Ever since 2011, when he was first cast in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, Chris Hemsworth has been dining out on the same anecdote: in a story worthy of Asgard itself, the elder Hemsworth had to beat out his younger, smaller, brunette brother Liam Hemsworth in order to claim the title of the Thunder God. At six-foot-three and blessed with golden, Norse-like hair, Chris Hemsworth seemed born to play Thor—but his road to Marvel fame was bumpy, and without the help of the entire Hemsworth family, it might be a different actor filling out that red cape.
Sitting down with Lynn Hirschberg for W’s “Screen Tests” series, Hemsworth recently explained how his family got involved in his efforts to be worthy of Thor’s hammer. Having blown (in the actor’s words) the first audition with Branagh, Chris Hemsworth had to then watch his younger brother, Liam, get callback after callback for the part, which sparked some “sibling rivalry.” (The source of Hemsworth’s on-screen sibling rivalry, Tom Hiddleston, also famously got fairly far along in the audition process to play Thor. Thank goodness he landed Loki instead.)
When Liam ultimately didn’t get the role either, Chris tried again, recording another audition tape from a hotel room in Vancouver where he was shooting Cabin in the Woods with his future Avengers director Joss Whedon. Whether Whedon had any influence over Hemsworth getting either the role or that second audition, the Australian actor is inclined to credit his mother, Leonie—who read Odin, the Anthony Hopkins part, for him. “She must have nailed it, because it got me back in the room,” Hemsworth explains, adding that he was motivated, this time, by “frustration that my little brother had gotten further than me.”
Speaking with Vanity Fair’s Krista Smith back in 2015, Liam Hemsworth explained that he and his brother have shared a friendly lifelong rivalry. The Hunger Games alum recalled the time he flung a knife at his brother’s head; only the handle hit that god-like face, thank Odin. The Hemsworth brothers also got their respective starts on Australia’s two rival soaps—Neighbours and Home and Away.
But neither brother would have grown up to play out their rivalry on the public stage of Hollywood were it not for their mother, who surprisingly raised the two beefcake actors on a vegetarian diet. Chris Hemsworth would eventually pack on 20 extra pounds of muscle after he landed the part in order to convincingly pull off that golden god look.
Hemsworth got a hand from a member of his family one more time when filming 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. His leading lady, Natalie Portman, wasn’t available to re-shoot the final post-credits scene, in which Thor and Jane share a passionate kiss. Luckily, Hemsworth’s actress wife, Elsa Pataky (of the Fast and the Furious franchise fame) was on hand. “Let’s get her in, and she’s the same height,” Hemsworth recalls saying at the time, “and I won’t have to explain to her what I’ve been doing at work . . . having to kiss someone else.” Pataky threw on a Jane wig and costume, and passionately kissed her husband in the final frames of the movie. Nice work if you can get it.
Chris Hemsworth’s Vanity Fair Cover Shoot
Chris Hemsworth, photographed in Montauk, New York. In his first close-up for The Cabin in the Woods, director Joss Whedon said, “Oh my God, he’s a movie star.”
