15 Highlights The Cast Shared during The ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Global Press Conference

On June 24 in Los Angeles, The cast fromTHOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, including Thor Himself, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, writer/director and the voice of Korg in the movie, Taika Waititi, and producer Kevin Feige, assembled in a Global Press Conference to discuss the film in front of us journalists. Therefore, I selected for you the following 15 most interesting highlights that you can’t miss from what the cast shared about the fourth Thor Movie, ‘Thor: God and Thunder’

Participants:
Chris Hemsworth ‘Thor’
Natalie Portman ‘Jane Foster / The Mighty Thor’
Tessa Thompson ‘King Valkyrie’
Christian Bale ‘Gorr the God Butcher’
Taika Waititi – Director / Writer/ ‘Korg’
Kevin Feige – Producer

1. What are the qualities in Thor that you relate to the most,
that have guided you over these years? Is there anything?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah, no, definitely, especially since Taika got
involved. He brought out the immature, young, adolescent
quality that I embody. And so does Thor now, which he
didn’t in the original films, which was exciting and new
and fresh. And that’s, you know, always the sort of North Star
is about having fun, you know. Embodying this space as a
child would and enjoying all of it and being caught up in
the wonder and the fascination of all of it. And not
getting bogged down in the serious sort of nature that we
can when making films, you know. Personally, with these
kind of films, it’s got to be fun, and that’s what we’ve
done. That’s what I’ve related to. That’s what Taika’s
kind of insisted upon, and it’s been fun.

2. Kevin, what do you think? What do you think is the
reason? 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 about Thor?

KEVIN FEIGE: I think they respond to Chris Hemsworth, and I
think they respond to 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 between the two of them on our
New Mexico set, where Chris was… I was like, “Is he trying
to be funny? Or is it…? No, he is being funny. He’s,
like, hilarious.” And beginning to… And I saw a clip of
Ultron the other day, where he’s trying to make Ruffalo
feel better about smashing a bunch of people, and it’s so
funny. And it’s so… it’s like this expert timing. And
Taika was like, “What are you guys doing with him just, you
know, holding a hammer up with lightning? Let’s do that
and tap into everything Chris can do.”So, I think the audience responds to that. And for
so long, we said, “Well, he’s a Norse god. How do we make
him relatable?” And spent so much time, I think, making
sure that the audience connected with him, that they are so
with him now that yes, we could go to a part four.

3. Is that what it was Taika, for you? You saw those
moments in the previous films? ‘Cause you’re absolutely
right. There are moments in the first Thor, in the Avengers. There’s lots of moments where you’ve got a one-liner that kind of crushes in an unexpected moment. Did
you see those and go, “Yeah, that’s it. That’s what this
character should be.”

TAIKA WAITITI: Yeah, I mean, Chris… When you meet Chris, he’s
very hard to figure out how to make him relatable. And
that was the big challenge, you know, he’s… [LAUGH] Chris
is like… You know, I’ve become friends with Chris, and I
think just his personality and his energy and who he is, is
the kind of person that I’d want to be on an adventure
with. And yeah, someone who, yeah, you can trust will be
there, you know, to kind of look after you. Like a real-
life hero. And so yeah, I just wanted to tap into those
qualities that he’s got and sort of make Thor more Chris,
really.

4. Natalie, you’re back in this installment. Doctor Jane Foster is back. Also,
the mighty Thor. I know that when you are putting together
these costumes, it goes through multiple iterations and
there’s fittings. There’s, you know, test pieces and
whatever. But do you remember the moment when you put on a
version of the suit and thought, like, “Oh, yeah. That’s
it. I’m Thor.”

NATALIE PORTMAN: Yeah, it was pretty wild, of course. After seeing Chris wear the costume for so many years, and then to try, you know, the version on myself with [INAUDIBLE] and getting fitted for all the, you know, arm cuffs and the boots and everything was pretty surreal for the first time.

5. I understand that you did some, like,
weightlifting to put on some muscle in this. Did that
change the way that you felt out in the world when you
weren’t shooting? Did it connect you more to, like, the
power of Thor?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Some weightlifting? Natalie lead the charge …in the gym. This was when…We all went to the gym… and tried to keep up with her, yeah.

