As some of you may have seen, when Chris Hemsworth hosting “Saturday Night Live” a few weeks back, he brought out his two brother as part of his monologue, as well as their “mother”—played by Kate McKinnon—and everyone had a big chuckle. As most people know, one of Hemsworth’s brother is Liam, co-star of The Hunger Games films; he even landed a smallish role in The Expendables 2, and his dance card as an actor seems to be filling up nicely.
But to many Americans (and other non-Australians), the third and oldest Hemsworth brother, 33-year-old Luke, might have been a new, handsome face for them. He’s actually been acting almost as long as Chris, primarily in Australian television series and films, including a stint on the long-running series “Neighbours,” (which at various times featured all three Hemsworth siblings), ANOMALY, and THE RECKONING. His latest work, KILL ME THREE TIMES, should get him a great deal more attention in parts of the world outside of Australian, thanks to a distinctly Simon Pegg’s particularly nasty turn as an assassin for hire. Luke plays perhaps the only decent human being in the film, Dylan Smith, the lover of Alice Braga’s Alice, a woman married to a a very bad and jealous man. The film also features great turns from Teresa Palmer, Sullivan Stapleton, and the king of Australian cinema, Bryan Brown as a dirty, dirty cop.
I got a few minutes to chat with the elder Hemsworth about both KILL ME THREE TIMES and his ambitions to conquer the world of acting outside of Down Under. He’s a funny and forthcoming guy, and it was great fun chatting with him. With that, please enjoy my talk with Luke Hemsworth…
Capone: Hi, Luke. How are you?
Luke Hemsworth: I’m good, mate. How are you? What’s happening?
Capone: Good. Not too much. So where are you calling from right now?
LH: L.A., mate. Sunny L.A. Beautiful hotel here in Beverly Hills.
Capone: I was afraid there would be some massive delay if you were calling from Australia.
LH: [laughs] There’s not too much phone reception in Australia. We still use a can and string.
Capone: Nice. So, when you’re given a script like this, I’ve got to imagine it was a fun script just to read—the way it’s constructed with the jumping timelines and the very precise reveals. What do you remember being your initial reaction just to reading it?
LH: Look, it’s always a bonus when you get through a script in one go. It’s really telling when you can pick up a script and go start to finish in one turn. A lot of scripts that you read, it will take you two or three goes to get through it. So you get though it in one go. Dylan was always a part that was of put aside. People were told to watch out for me for that role. So you read it with the intent of, how would I do this? What translates? And it ticked a lot of boxes in terms of a great story arc, a wonderful full gamut of emotions, good scenes to play with, and it becomes very attractive instantly and an easy character to identify with.
I know things that this guy has in his film that are a part of my life that have been a part of my life. I worked in a gas station as one of my first jobs. The ability to do things for love that are unquestionable in any other circumstance. I’ve got three kids, so I instantly know what it’s like to feel that kind of emotion. And then on top of it you’ve got wonderful, wonderful people attached to it—the crew, Simon, Alice, Bryan Brown, Callan [Mulvey], and Sullivan. And it becomes an easy thing that you instantly want to be part of. There’s not a part of you that goes, “I don’t know about this.”
Capone: I’ve got to imagine playing the only decent guy in the movie might have some appeal in a room full of snakes.
LH: Yeah, it’s kind of a sleeper. You read it and you go, you know what? This guy is almost a knight in shining armor. He’s almost a hero that pops out of nowhere. That’s always a big bonus, I think, as an actor, if you can surprise people. They’re out of the box, especially for me, creating work that’s lasting.
Capone: When you’re working on an indie film like this, do you feel like your ideas are taken a little bit more seriously than maybe on something a little bigger?
LH: Yeah. Having not worked on anything really, really big, I’m not sure. I can only go by what I’ve heard. And I would say, yeah, definitely. There’s a level of commitment and involvement at that level that may be greater and may be more important, but not to take anything away from those bigger films. There’s definitely a whole bunch of care involved in making those characters and films be believable. It’s just that things are a little bit more intimate on indie films, and you have an access to a dialogue. There are a lot less special effects. Maybe that has to do with it. Those things are real. All of our locations were real. There’s very little studio work, if any at all, actually. So it’s all real locations.
Capone: Yeah, where was this shot? Because this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
LH: It’s all shot south of Perth in Western Australia. South and a little bit north as well. Around Perth, basically. It’s an incredibly remote, beautiful part of our country, very wild and rugged. But it also has some incredible produce and wine making. It’s a special part of our country, definitely.
