Chris Hemsworth Reveals Why He Almost Quit ‘Ghostbusters’

By Ramin Setoodeh

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Before Chris Hemsworth took Thor to new and unexpected directions, he showed off his comedic chops as a clueless receptionist in the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.

In this week’s issue of Variety , Hemsworth reveals that he almost quit the movie directed by Paul Feig. “The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out,” Hemsworth says. “Three or four weeks prior, Paul said to me, ‘I’m going to write up the character. Don’t worry.’ And then I got the script and nothing had changed.”

His agent, Bryan Lourd, set up a last-minute meeting with Feig, who assured Hemsworth there would be a lot to do — through improvisation. “I was really scared walking onto that set,” Hemsworth says. “I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.”

Hemsworth credits “” with priming audiences to accept Thor’s turn to screwball comedy in “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame.” He would have liked to have done a “Ghostbusters” sequel, and he hasn’t forgiven the online fanboys who viciously attacked the reboot partly because the new stars were played by women. “That whole period I was like, ‘What ownership do you guys have over those characters?’” Hemsworth says. “‘Oh, you watched the film, therefore you should have a say over where it goes?’ I thought it was very unfortunate and kind of disappointing.”

For more from Hemsworth, including what he thinks about Thor’s future and his upcoming role in “Men in Black: International,” read our cover story here .