In a recent interview with
Speakeasy, the leading actor behind Marvel & Kenneth Branagh's epic adventure
Thor, Chris Hemsworth talks pages of the script leaking for
The Avengers, as well comics that inspired his take on the character.
During filming, I didn’t think about it at all. The film I was doing was my focus. But I certainly now take away from that experience and say, okay, I’ve got to bring that back now and keep it consistent to some degree. As far as the character goes, I hope for some sort of evolution, that he has new challenges and conflicts and whatnot, and that also is the director and the writer’s decision. But having read the script, there certainly is it is that next step for Thor, and I feel like it is he has matured in a sense, and I couldn’t be happier with what I got to work with in this
There was some controversy over pages of a script being leaked and that causing delays – has that impacted any of your work on “Avengers?”
No, I haven’t received any phone calls about it. My start date is still the same. I think it was a pretty old script, though. I got off the plane the other day and I found that out, but I know that script changed a lot, so it’s not the most recent version of it anyway.
This is a film with a character who goes on a journey to achieve a greater sense of perspective, so is it easier now to think about going into “Avengers” and knowing exactly who the character is?
Yeah, definitely. Certainly you feel more equipped. Especially having to stand in among these other big superheroes, it was nice to have shot your own first (laughs). Now it’s looking at, okay, he’s sort of matured in some way, and now you don’t want to repeat the same mistakes in the character; you want to do something different. So that’s also a thing – the challenge is in doing sequels is you can’t go through the same arc again, and you want to sort of approach it with a new maturity that makes a new challenge in some way to it.
Was there any era or saga in the Thor comics that you found particularly inspiring or that you thought might be interesting to explore in a future film?
I read the Avengers comics first, oddly – that was what was given to me by Drew Goddard, who shot “Cabin in the Woods.” And I just remembered sort of seeing Thor in the comic books meet, I think it was Iron Man or somebody for the first time, and them saying, oh, he’s not really a god, and then him just kind of chuckling to himself and all of a sudden making it rain and a storm starts to come (laughs). I remember thinking, oh, that’s pretty cool. I really remember enjoying watching them attempt to form an alliance and all of their sort of egos clashing – all of these sort of strong-footed attitudes.
How comfortable are you being on a trajectory where you’re connected to these follow-ups, as opposed to other sorts of projects?
Avengers is next, and if we did a “Thor 2,” it wouldn’t be for another year or so, or longer. So there’s certainly a period where I want to definitely jump into something else. You’ve got to feed that different part of your soul or whatever it is – and not wear a big heavy costume with a cape again (laughs).
Marvel's The Avengers picks up when an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security. And Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston & Stellan Skarsgård, the film releases May 4, 2012!