Chris Hemsworth on Strength, Speed, and Life After 'Thor'
TURNING 37 is a milestone that goes pretty much unacknowledged, but it’s a big one. It’s the median age for men in America, and it happens to be the very same age Chris Hemsworth will turn next year. It’s a time for assessment-a convenient weigh station-coinciding with the point at which the optimism and vigor of your 20s starts evolving into confidence and grit. At 37, you’ve encountered successes and failures, and those experiences have begun shaping your values and your future. Hemsworth, in this way at least, is just like any other man his age looking up at 40. He dabbled in minor roles for ten years-the great-looking boyfriend/hitchhiker/thief in movies you’ve never heard of-until he bulked up in 2011 and slipped into a leather tank top for Marvel. With Thor, he showed us a fitter and funnier action hero-one who, like the other three members of the Chris-umvirate (see also: Evans, Pine, and Pratt), can laugh at himself even as he’s battling a mad titan. MH interviewed Hemsworth near his home in Byron Bay, Australia, about his most challenging roles; his new app, Centr ($20 per month; centr.com, App Store), which has video workouts, meal plans, meditation techniques, and more from an all-star team of experts; and whether he’ll still be kicking ass at 50.
How would you say you’ve grown in the past decade?
Being more comfortable in my skin. I’ve stopped trying to go, “Who do I have to be? What personality do I have to shape in order to succeed?” And just going,“Truly be yourself.” And that’s when things started to change; that’s when I felt happier. I got a better response; my work got better. It’s an interesting one, to have people who inspire you, your hero-if you try to mimic that, it’s just not true to yourself. You can allow them to be an inspiration on step one, I guess. But the real work is, who am I?
You had a period in Hollywood after 2009’s Star Trek when the phone didn’t ring. How did you manage that?
I was about to quit. I always wanted to act, and one of the first things I wanted to do when I got any money was pay my parents’ house off. I’d asked Dad once when he thought he’d pay it off and he said, “Honestly, probably never.” Most people are in that boat and I wanted to change that. So I was super active with auditions. Then in that eight-month period, I got more and more anxious, to the point where I couldn’t harness that energy. I was trying to convince myself I wasn’t nervous before auditions rather than grabbing hold of it and going, [deep intake of breath] “Use it, raise up your awareness here, sharpen your focus.”And then my mentality changed, which came from being at a point where I was like, “I’m going to go back to Australia.”
I had one more audition where I was like, “Do this for his house. Think about reasons other than yourself.” That was for The Cabin in the Woods, and I got that job, and from there I got Red Dawn. And then I got Thor.
So taking the focus off yourself was one of the keys to opening things up?
Someone said to take a bat-and-ball approach to auditions. So there’s your audition, then boom, on to the next one.You can’t be thinking about that last one.That’s where the fear comes when you’re like, [raises pitch of voice] “Oh God, everything’s relying on this one single moment.” Which nothing is. No single moment ever defines your journey. There are so many complicated pieces of the puzzle. I’ve found it comforting letting go a bit.
I think that’s something most guys would relate to . . .
Yeah. I still need reminding of it. My wife will probably read this and go, “Hang on, that wasn’t you yesterday.” [Laughs] And that was kind of the genesis of this whole Centr app-things I learned along the way from meeting people who are leading experts in their fields, in mindfulness, nutrition, and training. For me to do a great job and not to implode from the anxiety, I’ve got to find that center. So I thought about it and I talked to my wife about it and I was like, “We could put together a team in about five minutes.”
It ended up being a two-year journey! I’m always getting asked, “What’s the secret formula?” There’s no single answer, but it’s about staying open to advice and learning and constantly growing.
Would you say that encapsulates the Centr app?
Yeah, absolutely. The whole thing was about not becoming stagnant. That’s when your emotional and physical problems occur, I think. I wanted to create some-thing that embodied the three main elements of healthy living-the movement, the nutrition, and the mindfulness-and present it in a way that’s entertaining, functional, and also accessible.
Most guys struggle to find the time to train. How does Centr help with that?
Well, calculate how many minutes of the day you spend scrolling on your phone at useless feeds. Hours, right? So you can’t find 20 minutes a day? If you can’t find that 20 minutes, you have no one to blame but yourself.
The window for action heroes is stretch-ing to 50-plus, with Jason Statham and the Rock looking better than ever. Is that something you hope to emulate?
On certain days where I’ve had a few injuries, especially during Thor, I’m like,“This is starting to become a drag.” Then really over the last year or so, I changed up a lot of my training and nutrition program and it’s the best I’ve ever felt. It’s about whether the story interests me, to be totally honest. I grew up watching the Tom Cruise model of films that are fun, entertaining, and then squeezing in a few themes that speak to different parts of yourself, your personality, or your soul.
Do you feel pressure to maintain the body that made you famous?
It comes hand in hand with the roles I play, but look, occasionally you’ll see paparazzi poking out of the bushes and you’re like, “How’s my rig look? Am I on point, or have I slacked off lately?” [Laughs] Also, I maintain my fitness because it makes me feel better.
Is there anything you miss about your 20s in terms of your physical ability?
I used to be able to get up and sprint, and I’ve found that after lifting weights for such a long time and not getting in touch with your fast-twitch fibers, there’s such a snappiness that your body had back then. There’s ways around that: training differently, reminding your body to do those things. The dads’ race at my kids’ school last year: I hadn’t sprinted in about five years, and then boom, you go and do a hundred-meter sprint at full pelt and my back was cranked for weeks. I guess this is part of me avoiding this question because I don’t want to admit that there are things in my 20s that I can’t do now. [Laughs] I’m careful not to plant that in my psyche that I’m getting older and falling apart.
What was the most important lesson your dad passed on to you?
Dad worked in child protection. That alone is a selfless line of work and says so much about someone’s character. He always had a strong sense of right and wrong and standing up for the most vulnerable among us, being children. As kids, we were always hugely athletic, so we were always outdoors doing things, taking a football out and riding motorbikes and surfing together and playing water polo. Something I’m very aware of is wanting to have kids young and just being able to be athletic and being able to keep up with them.
Before you go, let's do a rapid-fire question round.
Favorite exercise and why? Bear crawls on a Tabata protocol. Total body, low impact.
Least favorite exercise and why? Steady-state cardio. Mind-numbingly boring.
Workout anthem? Mellower music. The Teskey Brothers-they're my favorite band of all time.
Cheat meal? Pizza-ham and pineapple.
Last book you recommended? Charles Bukowski's poetry, which is pretty heavy and dark.
Hero(es)? Growing up, Kelly Slater. He's a mate of mine now, so he can't be my hero. It's just creepy.
Motto? Do stuff, be nice, have fun. My mum and a whole bunch of mates have it tattooed. Pretty good, isn't it?
This article appears in the March '19 issue of Men's Health.
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