The remake of Ghostbusters from 2016 was a movie with issues. Regardless of what you thought of the final product, the movie was fighting a losing battle years before it ever made it to the screen. However, it turns out there was even more going on behind-the-scenes than we realized, as Chris Hemsworth recently revealed that he considered quitting the production the day before filming was set to begin.
It seems that Chris Hemsworth had some issues with the way his character, the Ghostbusters' receptionist named Kevin, was originally written, or, possibly, not written, as it seems the character may have been left quite vague in the original script. Director Paul Feig had assured Hemsworth everything would be taken care of in time for shooting, but that wasn't the case. According to Hemsworth...
The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out. 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.
This led to an emergency meeting between Chris Hemsworth and Paul Feig, in which the director tried to quell the fears of Hemsworth by promising there would be plenty for him to do on set thanks to improvisation.
It seems that this didn't necessarily make Hemsworth feel much better. He says he was literally scared walking on to the set since he didn't really know what he was doing, but, in the end, that's what led him to the character that he found. Hemsworth continues...
I was really scared walking onto that set. I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.
In the end, it seems that it all worked out for the best, as Variety calls the role in Ghostbusters one of Chris Hemsworth's favorite rolls he's had to date. It's hard not to see that. Because Ghostbusters gender flipped the main characters, the decision was made to do the same thing with the role of the receptionist. Hemsworth takes the trope of the attractive but idiotic secretary character, almost exclusively played by women, and runs with it.
It sounds, based on the way Hemsworth describes it, that this character was mostly his creation if it came about via improvisation. We'd been told previously that much of Hemsworth's performance came from improvisation, but at the time one assumed that this was a decision made by the actor, rather than something he was apparently forced into.
Hemsworth also says that the role had a larger impact on his career as he believes the fact that he could show he was capable of screwball style comedy made Thor's evolution in the MCU into a funnier character easier to accept.
Either way it all worked out for the best. Hemsworth's performance is one of the highlights of the Ghsotbusters remake.
At this point it seems unlikely we'll see Kevin again, though we will see the Ghostbusters at least one more time, but in a film that takes us back to the original continuity.
