Is Thor Marvel's most bankable Avenger? Makers, cast talk 'Love and Thunder'

Twists and turns are in store for fans of Marvel Studios' Thor: Love and Thunder, not least one from an unlikely new superhero. Natalie Portman's Jane Foster returns transformed, wielding Thor's magical hammer Mjolnir, much to the chagrin of the male god played by Chris Hemsworth.

Offscreen, Hemsworth had nothing but respect for Portman, who last played Foster in 2013's Thor: The Dark World. "Blown away, beyond impressed," Hemsworth said in an interview with Collider. "I started this journey with Natalie 10, 11 years ago and now to see her as this character is amazing and she did such an incredible job."

Portman had to bulk up for the role. "The eating was really surprising. You have to eat so much all the time," she said. "There's so much protein, so many shakes. I love food so much, you never imagine that eating is a chore."

She also responded whether she had to hit the gym to play the new female Thor. "Some weightlifting? Natalie leads the charge in the gym. We all went to the gym, but she was there first, every morning. We just tried to keep up with her," Hemsworth interjected. 

"That’s very sweet, but I was especially grateful to everyone’s imagination to cast a five-foot-three actress in a six-foot role," Portman relayed. "I think that takes a real leap of possibility in your mind, and is probably not something I will get the opportunity to do or be imagined as, by any other group. It was a great challenge. Tessa [Thompson] and Chris obviously had a lot of experience in that world, so I got to learn a lot from them."

Portman then spoke about putting on the Thor suit for the first time. "Yeah, it was pretty wild, of course. After seeing Chris wear the costume for so many years, and then to try the version on myself, and getting fitted for all the arm cuffs and boots and everything, was pretty surreal, for the first time," she said. 

Christian Bale donned prosthetics to become the evil Gorr the Butcher. "I suddenly couldn't do anything, type anything and eat. I felt like I couldn't even bloody move because of it," Bale said, adding his character's fangs made it difficult to talk.

"It made me end up being this skulking character ... pacing around the set not talking but I was having immense fun doing that." He added, "After hearing you talk about what everyone was looking for in Chris, I think they were looking for the polar opposite for Gorr. He’s someone not relatable, a bit of a loner, creepy, someone, no one wants to be around, and nobody wants to see his ass. I think they went, 'Yeah, we found it in Bale.' There’s great pleasure in playing a villain."

He then commented, "It’s a lot easier to play a villain than it is to play a hero. Chris has a much tougher job. Everyone is fascinated with bad guys, immediately. And then, the beauty of it is that Taika can make it bloody hilarious and really moving. I don’t know if it’s pushing it too much to say there’s sympathy, but certainly, you understand maybe why this guy is making awful decisions. He’s a monster and a butcher, but there’s the possibility of a little understanding of why he came to be that way."

Tessa Thompson returns as Valkyrie, no longer a drunk and with an impeccable English accent. Alongside Jane and Thor, she goes on a rescue mission after the children of the city of New Asgard are kidnapped by Gorr. Director Taika Waititi and the cast had enough children to play cameo roles."It was incredible also getting to have our kids on set," Portman said. "Chris' kids and Taika's kids and Christian's kids, everyone like running around and playing together. It was pretty dreamy as a working parent."

Producer Kevin Feige revealed why Thor is the only Avenger to have four solo films. "I think they respond to Chris Hemsworth and everything that he can do. And Taika certainly brought another dimension that was always there within Chris. There were moments, even going back to EPK interviews on our New Mexico set. I saw a clip of Ultron the other day, where he’s trying to make [Mark] Ruffalo feel better about smashing a bunch of people, and it’s so funny. It’s expert timing."

Feige added, "Taika was like, 'What are you guys doing with him, just holding a hammer up with lightning? Let’s do that, and tap into everything Chris can do.' I think the audience responds to that. For so long, we said, 'Well, he’s a Norse god. How do we make him relatable?' We spent so much time, making sure that the audience connected with him, that they are so with him now that we could go to a part four."

Hemsworth too shared his thoughts on swinging the Stormbreaker one more time. "Especially since Taika [Waititi] got involved, he brought out the immature, young, adolescent quality that I embody, so now Thor does. That wasn’t in the original films, and it was exciting and new and fresh. That’s always the North Star," he told the publication. "It’s about having fun embodying this space as a child would and enjoying all of it, being caught up in the wonder and the fascination of all of it, and not getting bogged down in the serious nature that we can when making films. Personally, with these kinds of films, it’s gotta be fun, and that’s what we’ve done. That’s what I’ve related to. That’s what Taika’s insisted upon, and it’s been fun."

Waititi, too, chimed in. "When you meet Chris, it’s very hard to figure out how to make him relatable. That was the big challenge. I’ve become friends with Chris, and his personality and his energy and who he is, he’s the kind of person that I’d want to be on an adventure with. He’s someone who you can trust will be there to look after you, like a real-life hero. I just wanted to tap into those qualities and make Thor more Chris, really. He’s not acting," the director shared. 

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.