Chris Hemsworth: "A lot of different stuff because it really is a very impractical kind of weapon in a sense. There’s a big huge head on it and a tiny little handle. So we talked about boxing a lot actually. I’d done a lot of Muay Thai for years and Muay Thai is much more on your toes and legs involved. Boxing is more of a grounded sort of technique. We’d talk about Tyson, low to the ground and power through the legs. A lot of that I think influenced Thor and certainly big open shoulders, big shoulder movements. It becomes a very gritty kind of street fighting stuff at times and happens to have a big old hammer in his hand as well."
Did you really try to steal one?
Chris Hemsworth: "I did. No, not officially. I certainly talked to a lot of people and was like, 'Could I take the hammer? Can I take the hammer?' Someone said yes but then I forgot to take it."
Were you surprised by anything you were able to do?
Chris Hemsworth: "You know, there’s something I thought I could do and I couldn’t which was strapped into this harness, I had to pretend like I was falling through space. I basically was there on a couple of wires and they just spin you. You spin backwards. I thought that’s something that at the show grounds you pay five bucks for and it’s just going to be fun. Two spins later, I was like, 'Whooooaaaaa.' We stopped and I was like pale. They’re like, 'You want to stop?' I was like, 'No, just keep going until I throw up I guess.' He just kept spinning and going, 'You all right, Chris?' It’s like [gasps], 'Go again, go again.' Eventually we got what we needed and I just had to sit down for a couple hours. It was hideous."
What’s the biggest challenge about starting a movie where the fans know so much of the backstory and you still have to surprise them somehow?
Chris Hemsworth: "Yeah, that’s the challenge. You walk into something which has a pre-existing fan base. People are very passionate about it and know what they want to see. As far as how you bring the excitement or challenge, a lot of that, the script comes along. That’s not my department. For me, it was reading as much as the comic books and things that inspired me, gaining that but then also taking the reigns and going, 'Okay, now we’ve just got to do it scene by scene.'"
What’s your biggest concern about mainstream audiences, outside of fans, receiving the film?
Chris Hemsworth: "That’s a challenge. You’ve got to look after the fans already and then you’ve got to introduce it to a new audience. But then again, you can’t think about that when you hear action. You sort of simplify it and just do the best you can and respectful of what already exists, take it to where you’re trying to go with it"
How hard is it to keep it all a secret and have you slipped up yet?
Chris Hemsworth: "I don't think I have. There were some photos leaked at one point. I was like, 'Oh God, hopefully it wasn’t me.' Look, the thing is this is already based on sort of comic books which the stories are there. Now which particular story we’ve decided to tell is I guess the secret, but a lot of the essence of it already exists and people know about it. That’s not secret."
At any point in the movie will you say “verily” or “I say thee name?”
Chris Hemsworth: "No. Like in the comic books, it’s much more Shakespearian old English speak. We didn’t go down that path. We certainly made them standard sort of English accents. It was certainly well spoken and very formal, but it wasn’t Shakespearian."
What are your hopes for how Thor will fit into the Avengers team?
Chris Hemsworth: "I hope it works. Look, I think that’s going to be great. A lot of people are like, 'Oh, I want to see them fight and who would win?' But I’d like to see the dinner party with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. What the hell would they talk about?"
What has the last year been like for you starting with Star Trek?
Chris Hemsworth: "Which was also three years ago. I shot that a long time ago too. I shot that and something else. There was eight months where I didn’t work and I was on the phone with my parents going, 'I’m coming home. This is not for me.' It was good though because that period made me think, 'God, what am I doing? I’m relying on something which I have no control over to make me happy.' The constant change of everything, impermanence and permanence. So I really started thinking, 'I’m going to get comfortable with just this, this moment here and stop looking to the future to sort of go oh, then I’ll be happy.'"
"It was great, it was a real turning point for me. That was one of the hardest periods for me, questioning everything I’d wanted to do but also very humbling. It was funny. I feel when you take the load off yourself and go, 'Okay, I’m cool with whatever happens,' things just started coming in. I got one job, I was shooting Cabin in the Woods and then I found out about Red Dawn and Thor a day apart. So it was from not working to having the next few years of my life lined up."
What’s the one thing you’ve learned from Kenneth Branagh on this film?
Chris Hemsworth: "Tons. I’ve never had so much work on character and script analysis and story as him and never been asked so many questions about who is this guy, what do you think you’d do in this situation, why do you think he does this? What’s this about? It was very odd questions at times. You’d be like, 'What’s this got to do with anything?' It just fuels the tank with information, and I guess you can train up your instincts and they get out there and react. I think of it like a sport all the time. You don’t get out on the field and then learn how to kick the football. You’ve done that. I guess it becomes instinct."
"Ken also was about constantly doing it different ways and attacking from a different angle. 'We’d done this. Now let’s hit it from here.' It gets you out of that zone of thinking, 'Ah, this is my character,' and limiting myself. He just kept saying, 'No, we’ve done that. Let’s try this.' All of a sudden you go in a direction you never thought you’d go in. You go, 'Actually this works and this can affect this.' It was a roller coaster of ideas."
How do you play it straight in that outfit?
Chris Hemsworth: "There’s no dainty footsteps. It was to make sure I solidly planted my feet. The costume does so much work, Hopkins said to me when we put it on, he said, 'No acting required here, is there?' So I guess working out the fighting style and it’s an ongoing process. The more we did dialogue scenes or fight scenes, they all fed off each other. In the rehearsal process you begin to go, 'Yeah, you feel like the character.' Then there’s days where I did not feel like this guy at all, but I pulled together."
"I don't know. You’ve just got to trust it and trust the people around you. And Ken if he says, 'Yeah, you’re at a 3. I need you at a 10.'"
Are you ready for the girls blowing your Twitter account up?
Chris Hemsworth: "I don’t even have a Twitter account or a Myspace or a Facebook. There’s a few out there apparently."
