Chris Hemsworth says showing his naked butt in the new Thor sequel was a ‘dream’ of his.
The Aussie actor made headlines earlier this year when the first trailer for the Marvel sequel showed the God of Thunder being stripped bare during a showdown with Zeus, played by Russell Crowe.
Hemsworth was speaking to Variety at the premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder ahead of its release in cinemas on July 7.
‘I had that out in Rush many years ago,’ he said, ‘but in a Marvel film, it was a very large screen and it’s a very big pair of cheeks.’
Asked if he had been doing lots of squats before filming the nude scene, Hemsworth admitted: ‘I did a lot of everything. It was ten years in the making that scene – it was a dream of mine. The first time I played Thor I took my shirt off and I thought, “You know what’s going to sweeten this, a decade from now it’s all going to come off” and here we are.’
Director Taika Waititi explained that it wouldn’t have been ‘fair’ to cover up Hemsworth’s godly physique: ‘We had talked about, “Yeah, we got to show off this body.” My whole thing was like, Chris works so hard, you’ve got to show it off. Don’t cover it up with all these suits and the cape and stuff, it’s not fair.’
Hemsworth also said it was ‘intimidating’ to see co-star Natalie Portman transform into the Mighty Thor for the first time, adding: ‘It was a little stab to the ego, but I quickly got over it and I was in awe of everything she had done.’