I don’t know if you’re among the nearly 47 million people who follow Chris Hemsworth on Instagram, but in case you’re not, let me give you a quick overview. He’s filming Thor: Love and Thunder, and he’s absolutely jacked now. Like he’s always been in tremendous physical condition, but he’s even more imposing than usual right now. That’s good news for fans that want to see Thor beat some people to death, but it’s not the best news for his stunt double who has had to bulk up to mirror the Australian actor.
Bulking up might sound like a lot of fun in theory, but sometimes in practice it’s not nearly as joyful. Bobby Holland Hanton, a very in-demand body double and stunt performer, who has been working with Chris Hemsworth since 2013 has found that out the hard way the last few months. The affable stand-in appeared on the Australian radio show Fitzy and Wippa to talk about Thor: Love and Thunder, and he spilled on the whole process. Apparently he’s been eating every two hours to the point where it’s not even fun anymore. Here are a few portions of his quotes…
Everyone is like, 'Wow, look at the size and him.' I'm like yes, brilliant, now I have to put on that size as well. I text him, I'm like, 'Thanks very much dude, this is going to be even harder this time!... He's now the biggest Thor he's ever been; so, I have to be the biggest I've ever been... Every two hours we're eating. It's become a chore. I don't enjoy eating at all every two hours.
He’s not wrong either about people marveling at Hemsworth’s size. His wife, Elsa Pataky, recently posted a picture of the two swimming in what looks like the most beautiful place on Earth and Hemsworth is an enormous mountain. One of the top comments is about how he’s so gigantic he can’t even fit in the frame. Check this out…
Fortunately, Bobby Holland Hanton couldn’t exactly be described as scrawny either. He’s worked with a slew of other famous faces before including Henry Cavill, Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gylenhaal and more. Being able to do that requires the ability to sculpt your body up or down depending on who you’re working with. So, he clearly knows what he’s doing. It has been his work with Hemsworth, however, that has always attracted the most attention. There was even a Today Show feature about how much the two men looked alike while they are in costume.
You can check out a shot from the two on set for Extraction below, which by the way was pretty good and also apparently so intense it led to Hanton having to get back surgery, according to CNN…
It’s great to see Hanton and Hemsworth appear to still have such a good relationship after so many years working together. There are even tons of videos online of the two training together on set. Hopefully the two will make a ton more great movies in their future, and if the price for doing so means eating every few hours to the point where food loses its enjoyment (or doing two a day workouts), well, I guess that’s just the sacrifices of show business.
