Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) is an actor and producer. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new movie SPIDERHEAD which begins streaming on Netflix on Friday, June 17th. He talks about what Father’s Day looks like in the Hemsworth household, the role that changed his life, what being Thor has meant for him, whether he is still working on a Hulk Hogan biopic with director Todd Phillips and much more!
Happy Father’s Day for this Sunday! I’m curious, what does Father’s Day look like in the Chris Hemsworth household?
“It varies. My boy is 8 and my daughter is 9. I guess now they are at the age where it looks like something, breakfast in bed or let me go for a surf and have some space. But I’m sure that they will make it all about them. I will be making them breakfast and taking them out for a surf.”
How nice was it being in Australia to film this?
“Oh it was fantastic. We were right in amongst the COVID lockdowns and restrictions when we were shooting. People were shooting and I spoke to a lot of people in the film industry who were wanting to go to work but just sitting around. But if we were going to do something, it had to be contained and set on 3 or 4 sound stages an hour from my house, and it was fantastic. We shot what would have taken 2 or 3 months, we shot it in 4 or 5 weeks. It was so much fun and we shot it like we would if it was a piece of theater. Everything was set up weeks in advance and every little piece of the set, once we got on the set we just powered through.”
You are in Australia but you are doing an American accent. How easy is it to slip into that accent?
“It’s a lot of work. When I lived in LA for 10 years, I was around the accent a lot and immersed, so it was very easy to switch it. Since I have lived in Australia and mainly playing Thor, I haven’t done an American accent in a while. I worked really hard on this, a had a voice coach and became obsessed about it. We listened to endless tapes on people who had the vocal quality that we wanted to have. It’s just repetition and immersion over and over. Then you just don’t think about it and you can concentrate on the performance.”
I am a huge wrestling fan and was so excited when I heard that Chris Hemsworth was going to be Hulk Hogan. Is this happening?
“Err maybe. Todd Phillips is busy doing Joker 2 I believe. I’ve been off doing other films, so it has all been in conversations and developments amongst other things. A lot of different things need to come together, I don’t have 24 inch pythons, yet!”
So many people in Spiderhead have this defining moment in their life. For you Chris, what is that defining role?
“Star Trek really kicked it off. Thor is the obvious next step, but I was in LA and did a couple of things and then Star Trek came along. I remember being called into J.J. Abrams’ office and read opposite him the scene. I had no idea what the film was going to be. We shot it, forgot about it and then it came out and it got me all of this attention. That is what got me back in the room on the Thor auditions and started that journey.”
Featured image: Refinery 29
