In the Marvel films he was unassailable, but in real life the actor says he’s more like the anxious thief he plays in Crime 101. He and its writer/director Bart Layton talk midlife angst, imposter syndrome – and Alzheimer’s
‘I
t’s like a therapy couch,” says Chris Hemsworth, as he takes a seat on a chaise longue in the London hotel room where we’re meeting. He laughs, but it quickly becomes clear the Australian actor is more than ready to examine his life and the image he has long presented to the world.
As Thor, the God of Thunder, Hemsworth has come to embody a certain idea of masculinity: invulnerable, assured, unshakeable. The role, which spanned nine films, put him up among the world’s highest paid actors and made him a global pin-up. Yet the confidence was, in part, a construction. “The character you see in interviews,” he says, easing into the chaise longue, “and the presentation of myself over the last two decades working in Hollywood, it’s me – but it’s a creation too. It’s what I thought people wanted to see.”
In his new lead role in Crime 101, director Bart Layton’s cool procedural thriller, Hemsworth plays a different kind of character. An action figure, certainly, but one whose inner world is defined by doubt and vulnerability. “I felt quite exposed in this role,” the 42-year-old says, as Layton sits next to him. “I wasn’t able to hide behind a vocal quality or posture the way I could with Thor and these larger characters. It was about doing the opposite.”
