STACK #141 Jul 2016

CINEMA NEWS

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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

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

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

"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

It turns out Chris Hemsworth is an amazingly funny comedian

CINEMA

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.”

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,

Ghostbusters is in cinemas on July 14.

JUNE 2016

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