Chris Hemsworth has had a major career in Hollywood dating back to 2009 when he played Captain Kirk’s father in the Star Trek reboot. Two years later, he was cast as Thor and since then, he’s been in action movies and comedies working with such legendary directors such as Michael Mann and Ron Howard. But despite so many roles in some of the biggest films around, he says working on Extraction was the most “intimidating” one to date.
While speaking with WWE champion Drew McIntrye on the WWE YouTube Channel, Hemsworth elaborated on why his latest role was so challenging, saying:
“They had the main stunt coordinator, stunt director from [Avengers: Endgame] wanting to direct it. So the group of us got together and wanted us to make the most insane action film that was around. To push the envelope and do things that were fairly unique to the action space. Very little special effects. Very little blue screen/green screen – just do it all in camera. So it was an intimidating thing to launch into at the start just because it meant the nature of the way we were shooting we couldn’t have too many stunt doubles and replacements and so on.”
Despite essentially getting his training in filmmaking while working on huge Marvel productions, director Sam Hargrave went old school for his feature film debut. Practical stunts were essential to tell his story, not to mention Extraction didn’t exactly have the budget of an Avengers movie.
And those film require lots of visual effects, which usually means the actors are on a soundstage in front of a blue or green screen and using their imagination during numerous scenes. That wasn’t the case with Extraction though, and Hemsworth takes pride in the work they did despite the difficulties.
“So, I had to do 90-95% of it. But I gotta say one of the most rewarding films I’ve worked on just because each day I’d achieve something; it felt like we’d done something pretty special.”
There’s no telling how many bumps and bruises he sustained during filming, but we know that in one dangerous stunt, the actor had to fall down a flight of stairs. Such is the life of an action star. No wonder he felt intimidated by it. His character’s essentially a moving weapon who’ll do whatever it takes to get the boy he’s protecting into the right hands.
The movie couldn’t have hit at a better time, either, with everyone staying home to practice social distancing during the pandemic. As such, Extraction has gone on to become one of Netflix’s most successful original features and a sequel is already in development. If Hemsworth plans to do more of these as well as playing Thor though, he better pace himself.