Opinion: The Reason Chris Hemsworth Keeps Picking Such Terrible Roles? His Self-Declared Feminism
Jacob Smith
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If you’ve ever asked yourself why Chris Hemsworth’s career has never taken off outside of his role as Thor, you can probably his continuing decision to attach himself to terrible movies – which, as it turns out, may be a symptom of his own feminist ideology.
Outside of the first four phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hemsworth has been in some absolute stinkers over the last decade.
Some of the big-name blunders he’s been involved with over the last several years include, but are not limited to, Thor: Love and Thunder, Men In Black: International, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, and of course, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.
And that’s not just my opinion – the numbers prove it.
In 2016, The Huntsman: Winter’s War only drew in a box office total of $164 million versus its $110 million reported production budget (which, when run through the two-times multiplier of the standard ‘true budget equation’, and currently stands with a 19% Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes.
And though the movie is considered to be the worst of his career, it’s far from the last of his projects to bomb this hard at the box office.
That same year, Hemsworth was a part of the universally-panned Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.
Drawing in only $229 million on a reported budget of $144 million, the film was not only a massive financial flop, but it was so bad that Jason Reitman’s latest Ghostbuster sequels completely reject it from the franchise’s canon.
Another of his big-budget flop was 2019’s Men in Black: International, in which Hemsworth played the comedic foil to his Thor series co-star Tessa Thompson.
Currently sitting at a 23% Rotten rating based on 322 critic reviews, the unasked-for sequel failed pull in the nearly $300 million it needed to break even.
Then there was Thor: Love and Thunder.
Considered by many to be not just the worst Thor film, but also one of the worst overall entries in the MCU to date, the Taika Waititi-helmed outing managed to pull in $760 million worldwide (most of that based on franchise recognition alone) but was still considered a financial loss because its final budget totaled upwards of $250 million.
Even Hemsworth himself publicly called out the creative direction of the film, going as far as to claim the film was a movie that an 8-year-old would make.
“It’s a bunch of eight-year-olds critiquing my film, ‘We thought this one had too much humor, the action was cool but the VFX wasn’t as good’ I cringe and laugh equally at it.” Hemsworth said.
So, why does the would-be superstar keep agreeing to star in such awful films?
Simple: He’s a self-declared feminist.
Speaking with the Radio Times in 2016 ahead of The Huntman: Winter’s War‘s release, Hemswroth was asked by the outlet if he was a feminist, to which he confidently replied, “Oh yeah, for sure.”
“My mum’s a big feminist,” explained the actor. “I think that my views on things, as far as respect for women and so on, came from my mum. My dad has a very balanced and respectful view on a lot of things too. They were huge positive influences in my life.”
Turning to the topic of The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Hemsworth then informed Radio Times that it was his long for strong female leads, and particularly the film’s trio of “badass female characters”, as played by Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron, that inspired him to return for the sequel.
“The strength of it was in these three women and their performances, the heart and soul that they’ve blended through their characters,” he explained.
Hemsworth also stated that he believes there is historic imbalance in the way men and women have been portrayed in major Hollywood films, and as such producing more movies with ‘strong’ female leads are an important piece to create cinematic equality.
“I think the balance has been tipped heavily in the men’s direction,” he opined. “There are seven to eight male superheroes and one female in there [a reference to the line-up of The Avengers]. This is the opposite.”
While his views on feminism may admittedly lie more in the 3rd wave than the radical 5th wave that currently holds the entertainment industry in its jaws, it doesn’t change the fact that his ideology has played a major part in his choosing to attach himself to all these very basic ‘girl power’ films, all of which have done neither him nor the studios any favors at the box office.
After all, there’s much, much more to finding box office success than just cheaply pandering to the whims of social media’s most shallow activists.
Sadly, Hemsworth’s next project doesn’t inspire much hope that this trend will change.
Appearing alongside Anya Taylor-Joy’s joy take on the one-armed heroine originally portrayed by Charlize Theron in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Hemsworth’s next film will be yet another action film banking on its female lead to sell tickets, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
It is believed that the film, as written and directed by series creator George Miller, has a production budget of roughly $230 million dollars – meaning that the box office has to do absolutely massive numbers in order to ever see a profit
Kicking off the summer movie season, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to begin racing into theaters on May 24th.