If you can believe it, it’s been 15 years since audiences were introduced to Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder via the first Thor movie! The actor is now set to reprise his role in Avengers: Doomsday and theoretically, Secret Wars. On top of that, Hemsworth previously said he was already kicking around Thor ideas for beyond that. While many are excited about what's to come, the franchise's OG director, Kenneth Branagh, is reflecting on Hemsworth's fitness and eating habits while making that first movie.
Branagh directed Marvel Studios' Thor and, as the British filmmaker told Business Insider, he fought hard to land that gig. To mark the film's 15th anniversary, Branagh recently shared considerable insight into the making of his sole MCU entry. While talking about working with Chris Hemsworth, Branagh was sure to highlight how the actor built muscle for his role, and I'm tired just hearing about the whole chickens that were involved:
[Laughs.] No, he didn't get too bulky. He did throw me numerous times. I would speak to him, and a door would open, and suddenly four whole chickens would arrive and be put in front of him. That would sometimes throw me because I didn't get much out of him after that. He'd go, [speaks in an Australian accent] ‘Gotta go eat, mate, 45 minutes have passed. I gotta have another fucking chicken.’
For a little context here, a whole chicken is about 1500 calories on average – which is crazy to me, because that’s personally around how much I eat in a day. In terms of Chris Hemsworth’s fitness regimen for playing a superhero, he was probably eating something like 4,000 calories, and that's the amount one of his stuntmen ate to transform for the role too, per Centr.
Eating that much chicken sounds exhausting to me, but the actor had to keep his bulky physique intact for the shoot. Food consumption was just part of the process, though, as copious amounts of push-ups were also involved, as Branagh recalled:
But I remember when he first took off his shirt. I felt a little embarrassed, I said, ‘I think we need you to take your shirt off.’ And he said, ‘Are you joking? I spent the last nine months getting ready for this, of course I'm going to take my shirt off.’ And then he went outside, and I think I watched him do 200 push-ups, and then he came back in, and [Natalie] Portman turned around and just gasped, and I said, ‘That's it! That's what you do on film.’
It’s funny, because many people may not think about all the methods actors like Hemsworth utilize to stay fit, but it must have been pretty incredible to witness. 200 pushups? I get tired doing just a few – but I’m also not someone who plays a Marvel hero, of course. What’s even wilder is this is something that Hemsworth has had to somewhat maintain since he’s been playing Thor every few years since then.
Hemsworth has had to fluctuate his weight too for the other roles he’s played in between. For example, he recently talked about having to lose “a lot of weight” right after the first Thor movie to star in Ron Howard’s Rush in order to “fit into the race car”. Given it's been over a decade since Hemsworth worked with Branagh on that first film, I'd imagine that actor and his fitness team have all of this down to a science at this point. So I wonder how many chickens he might've eaten and how many push-ups he may have performed for his latest outing as Thor.
On that note, when Chris Hemsworth starts promoting Avengers: Doomsday, I hope he discusses his current fitness habits for filming. In the meantime, know that Hemsworth will be seen in that aforementioned superhero movie alongside Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Tom Hiddleston, Pedro Pascal, Paul Rudd, Florence Pugh, Channing Tatum and many more big stars. on December 18 as part of the 2026 movie schedule.