Capone: Being an Australian actor, the idea of working with Bryan Brown just had to be slightly mind blowing to you, because there should be statues built for him in every country, really. I think he’s the best, and I was so excited to see him in this. What was that like? Have you met him before?
LH: [laughs] I’ve never met him before, and it was surreal, amazing experience for me, because I’m the same. As an Australian actor, Bryan Brown is someone you grow up with. He’s like one of those seminal figures. It was amazing for me. I felt that we got on incredibly well. We had a few dinners together. It’s one of those relationships that just felt so real and easy to me. He instantly felt like a part of my family. We have the same sense of humor and the same dynamic, and we got along incredibly well. It was a wonderful joy to experience.
Capone: How familiar were you with [director] Kriv Stender’s other films prior to working with him on this?
LH: I had seen both BOXING DAY and RED DOG. You make it a point to get familiar with these people if you haven’t before. Fortunately, I’d seen RED DOG, and then I watched BOXING DAY when the call came through. It becomes a pleasure. There’s an instant dialogue that’s not there before that you hope carries on through the film, and with him, it was one of those very easy, relatable relationships. There was never a tense word, there was never anything that was untoward or out of the box with Kriv. It was very straight forward. He knew exactly what he wanted and was very good at communicating that. And it becomes easy to give him what he wants.
Capone: Alice Braga excels in playing these very sensual women. Did you have to do any chemistry test to make sure the two of you could be sensual together? What did you have to do to prove that you could do that?
LH: [laughs] Yeah, that’s exactly what we did. We did a chemistry read, and I had spoken to Kriv beforehand, and this got organized with Alice. It’s the most terrifying thing you can do I think in this industry, to go in and see whether or not you have chemistry with a certain person. There’s never a moment where every single point in what you’re saying has so much weight and gravity. Fortunately for us, it was really easy. We felt an affinity. It was almost a brother-sister relationship. It was very fun. Brazilians and Australians, we’re both underdogs in a way. We get along very well. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. It was an easy sell, and I think that came across in the chemistry read from all accounts.
Capone: I’ve got to imagine that having Simon Pegg around, even just for a couple of weeks, was a little bit surreal, starting with the way he’s dressed. Did you have any special affection for him from his films over the years? And what was that experience like for you?
LH: I love all of Simon’s work. The Cornetto stuff is great. It’s a blessing when you get to work with these people who you idolize, and they turn out to be wonderful human beings as well, and that was always the more important part. Me and Simon got along really well as people outside of the characters. It was a joy to watch him work. He’s a very focused professional, but also an incredibly funny person. He’s one of those guys who you always hope he is like that, and he is like that. It was always that thing for me.
Capone: You’ve been acting for more than 10 years. Are you still the kind of actor who learns something from each new job, and if so, what did you learn from this particular experience making this film?
LH: Absolutely. It’s constantly a learning thing. I think if you’re not learning anything, then you’re doing something wrong. Specifically, what I learned was short-hand dialogue between Kriv and me and the actors. There’s a point that you reach that things don’t need to be communicated, which are very easily done with very few words. Sometimes you don’t need to go into a huge speech in order to communicate what exactly needs to come through this scene. And Kriv is very good at doing that. But yeah, absolutely. It’s the attractive part about performing—there’s no end. There’s no “I know it all.” You’re constantly, hopefully learning something, and that’s the fun part.
Capone: I know a lot of Americans got their first real look at you on “SNL” a couple of weeks ago. Watching your brothers go through this Hollywood process, is that something you’re interested in? Is it important to you to come over to America, or does it make you even more cautious to even consider that?
LH: Yeah. It’s a bit of everything. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. There are things that come with the job that you deal with, and there are things that you don’t want to ever be a part of. And I think having seen them go through a few things, there are definitely parts of the job and what they go through that I’m quite happy to leave at the door, in terms of exposure and paparazzi. I have absolutely no desire to have people follow me around and filming what I’m wearing when I’m doing the shopping at all. Unfortunately, it’s a huge part of life here in L.A., and it’s a part that people feel like they need to hang onto and latch onto. I honestly have no desire. And I wonder whether any actor worth their salt actually has any desire for that at all. Once you experience that, it’s actually really, really creepy. It’s really weird.
Capone: Luke, congratulations on this. Best of luck down the road. Thanks for talking.
