Megastar Chris Hemsworth, Who Got His Start On A Soap, Defends The Genre

No stranger to soap operas, Chris Hemsworth has battled celluloid monsters, particularly as the god of thunder, Thor, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, he finds himself defending the genre that gave him his start in entertainment.

Actor Continues To Find New Sandboxes

World-famous actor Chris Hemsworth has played in many theatrical universes, including 2009’s Star Trek reboot, the horror flick Cabin in the Woods (2011), Snow White and the Huntsman (2011), and, of course, Marvel’s Mighty Thor in many MCU films. What fans may not know is that he got his start in Australian soap operas. 

In 2002 he appeared in Neighbours, a soap about the denizens of a Melbourne suburb called Erinsborough. But that was just one episode, and he would go on to make a name for himself in his homeland when he played Kim Hyde in the series Home and Away starting in 2004, which centered around the trials and tribulations of citizens living in Summer Bay, a seacoast town along the beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 

In a recent interview with The Times, Hemsworth was promoting a new sandbox he gets to play in: The Mad Max universe film Furiosa, in which he plays a warlord named Dementus, noting the character is, “Unhinged, damaged, complicated. Some people say, ‘He’s an evil bastard.’ Others think he has vulnerability.” The film is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which itself is a sequel to the original Mad Max.

Proud of His Soap Roots

During the conversation he talked about his career, and his soap origins came up. After expressing his displeasure at directing legends Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese for poo-pooing superhero films, he stated, “Those guys had films that didn’t work too — we all have. When they talked about what was wrong with superheroes, I thought, cool, tell that to the billions who watch them. Were they all wrong?”

He credited superhero films for saving movie theaters, and reflected on his own filmography. “Look, I grew up on a soap opera. And it used to bother me when actors would later talk about the show with guilt or shame,” he stated, adding, “Humility goes a long way. One of the older actors on Home and Away said, ‘We don’t get paid to make the good lines sound good, but to make the bad ones work.’ That stuck with me.”

Concerned about typecasting, he explained that Furiosa was the scary challenge he needed to change things up. But having come from soaps, Hemsworth knows full well the rigorous shooting schedule that those shows have, and we’re sure his career is not in any danger.