Chris Hemsworth doesn't seem to have a lot of secrets, but there's a lot we don't really
know about the Aussie star, especially when it comes to sibling rivalry, sewing, and his
early career struggles.
Here's the untold truth of People magazine's "Sexiest Chris" of 2019.
Fashion designer
Today, we know Chris Hemsworth as Thor, but if the actor went with his first instinct,
he probably wouldn't be acting at all.
In fact, a passion for sewing initially made him want to be a fashion designer.
"For some reason, cross-stitch was one that I enjoyed."
Yes, the rugged outdoorsman, who, according to GQ, once accidentally stabbed himself with
a knife while fishing in the Australian Outback, is apparently as adept with a sewing needle
as he is with Thor's hammer.
Hemsworth's humble upbringings are no secret.
According to his interview with GQ, he spent some of his childhood in the Outback while
his dad worked at cattle ranches.
The brief stints in the Northern Territory helped his family save money, but his parents
still stressed about bills.
Since he couldn't afford trendy clothes, Hemsworth took to sewing his own, sort of.
The passion was pretty short-lived, but he maintained in a W Magazine interview that
he really did consider being a designer.
"I don't think that went very far.
I think I might have sewed a leg together or something.
But there was a period when I was like, 'That's it, I'm gonna be a designer and make clothes.'"
Sibling rivalry
If you regularly get the Hemsworth brothers confused, you're not alone.
Chris, Liam, and Luke are the epitome of Hollywood's idea of handsomeness.
Needless to say, the boys had quite a rivalry growing up, particularly between Chris and
younger bro Liam.
In an interview on the Graham Norton Show, Liam admitted that the fights between him
and Chris sometimes turned a little violent.
He compared their, quote, "vicious childhood rivalry" to the Hunger Games, and even revealed
that weapons were sometimes involved.
During one particularly violent fight, the pair were in the kitchen fighting over a toaster
oven, so Liam picked up a kitchen knife and threw it at Chris.
"And the handle hit him in the head."
"Oh the handle side got him?"
"Yeah, it was just like a warning, if you mess with me I'll throw a knife at your head."
Close to quitting
Hemsworth didn't have to wait too long to land a gig in L.A. According to Men's Health,
the star scored the role of Captain Kirk's father in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek shortly after
arriving on American soil.
That's the American dream, right?
Well, not so much for this movie star.
As it turns out, that role was kind of his breaking point, and Hemsworth almost shipped
back to Australia before he really gave Hollywood a chance.
Even though Star Trek was helmed by one of the industry's most revered directors and
met with critical acclaim, Hemsworth struggled to land another gig.
His phone stopped ringing and anxiety took hold of his career.
The actor even briefly considered asking for his role back on the Australian soap opera
Home and Away.
He told Men's Health,
"I was about to quit.
I got more and more anxious to the point where I couldn't harness or use that energy.
It was all to my detriment."
Motivated by the idea of paying off his parents' home, he went on one last audition before
Christmas in 2008.
If he didn't land it, he'd resolved to go back home with his tail between his legs.
Thankfully, the audition happened to be for The Cabin In the Woods, and the success of
Joss Whedon's campy horror film ended up pushing Hemsworth into the spotlight.
A different Thor?
Thor almost looked a lot different.
Or at least slightly different, considering Chris and Liam Hemsworth have undeniably similar
features.
Before Chris landed his Marvel role, his little brother nearly scooped it out from underneath
him.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Chris admitted that his initial audition for Thor didn't
go so well.
However, things went a lot better for Liam, who had been selected as one of the final
four contenders.
Drew Goddard and Avengers director Joss Whedon, who both worked with Chris on The Cabin In
the Woods before landing Marvel projects of their own, were confused about how his little
brother made the cut but not him.
"Both of them were looking at the trades at this sort of top five guys for Thor and saying,
'Why aren't you in the mix here?
What happened?'
I said, 'I don't know.
I blew my audition, I guess.'"
According to Chris, Whedon thought that was "crazy," and when casting opened back up,
Whedon called Thor director Kenneth Branagh and told him to give Chris another shot.
Thanks to landing a role in the Avengers franchise, Chris has since been able to take on passion
projects, or, as he told Vanity Fair,
"A few films no one cares about."
Quick romance
Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Pataky, sort of did things backward.
The Fast and the Furious franchise actress apparently agreed to marry the movie star
Norse god before he even popped the question.
According to GQ, the couple first met through a dialect coach, and Hemsworth proposed just
nine months later.
While it may have seemed sort of quick, the actor was totally over his bachelor lifestyle.
He told GQ,
"The fame, the parties, the women, I did that stuff back home, when I was on [Home and Away]."
The Marvel actor and Pataky have since welcomed three children.
Meanwhile, the Spanish starlet has always been super supportive of Hemsworth's career,
and even lent a helping hand when Natalie Portman was forced to bail on a Thor reshoot.
