From Marvel Studios and director Taika Waititi, the latest MCU installment Thor: Love and Thunder finds the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) in unfamiliar territory, on a personal journey of self-discovery. The film is about life, love and family, wrapped in a bow of rock and roll mayhem and with a couple of screaming goats along for the ride, and explores the lengths that we’ll go to, in order to protect what we have and seek revenge for what we’ve lost.
During this conference to promote the fourth Thor film, co-stars Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Christian Bale, along withWaititi and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, talked about why Thor has been able to have four solo films now, the qualities they relate to with their characters, the music choices, improvising on set, the atmosphere Waititi creates, how Gorr the God Butcher stacks up against other villains in the MCU, the complicated relationship between Thor and his Mjölnir, balancing the drama and comedy, and how far ahead Marvel likes to plan upcoming projects.
Question: Kevin, why do you think Thor is the only character to have four solo films in his journey now? What do you think it is that audiences really respond to, with that character?
KEVIN FEIGE: I think they respond to Chris Hemsworth and everything that he can do. And Taika certainly brought another dimension that was always there within Chris. There were moments, even going back to EPK interviews on our New Mexico set. I saw a clip of Ultron the other day, where he’s trying to make [Mark] Ruffalo feel better about smashing a bunch of people, and it’s so funny. It’s expert timing. Taika was like, “What are you guys doing with him, just holding a hammer up with lightning? Let’s do that, and tap into everything Chris can do.” I think the audience responds to that. For so long, we said, “Well, he’s a Norse god. How do we make him relatable?” We spent so much time, making sure that the audience connected with him, that they are so with him now that we could go to a part four.
Chris, what are the qualities in Thor that you relate to the most and that have guided you, over the years?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Especially since Taika [Waititi] got involved, he brought out the immature, young, adolescent quality that I embody, so now Thor does. That wasn’t in the original films, and it was exciting and new and fresh. That’s always the North Star. It’s about having fun embodying this space as a child would and enjoying all of it, being caught up in the wonder and the fascination of all of it, and not getting bogged down in the serious nature that we can when making films. Personally, with these kinds of films, it’s gotta be fun, and that’s what we’ve done. That’s what I’ve related to. That’s what Taika’s insisted upon, and it’s been fun.
Taika, what made you see what this character could be?
TAIKA WAITITI: When you meet Chris, it’s very hard to figure out how to make him relatable. That was the big challenge. I’ve become friends with Chris, and his personality and his energy and who he is, he’s the kind of person that I’d want to be on an adventure with. He’s someone who you can trust will be there to look after you, like a real-life hero. I just wanted to tap into those qualities and make Thor more Chris, really. He’s not acting.
HEMSWORTH: It’s a documentary, actually.
Natalie, Doctor Jane Foster is back for this installment, as Mighty Thor. Do you remember the moment when you put on the suit and felt like Thor?
NATALIE PORTMAN: Yeah, it was pretty wild, of course. After seeing Chris wear the costume for so many years, and then to try the version on myself, and getting fitted for all the arm cuffs and boots and everything, was pretty surreal, for the first time.
Did you do some weightlifting to put on muscle for the film?
HEMSWORTH: Some weightlifting? Natalie lead the charge in the gym. We all went to the gym, but she was there first, every morning. We just tried to keep up with her.
PORTMAN: That’s very sweet, but I was especially grateful to everyone’s imagination to cast a five-foot-three actress in a six-foot role. I think that takes a real leap of possibility in your mind, and is probably not something I will get the opportunity to do or be imagined as, by any other group. It was a great challenge. Tessa [Thompson] and Chris obviously had a lot of experience in that world, so I got to learn a lot from them.
Christian, what was your take when you saw the art and what they wanted Gorr to look like, and then to do your part of that transformation, physically and emotionally?
BALE: After hearing you talk about what everyone was looking for in Chris, I think they were looking for the polar opposite for Gorr. He’s someone not relatable, a bit of a loner, creepy, someone no one wants to be around, and nobody wants to see his ass. I think they went, “Yeah, we found it in Bale.” There’s great pleasure in playing a villain. It’s a lot easier to play a villain than it is to play a hero. Chris has a much tougher job. Everyone is fascinated with bad guys, immediately. And then, the beauty of it is that Taika can make it bloody hilarious and really moving. I don’t know if it’s pushing it too much to say there’s sympathy, but certainly you understand maybe why this guy is making awful decisions. He’s a monster and a butcher, but there’s the possibility of a little understanding of why he came to be that way.
Tessa, what’s it been like to take this wild journey with Valkyrie?
