Skip to content
Home » This Past Weekend #640: w/ Chris Hemsworth (Transcript)

This Past Weekend #640: w/ Chris Hemsworth (Transcript)

Editor’s Notes: In this episode of This Past Weekend, host Theo Von sits down with Hollywood superstar Chris Hemsworth for a candid and wide-ranging conversation. The two explore Hemsworth’s latest project, the gritty Los Angeles heist film Crime 101, while also diving into the adventurous and often “risky” nature of Australian culture. Hemsworth reflects on his nostalgia for life before global stardom and shares behind-the-scenes stories from his career, including his experiences working with legends like Halle Berry. From discussing his evolving personal purpose to humorous tales of picking up hitchhikers, this interview offers a unique and engaging glimpse into the life of the man behind the iconic roles. (Feb 17, 2026)

TRANSCRIPT:

Introduction

THEO VON: Just a reminder that you can watch video versions of our episodes now on Spotify as well. Today’s guest is an actor. He’s a producer. He’s a life explorer, if you will. He has a new film out that’s called Crime 101. It’s in theaters right now. You can go check it out. I had a good time getting to know this Australian gentleman. Today’s guest is Mr. Chris Hemsworth. Australians, I think they just, I feel like they’re more risque with their lives kind of.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah, there is a lack of, well, it’s a risk averse due to either the lack of fear or the extra amount of stupidity at times. Fluctuates.

THEO VON: It’s a beautiful bravery though, that they have.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah.

THEO VON: And even when you travel, one thing I remember from just traveling a lot was just seeing Australians everywhere. They pop up in anything. Like, you turn on a tap in another country, you’re pouring a beer and a couple of Australians just come out on surfboards, kind of a boogie board.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: As an Australian, that’s always problematic. It’s like you go to the country to get away from Australia and have a different cultural experience and it’s, “Oh, g’day, mate. Yeah, I know you.” And the next minute you’re at the bar together doing what you did back home.

THEO VON: Yeah, I could totally see that, man. What does that nature come from in Australians? Because I mean, it’s a serious thing that I think everyone would say, that you go anywhere and there’s Australians there.

—

The Australian Spirit of Adventure

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: I think we’re quite isolated where we are. For such a young country, as far as the white settlement being there in the last sort of 200 or so years, there’s been always a sense of adventure, either across the country itself or just the need to get out and explore. Because it’s not like, if you’re in Europe, you’re jumping from France to Italy to London and you can have different cultural experiences within a two-hour train ride. For us, it’s a big adventure. You know, pack a backpack and you’re on several flights and buses and trains and boats and whatever. So there is an adventurous spirit. All the guys I grew up with, it was like, finish high school and go backpacking around the world.

THEO VON: So that’s like a big thing where people, when they finish high school, it’s like, “I’m going to get out of here. I’m going to go experience something.” Is it almost taboo if you don’t, if you don’t have like a…

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: No, I think it just comes from not having figured out what you want to do next. I’d probably say 50/50 with my group of friends. Some knew what they were doing — a couple of them went into a trade and a couple of them went to university. And then a couple of them were like, “I’ve got no idea. Maybe I’ll find it in Peru or wherever I’m going to go backpacking, and cross paths with folks that might inspire something else in me.”

—

Growing Up in Australia

THEO VON: Did you do something like that? I know you grew up partially in the outback and partially in Melbourne, right?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah, grew up in Melbourne, then lived in the Northern Territory in an Aboriginal community about four hours southeast of Katherine, like in the middle of nowhere. And that was my earliest, most vivid memories.

THEO VON: Out there in the bush kind of.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah. There were Aboriginal communities, a bunch of them in the region we lived in, all across the Northern Territory. But where we were, the proximity — there were sort of three or four communities that my dad worked with. He ran a cattle station and then ran a community center. I went up there when I was five or six, then came back to Melbourne, and then again when I was like seven, eight, nine, so a couple of different times.

But as far as the backpacking thing, I started working when I was 18. I ended up on a soap opera, and that kind of took me straight into what I’m doing now. I kind of missed that. I do look back, especially speaking to a lot of friends of mine that had this sort of crazy adventure prior to being famous and prior to being recognized, where you could just kind of get into a bunch of trouble and explore the world and make all those mistakes and hopefully learn something from them.

I feel like that period — there’s a romanticism, a nostalgia that I long for, that I wish I had done prior to jumping into the working world.

THEO VON: Yeah, it’s one thing. It’s a downside of celebrity and popularity, that there are things you can’t just go do. Sometimes I’ll romanticize it as well, like, “Oh, I’d like to go there, go there.” But then I’m like, it would be more uncomfortable now, or it would be some type of way.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Did you do it after school? Did you ever get a chance to travel?

—

Theo’s European Backpacking Misadventure

THEO VON: Yeah, yeah. I had a girlfriend. We went over there, and that was like a seven-country fight we went on.