think you see that combination, and that’s what made it feel fresh and unique.”
Keeping any of his characters fresh and unique has been a winning trait of Hemsworth. He always seems to incorporate such a uniqueness to any role he takes on. He’s much more than a Marvel character. From the vast outback of Australia (minus the secret lab) in his childhood, to hitting Hollywood as the Norse God, Thor, to this new role as sunglass-wearing Tyler Rake in Extraction, Chris’ versatility and success as an actor has made him Australia’s greatest A-list cool guy, with or without the hammer.