TESSA THOMPSON: It’s been really fun. The thing that I’ve really enjoyed about these films, and certainly I think something that Stan Lee talked a lot about, whether it’s a villain or a hero, the thing sometimes that connect them to their power, whether it’s used for good or bad, is actually their trauma. When we first met Valkyrie, she had a tremendous amount of it, and she was dealing with that by drinking a lot. Taika and I talked a lot about upending what a female superhero looks like. You have this moment where she comes out, and you think it’s gonna be that badass thing, and then she immediately falls over. It was really fun to try to inhabit the spirit and the physicality that it takes to be a hero, which is its own skill. Chris is so tremendous at it, and it’s not an easy thing to do. That also allows her to be fun and goofy. It’s just been really nice. We also talked about the idea of someone that has a job that they really love, but they’re disgruntled. She was a professional soldier for thousands of years, and now finds herself stuck in bureaucracy. She’s really missing being on the battlefield and missing her sisters. It’s been great fun to get to have that again, with Natalie in particular, as Mighty Thor.
Taika, how did you decide on some of the more inspired music choices?
WAITITI: We just wanted to spend as much money as we possibly could on some songs. That’s always been a dream of mine. The whole aesthetic around the film, we always wanted it to be this bombastic, loud, colorful palette, which reflected spray-painted panel vans in the eighties and rock album covers. Even the title treatment for the film is the kind of thing I would’ve drawn on my school book in class when I wasn’t listening. I remember spending months and months perfecting the Metallica logo at school. Guns N’ Roses was one of my all-time favorite bands. To be able to use that stuff to reflect the crazy adventure that we’re presenting visually was another one of my dreams that came true.
Chris, what is it like to have Taika Waititi as your director? What’s a day on set with him like?
HEMSWORTH: It’s different. It’s chaotic. It’s beautiful. It’s mad chaos.
WAITITI: I feel uncomfortable.
HEMSWORTH: It’s a journey of self-discovery and exploration and fun and wackiness. There’s music playing, and he’s standing behind the camera giggling and ruining most of the takes.
WAITITI: That sounds horrible.
HEMSWORTH: No, it’s the best. It’s a freeform with a lot of improvisation, and a passion that’s unrivaled. There was an enthusiasm that is infectious among everybody, and he loves it. He loves these stories. He loves these characters. He’s a fan telling you what he’d wanna see. He’ll say, “Try this,” no matter how ridiculous it is, and everyone’s on board for it. That’s why you get this spontaneity and unpredictable nature in any of Taika’s films.
Christian, did you get a chance to improvise?
BALE: I’ve worked with a lot of directors who enjoy improvisation. You do the script first, and then you see what else you can do beyond that. But he does play music on the set, and that was fantastic.
Natalie, how has your vision of what a superhero is changed, over the years?
PORTMAN: I feel like getting this opportunity, with such an incredible way to explore a female superhero that could be quite vulnerable and weak, find strength in that, and be more like a human, I could relate to personally. And then, it just gave me renewed respect for what Chris has been doing for over a decade, and what Tessa’s been doing. I see how much work goes into it, that I don’t think I was aware of when I was just the chick in the first one. I didn’t see everything that went on behind the scenes. Now, I get the choreography and the training, and everything. I’m like, “Wow, this is triple the job of what I was doing back then.”
Chris, how do you think Gorr stacks up as a villain to Thor?
HEMSWORTH: He’s my favorite villain in the Marvels Cinematic Universe. I love everyone I’ve worked with, but this was particularly special, and lot to do with what that empathic quality and vulnerability. You find yourself going, “What he’s doing is wrong, but I get the motivation behind it.” Every time you work with someone different, different characters bring different things out of you, and that was the case here. He did an incredible job.
Taika, how was production in the volume studio, and what was it like to adapt to that?
WAITITI: The volume is a big circular wall of LED screens. Imagine a big, long TV that’s circular, and you basically put the environments on the screen. So, instead of a green screen, it’s like the old film making of the ‘20s and ‘30s with rear projection. Most of it is in camera and the actors can see the environment. Also, the environment lights the scene, so you’ve got reflections. We used it on The Mandalorian. That hero is basically wearing a big mirror ball, and you can see all the reflections of the environments on it. It’s just a different way of working. You have to plan ahead. You have less people in the volume when you’re working.
Chris, what do you think of working like that?
HEMSWORTH: It was cool. It’s like you’re interacting with the environment. So much of what we’ve done in these films has been green screen and blue screen. You don’t even know what the monster is, or whatever it is you’re looking at, until you see the film. What I also thought was cool was the skin coloring and skin tones changed due to the sunset you’re looking at, or whatever is in that environment. It’s a lot more immersive.
Thor is keen to regain the Mjölnir. What did you enjoy most about exploring the God of Thunder’s complicated relationship with his two hammers?
HEMSWORTH: That was one of the most fun things we got to do in the film. I can’t talk about it too much, but it’s hard to see the ex-girlfriend turn up dressed as him. That’s a shock. And then, all a sudden, the weapon that he held so dear, for so many years, now belongs to someone else. And then, he has Stormbreaker, who starts to sense a little jealously there. That evolved through the film. I don’t think it was in the original script, but it was fun.