According to an interview for W Magazine, Pataky stood in for a final kiss scene, and
audiences were none the wiser because she and Portman just so happen to be the same
height.
"And I said, 'My wife's around the corner, let's get her in.'
And she's the same height...
I won't have to explain to her what I've been doing at work if I'm having to kiss someone
else."
20 pounds
Taking on Thor was no easy task for Hemsworth.
While we know him to be utterly ripped, this wasn't always the case.
The movie star not only had to wear an annoying wig to take on the Norse god, he also had
to gain 20 pounds of muscle, which was far from pleasant.
So, how did he do it?
By overeating… also known as the American way.
Hemsworth committed himself to consuming a constant stream of food, a dream in concept
but pretty terrible in actuality.
It's not like he was chowing down on ice cream.
The star had to focus his energy on protein-packed foods and fibrous fruits and vegetables.
He told Men's Health,
"I feel as if I've been busy, but all I've been doing is eating all day.
Eating when you're not hungry and taking in that amount of food is exhausting."
Hemsworth also started lifting weights and completing actual work outs, instead of simply
surfing and playing sports.
"It's a good look."
Hangry Hemsworth
Hemsworth is one of those great actors who will do anything for a role.
His transformations adeptly go from one extreme to another.
As quickly as the star got used to eating all day to become a hammer-wielding god, he
just as easily snapped back his calories to basically nothing in order to look like an
emaciated castaway.
In an interview with Good Morning America, the actor revealed that he lost 33 pounds
in four weeks for 2015's In the Heart of the Sea, which was a heck of a lot harder than
gaining muscle for Thor.
His extreme dieting, which consisted of consuming just 500 to 700 calories a day, gave him a,
quote, "moody existence [and] inconsistent emotions."
Hemsworth reportedly ate boiled eggs, salads, and in his words, "nothing much."
It's safe to say most people would be pretty moody living like that!
However, this struggle really helped him portray a man stuck at sea for months.
He explained,
"In order to do it justice, the story, we had to suffer in some way and we did.
It was, in other words, not a whole lot of acting was required.
We were desperate."
"The whole time diminishing your calorie intake and getting hungrier and moodier and more
unpleasant to be around, you know?"
A special tattoo
Hemsworth isn't just a superhero in the movies.
In real life, he's a super dad, and he's even got the ink to prove it.
According to the Daily Mail, he and wife share matching tattoos that spell out the first
letters of their kids' names in the Runic alphabet.
Meanwhile, the actor also decided to permanently ink one of his daughter's drawings on his
arm after she joined in on a tattoo planning session.
According to Men's Health, Hemsworth was trying to create a tattoo idea with a friend who
specializes in geometry work.
Nothing was sticking until his daughter woke up, walked out of her bedroom, and refused
to go back to sleep against her father's wishes.
Instead, she crawled onto his lap, started drawing, and the perfect tattoo was born.
Hemsworth's friend printed out her drawings, placed them on the actor's arm, and tattooed
right over the top without fixing a single line.
The proud dad said,
"See how they're a little bit crooked and kind of off?
I said, 'Definitely don't neaten it out.'
It's exactly how she drew it."
Breaking the rules
Chris Hemsworth isn't exactly a rule-follower.
What kind of dad would the Aussie star be if he didn't try to give his daughter the
best Disneyland experience possible?
Well, perhaps a safer one.
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Avengers: Endgame star admitted that he became
his daughter's hero when he snuck her onto the Tower of Terror, which notably became
the Guardians of the Galaxy ride in 2017, according to the Los Angeles Times.
To help boost her height and get her on the ride, Hemsworth shoved candy bars into the
back of her shoes, an instant lift that came with consequences, considering those height
restrictions are there for a reason.
"I'm like, 'We beat the system honey, well done!' and then it drops and she's like ZZZZIP,
I grab on to her, she's like screaming the whole way down."
Hemsworth ended up having to hold her in her chair the whole time.
Whoops.
"I was like, maybe there's a reason there's a height."
"MAYBE?!"
Close call
Liam Hemsworth's relationship with Miley Cyrus has always been subjected to tabloid speculation.
It's almost a miracle that the pair managed to wed in secret, no thanks to big brother
Chris.
During an interview with Britain's This Morning, the Thor star admitted that he nearly blew
the lid off the whole thing when private photos he took at the ceremony ended up in the wrong
hands.
Chris brought a film camera to the Tennessee nuptials, and anyone who's ever tried to get
film developed in 2019 knows it's no easy process.
Though the actor had been using the same photo spot for years, the shop accidentally sent
the Dropbox link of the more than 200 wedding pictures to a 21-year-old stranger named Elvira
Nordstrom, who went on Instagram to let everyone know what had happened.
For his part, Hemsworth was terrified the pictures would be leaked.
"I got her phone number and contact and called her up, and she couldn't have been kinder.
And said, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything with them, and they're safe.
And so, that was a big relief."
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