Rise from Thor's ashes

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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Chris Hemsworth is turning the mighty Thor's fall from grace into his own personal rise to Hollywood stardom.

Hemsworth stars in the title role of Thor, the Marvel Comics superhero adaptation that opens in the US on May 6 to lead off what is expected to be a season of summer blockbusters.

The 27-year-old Australian actor joined distributor Paramount Pictures to show off footage of Thor to theatre owners on Monday night at their CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas, where Hemsworth will receive an award today as male star of tomorrow.

After a six-month casting process, Hemsworth said he felt as if he had won the lottery when he got the role as the fallen Norse god, particularly given his colleagues on Thor. Among them: Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins and director Kenneth Branagh.

"As a young actor being in this town, prior to this, it was knocking on doors and auditioning and going on the rounds," Hemsworth said in an interview. "This has sort of set me up, hopefully, for more of these films and opened other doors."

The Thor footage shown at CinemaCon chronicles the fall of the hero from Asgard, the realm of the Norse gods. Cocky and quarrelsome, Thor is cast out by his father (Hopkins) and banished to learn some humility among mortals on Earth, where he falls in with a team of scientists that includes Portman.

Hemsworth is the middle sibling in a family of three brothers who all went into acting. His older brother is Australian TV veteran Luke Hemsworth and his younger sibling is Miley Cyrus' ex-boyfriend and The Last Song co-star Liam Hemsworth.

While Thor is the biggest score for the Hemsworth acting clan, there was no sibling rivalry when he landed the role, the film's star said.

"We're competitive in the best ways. Always have been growing up," Hemsworth said. "In this particular business, I guess we're all aware of the uncertainly of it. The odds are against you. So it's kind of a team effort.

"When somebody gets a job, you're just as happy for each, and this particular thing, they were just as excited as I was."

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