WAITITI: I don’t know if this is the way anyone else thought about it, but you’ve gotta remember that Stormbreaker is made out of Groot’s arm, or the handle is. Groot was a teenager when he did that. So, we felt like Stormbreaker was young and had only just been born, about five or six years ago. It had to feel a little bit like an adolescent that was going through changes and having mood swings.
Natalie, how would you describe the difference between your Thor and Chris’ Thor?
PORTMAN: Completely different. He’s obviously very assured and experienced in being a superhero, and she’s just trying to figure it out. She’s new at it and keeps reverting to human form, so there’s always the danger that it might be her last moment getting to experience that.
Along with being a fun, cosmic, Viking thrill ride, there’s a lot of loss and tragedy that these characters are dealing with. What was it like to find the balance between comedy and tragedy?
THOMPSON: I think that’s what’s so fun about these movies. This one, in particular, is holding that space between the ridiculousness and the fun and pathos. That’s something that Taika has always done really, really well in his films, and in this one especially, I feel like he really was excited to lean in to the emotion in a way that felt really rich for us and really different than what we’ve seen, particularly with the themes of love and relationships in this one. It just felt really exciting.
Christian, how did the prosthetics and makeup for Gorr the God Butcher come together?
BALE: With three absolutely brilliant special effects makeup people, we did it every morning. It started at four hours and then got cut down to three and a half hours. They are absolutely as responsible for the form of Sir Gorr as I am.
Chris, do you still have the same feeling playing Thor, that you had when you first started?
HEMSWORTH: Yeah, there’s a familiarity with the obvious points, but he has changed so dramatically, over the years, as I have. What’s been fun is that, as the character has evolved, and I’ve had different opinions, we’ve melded and crossed paths. The origin story is not the easiest, but it’s the most obvious one. There’s a set of rules and guidelines that you have to stick to, and it works. It’s familiar and relatable for people. After that, the challenge is, how do you recreate the character? What can you do different each time? The luxury is working with different directors and different cast members. They all bring out something very different in you. The character has probably become more me, over the years, in a fun way.
Christian, over the course of your career, you’ve given your body quite the roller coaster ride, in terms of look and shape. How does Gorr fit into that spectrum? When you first saw yourself with all the makeup, what was your initial reaction to the appearance?
BALE: I loved it. Because you don’t really know exactly what you’re doing with a character like that until you see it completely, it’s in your imagination, and we didn’t have that long. We talked about it during quarantine, in an abstract way. But then, you put it on, and it worked out all right. This was a pious man with tattoos, and he’s cut those off, so he has all those scars. That’s when you really get to start playing with it and experimenting, as you film. You discover it as you go.
Taika, how long did it take to find the sound of the goats?
WAITITI: The goats came from a song. Those screams are in a dance song, and EDM song. We were listening to it and thought, “Oh, let’s just put those in.”
HEMSWORTH: I’ve been telling people it was you. I’ve heard that scream.
WAITITI: That scream? You’ve heard me scream like that.
HEMSWORTH: Yeah.
Thor: Love and Thunder strikes a balance between a drama and comedy. How do you find that balance?
WAITITI: A lot of it is found in post. On set, we try to do as much as possible, but it’s just harvesting moments, and then taking it back to the kitchen and trying to figure out what the actual dish is. We’ve got a plan for making a certain dish, but it could be very different, by the time we’ve finished cooking it. A lot of times, testing the film and seeing what audiences respond to, you realize that you’ve gotta get rid of jokes or moments. It’s just a balancing act. That’s why it takes a year to finish these films.
Taika, what do you hope audiences take from seeing this film?
WAITITI: It’s been a long journey, and we work really, really hard on these films to make something that audiences will love. After a couple of years of being stuck at home and having to go through a lot of hardships, it’s really nice to be able to celebrate things like love and thunder, whatever that means in your life. Also, it’s being able to go back to the movies and laugh and feel like a kid again.
Kevin, where does Thor go in the future? What can we envision Thor doing, past Love and Thunder?
FEIGE: There are these things called comic books, and they have a lot of stories in them. That’s where all of our stories come from. If the question is, “Have you told all the great Thor stories from the comics and movies?” The answer in no. There are lots of them. I’ve always said our interest in making additional stories is somewhat about continuing the character. It’s almost entirely about continuing the experience with the actor, not as their individual characters, but as the Marvel players who, within that character, can grow and evolve and change. If we look at the comics as our guide, there are plenty of other incarnations of Thor that we’ve yet to see.
After Marvel made the big announcement about Natalie at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, can we expect more big news this time around?
FEIGE: Yes, you can. We’ll be at Comic-Con [in July], which we’re excited about. It will be the first time since we were on stage there three years ago, talking about this movie and many others. Not everything, but almost everything we discussed then has now been released. So, we’re excited to go and talk about the future.
How far out are you planning now?
FEIGE: We always look 5 to10 years ahead, with the changes and twists and turns, but that’s usually as far out as we go. And then, we start to build it.
Thor: Love and Thunder is in theaters on July 8th.