Chris Hemsworth tried to be a ‘bad boy’ like Colin Farrell

Chris Hemsworth tried and failed at mastering the persona of a celebrity “bad boy” like Colin Farrell when he first arrived in Hollywood, but “no one cared”.
The actor had risen to prominence on Australian soap opera Home and Away, but when he relocated to Los Angeles in 2007, he decided to reinvent his image to give himself an edge.
Hemsworth attempted to emulate the attitude of Irishman Farrell, who had famously struggled with addiction issues and had faced a legal battle to keep a sex tape he had filmed with his ex, Playboy model Nicole Narain, out of the public eye.
“I remember trying to be Colin Farrell,” he tells GQ magazine. “Thinking, ‘People love the bad boy.’ Going out and being sort of reckless. But no one cared.”
“There wasn’t the presence of paparazzi (as much as nowadays), nor the presence of social media, nor the immediacy of all these platforms,” he adds, although he insists the only bad behaviour he really engaged in was “being drunk” in public.
Hemsworth also adopted a similar mindset for his approach to acting, initially trying to model his career on that of New Zealand-born Russell Crowe.
“I came into Hollywood thinking I had to be Russell Crowe,” he recalls. “I loved his performances, and because of my physicality and my size, that was the obvious choice. I think I was aware that it could kind of get me in the door. But it wasn’t me.”
Hemsworth soon landed his big break as Marvel superhero Thor in the 2011 movie of the same name, which helped to turn him into a household name, and he has since been able to use his star power to try out different genres, testing his comedy skills in the Vacation and Ghostbusters movie remakes, and taking on a more dramatic role in Rush, a biopic about the 1970s rivalry between Formula One aces James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
And Chris, 35, admits his career trajectory has finally allowed him to relax a little after years of hard work.
“I really do feel a sense of ease for the first time in years,” he shares. “I don’t mean that as an assessment of my achievements. I just mean I’m content with what’s going on and relaxed and open about it.”