Chris Hemsworth, horseman? '12 Strong' stars rank the best equestrians in the cast
Chris Hemsworth spent a large part of his childhood living in the Australian Outback — his family moved back and forth between the city of Melbourne and the northern cattle station town of Bulman. So it’s fair to assume he knows his way around a horse. And that came in handy for his new film, 12 Strong, which details the true story of a small platoon of soldiers who unexpectedly found themselves taking on the Taliban astride Afghani warhorses as the U.S. first moved into the country in the weeks following 9/11.
But the actor otherwise known as Thor wasn’t necessarily the most skilled equestrian on set. “I had ridden a little bit, but my character [Capt. Mitch Nelson], the guy I was playing, had ridden a lot,” Hemsworth told Yahoo Entertainment at the film’s Los Angeles press day (watch above). “So I had to do a lot of prep.”
Hemsworth and costars Michael Peña (Ant-Man) and Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) unanimously agreed that the best rider was Austin Hébert, who recently played one of the offending cops in last summer’s police brutality drama, Detroit. “I don’t know if he did rodeos or something like that, but he was definitely the best,” Peña said. “He seemed the most natural.” Rhodes added a No. 2 (Austin Stowell) and a No. 3 (probably himself) into the mix as well, while Hemsworth and Peña labeled Kenny Sheard (a former Navy SEAL) the worst.
So you can probably take a wild guess who suffered the worst horse mishaps on set. “People fell, they definitely fell,” Peña said.” There [were] no major injuries.” Added Hemsworth, laughing: “That we’re allowed to talk about.”
12 Strong opens Friday.
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