Playing a superhero is notably a gruelling experience for actors due to the sheer amount of physicality required to accurately portray a literal superhuman. For example consider Chris Hemsworth, a man who has gotten so large playing Thor that Disney has genuinely struggled to find a stunt double capable of standing in for him.
You see, it has sort of become a thing in Hollywood for actors tasked with playing superheroes to get ridiculously in shape for the role. Which makes sense for actors portraying characters like say, Superman or Captain America because those characters are supposed to represent the pinnacle of human potential.
However it makes less sense for characters not defined by their physicality like say, Ghost Rider. Which didn’t stop Nic Cage getting abs at 40 years old when he was tasked with portraying the character, partly because he loves Ghost Rider but mostly because he’s fucking insane.
However, it’s arguable that nobody in Hollywood has put in more work becoming large than Chris Hemsworth has during his time playing the God of Thunder. Much to the shock and relief of other actors, mainly Tom Hiddleston who famously auditioned to play the Thunderer before Hemsworth and has since expressed relief at not landing the role after witnessing the thiccness.
Specifically Hiddleston has talked about observing his co-stars eating habits during training and the relief he’s felt upon realising he doesn’t have to do that. Now while you might be tempted to say eating a shit ton of food guilt free sounds awesome, keep in mind Hemsworth also has to work out twice a day meaning he has to do shit like eat an entire lamb chop, as a snack, before a five mile run. Something we were pretty sure only wolves did prior to researching this.
An unexpected side effect of Hemsworth being so large though is that it has become difficult for Disney to find a body double to stand in for him and even when they do, that body double has to work just as hard as the actor. For example, according to Hemsworth’s long-time double for Marvel movies, Bobby Holland Hanton, he has to eat every two hours in addition to working out twice a day just to keep up with the actor. Something that has resulted in Hanton begin to see eating as a chore. A sentence that would probably be the most depressing thing in this entire article if not for the fact Hanton has to put in this much work to stand in for a man, pretending to be a fictional character and that 99% of people watching the film don’t give a shit who he is.
Then again, it’s not all bad for Hanton because he’s now physically so massive as a result of having to stand in for Hemsworth that he’s pretty much the only stunt man working as big as he is. This has allowed him to establish a niche as a superhero stunt double meaning he has pretended to be Superman, Batman and Deadpool over the years. Which anyway you look at it, is a hell of a fucking résumé.