NATALIE PORTMAN: That’s very sweet, but I was especially grateful
to everyone’s imagination to cast a five-three actress in a
six-foot role. I think that takes a real leap of
possibility in your mind and probably not something I will,
you know, get the opportunity to do, to be imagined as, by
any other group. So, it was a great challenge and got to… You
know, Tessa and Chris obviously had a lot of experience in
that world, so got to learn a lot from them.

6. Natalie, how has your vision of what a superhero is changed at all over the
course of the years?

NATALIE PORTMAN: Yes. I feel like getting this opportunity, first
of all with such an incredible way to explore a female
superhero that could be quite vulnerable and weak and find
strength in that, and be more like a human I could relate
to personally. And then also I think it just gave me renewed respect for what Chris has been doing for over a decade, Tessa’s been doing, because I see how much work
goes into it that I don’t think I was aware of when I was
just like the chick in the first one …I didn’t see everything that went on behind the
scenes that, you know, now when I got inside into like all
of the choreography and the training and everything, I
would like, wow this is a triple job of what I was doing
back then.

CHRISTIAN BALE: Just in light of where I am today, Supreme
Court and everything…What’s a true superhero? We all have a
superhero parent that is voting. Right? And that’s
incredibly important.

7. Kevin, I know you can’t really answer this
question, but I’m gonna ask it anyway. Briefly describe
what you think… We’ve talked Chris’ perspective on Thor
changing over the course of the years, so same question to
you. But then where does Thor go in the future? What can
we envision Thor doing past Love and Thunder?

KEVIN FEIGE: Well, there are these things called comic books…And that’s where all of our stories come from. And is the question, “Have you told all the great Thor stories
from the comics and movies?” The answer in no. There are
lots of them. And 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 and being able to see… I think
of all of our cast, not as their individual characters, but
as the Marvel players who within that character can grow
and evolve and change. And if we look at the comics as our
guide, there are plenty of other incarnations of Thor that
we’ve yet to see.

8. Breaking down a day on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: It’s different? A beautiful, mad chaos? It’s a journey of self-discovery and exploration and fun and wackiness. There’s music playing, and Taika’s standing behind the camera, giggling and ruining most of the takes. It’s free form; there’s a lot of improvisation but just an unrivaled passion. There was an enthusiasm that was infectious among everybody. Taika loves it. He loves the stories, these characters, and he’s sitting there as a fan would telling you what he’d want to see and what a family would want to see. He’d be like, ‘Hey, try this.’ No matter how ridiculous it is, everyone’s on board. This is why you get this spontaneity and unpredictable nature in any of Taika’s films.

CHRISTIAN BALE: I’ve worked with a lot of directors who enjoy improvisation and whatnot. You do the script first, and then you see what else you can do beyond that. What I liked a lot is that emotion comes through the years, and he plays music on the set non-stop, which was fantastic. I’d arrive, and he’d be playing like Tubular Bells quite often. That was one of your favorites. There was a nice bit of Kate Bush, so thank you very much for that favorite, but I discovered Bruce Haack, who made his own synthesizers and had a very Gorr-like sensibility. He was a dude from the 70s. He would chuck that on as well, and it was very helpful, very funny, like comedy and tragedy hand in hand.

9. Christian Bale on rumors his character had a dance sequence cut from the final film

CHRISTIAN BALE: It was not cut. It was planned, talked about, perhaps only whispered between Taika and myself. Would we ever find half a day to be able to do a Gorr Dance? We’re both Kate Bush admirers and wondered just how bizarre (it could be). We didn’t actually do it. It stayed in our heads. I think we realized that this would probably never end up in the film.

TAIKA WAITITI: It was probably something we do on a weekend.

10. Chris, how do you think Gorr stacks up as a
villain to Thor?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: He’s my favorite villain in the Marvels Cinematic
Universe, and I love everyone I’ve worked with, but this
was particularly special. And lot to do with what
Christian said before, there’s this empathic quality there,
there’s a vulnerability. You kind of find yourself going,
oh what’s he’s doing is wrong, but I get the sort of
demotivation behind it. And every time you work with
someone different, different characters that bring
different things out of you, and that was the case here.
And yeah, he did an incredible job.

11. “We’ve seen in clips that Thor’s keen to regain Mjolnir.
So what did you enjoy most about exploring the God of
Thunder’s complicated relationship with his two hammers?”

