Chris Hemsworth says he felt like he created a parody of himself in his most recent outing as Thor.
The Australian actor was first cast as the Marvel superhero at age 25. Fifteen years on, Hemsworth has 29 movies under his belt – nine of them from the Marvel franchise.
But in a new interview with Vanity Fair, the star has suggested that he was disappointed by his most recent incarnation as the character in the 2022 movie Thor: Love and Thunder.
There are four total films in the Thor franchise. The 2011 debut movie, Thor, was followed by three sequels: Thor: Dark World in 2013, Thor: Ragnarok in 2017 and 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder. The hammer-wielding Norse god also features in the Avengers movies.
The interviewer quotes Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr. as saying that Hemsworth's work in the earlier movies Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – were "a formidable hat trick."
But it is clear that Hemsworth does not feel the same about the most recent Thor offering, which was directed by Taika Waititi. At the time of its release in 2022, CNN's reviewer Brian Lowry described Love and Thunder as "a movie that's muscular and handsome but at its best sporadically likeable, and even harder to love."
Hemsworth said: "I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself.
"I didn't stick the landing."
Nevertheless, the actor has not given up the part yet, as the interviewer said that he "thinks he owes the audience another Thor after what felt like a whiff with Thor: Love and Thunder.
He has taken a year out from work but will soon be returning to the big screen in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the prequel to the 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road.
Hemsworth made headlines in 2022 when it emerged in his series Limitless – which showed him exploring ways to enhance his longevity and combat aging – that he has two copies of the APOE4 gene, meaning he has a heightened predisposition for developing Alzheimer's disease.
The revelation was widely misconstrued, according to Hemsworth, as it coincided with some planned time away from filming.
"No matter how much I said ‘This is not a death sentence,' the story became that I have dementia and I'm reconsidering life and retiring and so on," he told Vanity Fair.
However, he revealed in the interview that his father also has the gene and is showing early signs of the condition.
"I know my dad is going through a transition of acceptance around ‘I'm not this big, strong man with all the answers who everybody looks to for guidance now,'" Hemsworth said.
"He's much more the observer now, rather than leading the pack. It's a reminder to me because those are exactly the qualities I need: stillness, observation, absorption, a respect for the present moment."
