Actors Chris Hemsworth,
left, and Daniel Bruhl, right, attend a screening of "Rush" in New
York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP) Source: AP
James Wigney, The Daily
Telegraph, reports
It makes for a pretty
awkward picture: one of Hollywood's most respected directors and one of its
hottest rising stars fumbling around like amateurs. The reason? Sex - and
plenty of it. The star in question is Aussie Chris Hemsworth, who stars as race
ace and notorious pants man James Hunt in Ron Howard's acclaimed new Formula
One biopic, Rush.
The hard-living,
larger-than-life Hunt, who died of a heart attack in 1993 aged 45, reportedly
bedded more than 5000 women, so any accurate portrait of his life needed to
reflect his feats between the sheets as much as his prowess on the track.
Trouble was, neither Hemsworth, nor veteran Howard - despite more than 35 years
of movie-making - had done anything quite like it before."
I remember Ron saying to
me that he had never shot a sex scene like this before so he was going to let
me guide him through it," says Hemsworth with a rueful laugh. "I had
to tell him that I had never done something like this on a set either. So we
were both there with our head in our hands going 'OK - how do we do this?'
"They are more
intimidating than the driving scenes - there are 100 people around and cameras
and lights and you have to get your kit off and act natural. So you have to
choreograph them like anything else - it's incredibly unromantic but it's the only
way to approach it.
"That Hemsworth was
willing to bare his behind (he draws the line at going full frontal) and bed a
bevy of beauties is testament to just how much he wanted the role. After
blazing on to the world stage playing the caped, hammer-throwing Norse god Thor
in the 2011 comic book movie adaptation of the same name, and cementing his
position as the burly hunter in Snow White and the Huntsman, Hemsworth was
searching for acting challenges beyond effects-driven action blockbusters.
Although Rush is set in
the F1 world and features high-octane, authentically recreated racing scenes,
it is at its heart a study of the rivalry between two contrasting drivers:
Hemsworth's instinctive playboy Hunt and the clinical, methodical Niki Lauda,
played by German actor Daniel Bruhl.
Although impressed by
the charm Hemsworth had shown in Thor, Howard freely admits he had his doubts
as to whether the towering, impossibly good looking surfer boy had the
necessary range to capture the darker, more tortured aspects of the Hunt
psyche. He was won over by Hemsworth's self-made audition tape, so much so that
the pair will reteam next year in the period piece called In the Heart Of the
Sea.
Unlike Bruhl, who was
able to spend time with Lauda, Hemsworth had to rely on old footage,
biographies and those who knew Hunt to find out what made the British driver
tick. Beyond "the playboy, the rock star and the charismatic rebel"
Hemsworth found vulnerability, insecurity and frustration, all of which fuelled
Hunt's gargantuan appetite for booze, drugs and women.
"Talking to or
reading about people who engaged in any sort of high-risk, adrenalin-driven
activities, you become addicted to that level of adrenalin and the immediacy
that sort of fear gives you," he says. "It forces you to smash into
the present and they then chase that in other outlets in life. How do I find
that elsewhere? The party, the drugs, the women, what else? They burn the
candle at both ends and that's when you get the flip side to that.
"Hemsworth, by
contrast, had a well-adjusted, outdoorsy upbringing riding motorbikes in
Melbourne, dodging crocs and buffaloes in a remote Outback community, surfing
at Phillip Island. The 30-year-old middle child has a fiercely competitive
streak born of scrapping with older brother Luke, 32, who led the charge into
acting, and 23-year-old Liam, of Hunger Games fame and, until recently, Miley
Cyrus's other half.
Proud of and grateful
for his close-knit family, Chris says the best advice he ever got from his
parents, English teacher Leonie and social worker Craig, was: "Just have
fun".
"That's what this
character's motto was," Hemsworth says of Hunt. "At the end of the
film the message is that no matter how many medals or cups you have, if you are
not having fun then what's the point?"
Hemsworth admits he took
that advice to heart when he first achieved local stardom thanks to his
three-year stint on long-running soapie Home & Away. Young, single and
living in Sydney he made the most of his fame - but also saw its limitations,
dark side and cautionary tales.
"You have all these
extremes and highs and parties and all the temptations and part of you gets
swept up saying 'isn't this fun?' But at times it can be kind of lonely as
well. There are plenty of tales of people who went further into it than I did.
"Hemsworth moved to
Los Angeles and after initially making a splash as Captain Kirk's father in JJ
Abrams' Star Trek reboot, he endured a long, lean spell and was on the brink of
giving up before landing Thor. The movie was a hit, making more than $450
million. He reprised the role in last year's ensemble superhero movie The
Avengers, which took more than $1.6 billion, and he will don the red cape again
later this month in the sequel The Dark World.
He was a star all over
again - and on a much bigger stage - but this time he says he was ready for it.
Not only was he determined to make the most of the opportunities finally coming
his way, he had also met his now wife, Spanish model and actor Elsa Pataky in
2010. They married less than a year later and their daughter, India, was born
in May last year.
"I met my wife and
there was no question in my mind that I wasn't going to find anything better
out there," Hemsworth says. "We had something very special and that
solved that dilemma for me. But I could certainly see how it could go in other
directions if you didn't have that solid base or foundation to keep you
anchored."
Hemsworth says
fatherhood and his family have helped keep him in check during the wild ride of
his past few years, particularly Liam who achieved stardom around the same time
when Hunger Games became a huge hit early last year.
"The two of us
started going through this at the same time and if there is someone who has had
a similar experience - especially if it's your brother - then that's a real
bonus," he says.
"You can also call
each other's bluff a bit. If one starts to drift off in the wrong direction
then you don't need to say 'I don't know what you are talking about' because I
understand that as well. We have both been through it. There is a way of
staying grounded - it's all about your friends and family and we have been
lucky to have had that."
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