HOLLYWOOD HISTORY IS REPLETE WITH ACTORS WHO GOT THEIR START ON SOAP OPERAS, BUT ONLY ONE WENT ON TO BECOME BOTH THE FATHER OF ONE OF STARFLEET’S MOST ICONIC CAPTAINS AND THE GOD OF THUNDER. THAT’S THE BACKSTORY ON CHRIS HEMSWORTH, EVEN IF MOST AMERICANS AREN’T AWARE OF HIS WAIT FOR IT SECRET ORIGIN. THIS FEBRUARY, THE IMPOSSIBLY HANDSOME MCU MAINSTAY JOINS AN A-LIST CAST IN THE UPCOMING HEIST THRILLER CRIME 101

BY WILL HARRIS

Born in Melbourne, Australia, and brought up there and in the Outback in Bulman, Northern Territory, Chris Hemsworth like his brothers Luke and Liam caught an early break on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, but Chris’ career really kicked into overdrive after he pulled a series-regular role on a different soap opera, Home and Away, which kept him gainfully employed for 189 episodes over the course of four seasons. It was immediately after leaving Home and Away that he secured the small but pivotal role of George Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise, in which he made a major impression by sacrificing himself so that his wife and newborn son could survive. “It was all pretty mind-blowing,” Hemsworth recalled in an interview with Sci-Fi and Fantasy Gazette. “I’d only been in the States for four months or something, and then to find myself on the Paramount studios lot, and I’m on one of the biggest films in history, and there was so much buildup, you know, talk about this film, so I just kept thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’”

If things felt mind-blowing for Hemsworth at that point, one can only imagine how disorienting it must’ve been for him to suddenly find himself headlining his very own superhero franchise only two short years later.

Cast as the titular character in the 2011 Marvel film Thor, Hemsworth was quickly catapulted to a household name – or if he hadn’t been by the time that film was released, he certainly was by the time The Avengers landed in theaters the following year. Being cast as Thor, however, also brought with it a very specific challenge: to be able to build himself up to possess the body of a Norse god.

“It took a good five or six months of force-feeding myself buckets of protein, and then spending six or seven days a week in the gym,” Hemsworth told Direct Conversations. “I’ve always been pretty active and played a lot of sports, but

I’ve never lifted weights, so this was a whole new thing for me. My body didn’t set well with that weight, eating tons and tons. [But] I had to keep up with it because the shirtless scene was about three-quarters through the shoot. It meant at the end of a 16-hour day, I’d have to get into the gym. It was very exhausting. It was a good thing that I was prepared for it all.”

Beyond his super-heroic duties on the silver screen, Hemsworth has been a part of numerous other projects, including a few other franchises (Vacation, Ghostbusters, Men in Black: International, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Transformers One). He’s worked with such notable directors as Ron Howard (Rush and In the Heart of the Sea) and Michael Mann (Blackhat), and he’s even been a part of his own franchise, playing Tyler Rake, in Extraction, Extraction 2, and…maybe Extraction 3? (We can hope, at least.)

In 2022, Hemsworth took a career left turn and ventured into reality television, starring in the National Geographic series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, which he executive produced alongside Darren Aronofsky. Disney+ described Hemsworth’s mission as one “to discover how to live better for longer,” and that “with the help of world-class experts, family, and friends, he’s embarking on a series of immense challenges to push himself to new limits and stop the diseases of old age before they take hold.”

The reference to “diseases of old age” is an oblique way of making note of how, during the course of the series’ first season, Hemsworth discovered that he possesses two copies of a gene that is linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

“There was an intensity to navigating it,” Hemsworth admitted to Vanity Fair. “Most of us, we like to avoid speaking about death in the hope that we’ll somehow avoid it. We all have this belief that we’ll figure it out. Then to all of a sudden be told some big indicators are actually pointing to this as the route which is going to happen, the reality of it sinks in. Your own mortality. The show, which initially was an exploration of longevity and, of course, should be fun, became even more relevant and important for me, even more poignant than I ever thought it would be.”

The series also spawned an additional documentary: Chris Hemsworth A Road Trip to Remember, wherein he and his father – who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s himself embark on a road trip together.

“[My father] was really interested and really enthusiastic about the idea,” Hemsworth told National Geographic. “He wanted to put awareness around the issue and offer up some advice or information that may help people make some different decisions or deal with this type of diagnosis. He and I hadn’t actually spoken about it that much, funnily enough. It was not out of avoidance, but out of not really knowing how to broach the subject – maybe there was some sort of resistance to the truth of what we’re facing as a family. I was definitely anxious about the whole thing, but [also] fueled by his enthusiasm for it. I found it quite deeply personal and profound.”

In addition to reprising his role of Thor in the hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday (slated for a December 18 release), Hemsworth is also starring in the upcoming film Crime 101 alongside an all-star cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, and Halle Berry.

“I’ve admired Halle’s work for many, many years,” Hemsworth told E! News. “I was honestly very intimidated to sit opposite her within a scene and try and, you know, not just be in awe of what she was doing. Certain people bring out not just the best in you, but also a sort of comfort level where it feels like it’s a place to explore and it’s a place to examine different ideas and try different things. And that was the experience. I loved every second of it.”