Visiting the Set of Thor: The Dark World with Chris Hemsworth

Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting the set of Thor: The Dark World outside of London. And today we've got our interview with the Odinson himself, Chris Hemsworth, from that visit -- though unfortunately we were not able to see much of what he was filming that day. It was one of the final battles of the film, from what we could tell, and as such apparently pretty spoilerific. Still, when Hemsworth joined the group of assembled journalists in a tent outside the field where the scene was being staged, he was bearing various wounds and battle damage. Looks like Thor is getting down with his hammer once again!

One note: At the time of this visit, the Marvel sequel was shrouded in secrecy, and as such the talent was somewhat constrained by what they could talk about. So don't blame Hemsworth if he occasionally seems evasive in this chat. Blame the embargo!

We'll be back soon with more from the set, including interviews with Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Christopher Eccleston (Malekith), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Kurse), director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones), and more…

Question: Where is Thor at this point when the movie starts?

Chris Hemsworth: Yeah, um… where is he? [laughs] I mean he, you know, basically it’s sort of, Avengers is kind of a side step amongst everything I think for all the journeys. And this is certainly a continuation of it, but at the same time Thor’s journey I think picks more so up from where we left the first one. About to take on the throne, about to earn him the right to [be] king. And now coming to the realization of what responsibility comes with that, and also [director] Alan [Taylor] keeps talking about the sort of dark side of that responsibility, and the secrets within, you know, being king. And obviously Tom [Hiddleston] is on set so it’s sort of this is continuing, which is great to have some meatier stuff with Tom. Certainly, The Avengers the stuff [I] got to sink my teeth into was those scenes and [to] follow up our relationship. And the on-going question from Thor about what is it that Loki wants, and why, and how did we come to this? And I think we get to kind of possibly attack some of those questions properly.

Q: Are we going to see as much comedy on this as the Avengers? Or has it got more of a serious edge?

CH: Ha, well, no -- because Downey’s not here. Takes care of that for us. Jane -- or Natalie -- and Kat Dennings certainly have some great humor. There’s a few nice kind of fish-out-of-water moments with Thor, but not quite as naïve and obvious as the first one. The Earth-bound stuff sort of really grounds the story in both films, and keeps a lightness to it that trickles to Asgard as well.

Q: On the first film, there was a lot of time on Asgard and a ton of time on Earth. How does it break down in the sequel in terms of where you guys are spending time?

CH: It’s certainly set in both worlds, pretty substantially. Like last time -- pretty similar I think. I think we see more of Asgard and more of the Nine Realms in this film than we did in Thor. And that Thor we were just on Asgard, whereas this is -- there’s a bigger universe out there which we get to explore.

Q: How is the experience different on this film working with Alan Taylor as director versus Kenneth Branagh on the first?

CH: Obviously [with] two different people you get two completely different styles. But also two very different stories, you know. Origin story versus this sort of … it’s moving now, and especially since Avengers. He certainly didn’t come in with a different angle or attitude on how Thor should be. We all sort of knew where it was headed … [to] take it to that next level. And Alan, you can even see with the set design [he] wants to ground it in a more organic tone. Game of Thrones obviously is set in a reality-based world but there’s fantasy elements which are quite prominent -- it’s similar to what we got going over here.

Q: What can you tell us about Thor’s relationship with his father and Lady Sif this time around?

CH: Not much... [laughs] The comic books, there’s obviously an attraction with Thor and Sif, or what have you. And there was a little peppering of that in the first one. Little hints at it. Um, there may be more indication. [laughs] Uh, politician.

The stuff with Odin’s interesting because … you’ve got to have the right amount of conflict in order for this to be interesting. The conflict between Thor and Odin was, I think, so great in the first one, and he didn’t want to repeat that, so certainly they disagree as I think they always will at times. But there’s a far greater respect from each other. So it becomes a more mature conversation, but there’s more at stake this time too. It’s not sort of just their individual egos; there’s the whole universe at stake.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com