STACK July 2016 Issue 141

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"I ’m a big fan of Chris as a
dramatic actor and just as
a presence. He’s the most
beautiful man in the world. It’s
unbelievable; you work with him
and just stare at him like, ‘Oh my
God, how are you so handsome?’”
recalls Feig when STACK catches
up with him in Los Angeles.
Having directed Bridesmaids,
Spy and The Heat, Feig has so
much comedy talent on speed dial
but decided to go in a different
route when casting Ghostbusters'
receptionist, Kevin.
“I heard from my agent, who
also represents Chris, that Chris
was interested in being in it and I
thought, ‘Oh my god, it’d be really
funny if we just give them the
most handsome guy in the world
as their receptionist’, without really
knowing if he could be funny or
not. Sometimes I don’t need funny,
I just need fun. So I go, 'Okay, he’ll
be fun, and he can be the foil or
whatever and we can play with
him'. But then he hosted SNL
and I saw that he
has a real sense of
humour about himself,
and that’s what
drew me to him. If
somebody who looks
like that can laugh at
themselves – and Jon
Hamm is the same – I
was on board, so I
hired Chris on the
spot.”
But the night
before shooting, a
nervous Hemsworth
visited the set and pulled the
director aside saying he wasn’t
sure he could improvise alongside
the formidable cast of comedic
actresses: Melissa McCarthy,
Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and
Leslie Jones.
“I said, ‘Chris don’t worry, we’ll
write you jokes, you’re taken
care of’. But he showed up and
immediately began improvising
and making up his own stuff. Even
I was like, ‘What’s he doing?’ and
I was laughing so hard and the
girls looked at me like, ‘Did you
write that for him?’ I was like, ‘No,
that’s him!’ Then it just all fell apart
because it was just so funny, and
we did that for hours and hours.
We had so much footage it was
very hard to pick. The end result is
it turns out Chris Hemsworth is an
amazingly funny comedian."
Feig insisted that Hemsworth
keep his native Aussie accent. “I
always worry that anybody who
doesn’t do comedy all the time
could be hampered by having to
put on an accent, so I thought
giving him that gave him a comfort
zone where he could just play this
sort of dopey version of his actual,
very smart self.”
Ghostbusters is in cinemas on July 14.
visit CINEMA NEWS
18 JUNE 2016
CINEMA
The biggest surprise on the set of the all-chick Ghostbusters was, without doubt,
Australia’s own Chris Hemsworth, according to writer-director Paul Feig. Words: Gill Pringle
WE NEED TO TALK
ABOUT KEVIN
It turns out Chris
Hemsworth is an
amazingly funny
comedian