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: That was kinda one of the funnest things [LAUGH] we
got to do in the film. Yeah. I kinda can’t sort of talk about it too
much. But it… I don’t know can we talk about it Kevin?

KEVIN FEIGE: Yes.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yes, we can. Yeah, look it’s hard to see, you
know, the ex-girlfriend turns up dressed as him, that’s a
shock. And all the sudden the weapon that he held so dear,
and so on, for so many years now belongs to someone else.
And then he has Stormbreaker who starts to sense a little
jealously there. You know? So that kind of evolved
through the film didn’t it. I don’t think it was in the
original script, but it was fun.

TAIKA WAITITI: Yeah. And Stormbreaker, I don’t know if this is
the way anyone else thought about it, but you gotta
remember Stormbreaker’s made of Groot’s arm. Well, you
know, the handle is.

12. Is it still the same feeling playing Thor as it was when you
first started?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah, there’s obviously a familiarity, the obvious
points, but he has changed so dramatically over the years
as I have. And that’s what’s been kind of fun is as the
character’s evolved and I’ve had different opinions, I’ve
sort of melded and crossed paths and so on. You know, the
origin story is, I think not the easiest but it’s the most
obvious one. And there’s a sort of set of rules and
guidelines I feel like you have to sort of stick to and it
works, and 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? And
that’s been the luxury is working with different directors
and different cast, and they all bring out something very
different in you. As Taika said, I feel like the
character’s probably become more me over the years in, I
hope, a fun way. [LAUGH]

13. Back in 2019 Marvel made big news by having Natalie come out on stage at San Diego Comic-Con wielding Thor’s hammer. Can we expect more big news from Marvel coming out of San Diego Comic-Con next month?

KEVIN FEIGE: Yes you can. Yeah, we’ll be at Comic-Con…next month, which we’re excited about. First time since we were on stage there three years ago talking about
this movie and many others. And now I think almost… not
everything, but almost everything we discussed three years
ago has now been released. So yes, we’re excited to go and
talk about the future.

14. Over the course of your career you’ve given
your body quite the rollercoaster ride in terms of look and
shape. How does Gorr fit into that spectrum? When you
first saw yourself with all the makeup effect, what was
your initial reaction to the appearance?

CHRISTIAN BALE: Loved it, you know, 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, you know, we talked about it
during quarantine and, you know, in an abstract way. But
then put it on, and it worked out all right. This was a pious man with tattoos and he’s cut
those off, and so would have all those scars. And that’s
when you really get to start playing with it and experiment
as you film. You know, you discover it as you go.

15. Do you guys have any final thoughts that you wanna impart into the audience
about the film coming out next month and the journey that
it’s been?

TAIKA WAITITI: It’s been a long journey and, like, we work really,
really hard on these films to make something that audiences
will love. And you know, after a couple of years of being,
you know, stuck at home, or you know, like having to go
through a lot of hardships, I think it’s really nice to be
able to celebrate things like love and thunder, whatever
that means in your life. But also, just you know, being able to go back to
the movies and be able to just, you know, to laugh and feel
like a kid again.

Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, Australia welcomed stars and specials guests to a special event screening of Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Chris Hemsworth (Thor/Executive Producer), Taika Waititi (Director/Written by/Korg) and special guests Luke Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky greeted fans as they walked the red carpet. The highly awaited fourth installment of the “Thor” franchise was filmed primarily at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, with location filming done in and around Sydney on the southeast coast of the continent. 

“Thor: Love and Thunder” opens in theaters in the U.S. on July 8, 2022. 

In Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the God of Thunder embarks on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced — one of self-discovery. But his efforts are interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher, who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who — to Thor’s surprise — inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they venture out on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Chris Hemsworth (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Extraction”) returns to the title role of Thor, God of Thunder, joined by Oscar® winner Natalie Portman (“Black Swan,” “Jackie”) as Jane Foster/the Mighty Thor; Oscar® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter,” “The Dark Knight”) as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher; Tessa Thompson (“Creed,” “Selma”) as Valkyrie/King of New Asgard; Oscar® winner Russell Crowe (“Gladiator,” “The Insider”) as Zeus, king of the gods; Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) as Korg; and featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy — Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, and Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thorofficial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thorofficial

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thor/

Hashtag: #thorloveandthunder