Chris Hemsworth Motivation: How A Simple Mindset Shift Can Save Your Career!

What university you gonna sign up for? What are you gonna do? And I was like, I'm gonna be an actor. And she's like, well, okay, what's your backup? And I didn't really have one. There was nothing else I really wanted to do. The first thing Ron said to me, you know, Thor's not gonna fit in a Formula One car. I'll lose weight, I'll lose weight, I'll lose weight. You know, usually what scares you the most is what doesn't actually exist. You know, in amongst doing it, it's actually not so bad.

Hello, Believe Nation, it's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in people more than they believe in themselves. And my sincere hope is that if you you see in yourself what I see in you, you'll be able to change the planet. So to help you on your journey today, we're going to learn from actor Chris Hemsworth and my take on his top 10 rules of success. Rule number 2 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. Also, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired by it as well. And if you leave it within the first couple hours of this video going live, you have a chance to win one of 2 daily prizes.

Do you remember the first actor who inspired you, someone you saw on screen?

I remember watching Brad Pitt a lot as a kid and just loving his sort of charisma and what everything he was doing, the type of films he was making. And prior to even knowing I wanted to be an actor, it was things like Neverending Story and Princess Bride and those kind of films that I just love.

Do you remember the first time you thought about moving over here?

Yeah, it was when I was finishing school and talking to, you know, the careers advisor at school about, okay, well, what university are you gonna sign up for? What are you gonna do? And I was like, oh, I'm gonna be an actor. And she's like, well, okay, but what's your backup? And I didn't really have one. There was nothing else I really wanted to do. And so, you know, I put my head down and went for it. Downey, very early on when I got cast as Thor, they brought me onto the set of Iron Man. And I remember walking on, you know, in just tracksuit pants and a t-shirt seeing Downey there in the Iron Man costume and knowing that Avengers was coming up and just thinking, how am I gonna pull Thor off? And how the hell am I gonna stand opposite this guy and do this, you know? But he was, you know, he's great. He gave us some great advice about what an opportunity that we were all involved in. It wasn't directed, you know, at me, it was himself. He was talking the group, you know. He knew Captain America was coming, Thor, Iron Man, and he said, 'You know, we're part of something special, and this is, you know, it's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun.' And that's it, you know. I think you gotta enjoy the process, you know. If you focus too much on sort of, 'Oh, what's the result of it all?' You know, you're not right in the middle of it, you know, in the— to sound cliché, but in the moment of it all, you know. And he kind of— that was a nice kind of reminder of it. And I've tried to kind of keep that with everything I do. As an actor, you don't control the spectrum. You know, it's the directors and the producers and stuff. You know, if you— theater, sure, you come out and do your thing, but on film, you do 10 different takes and, you know, across however many days, you know, 60 days or whatever, there's 40 or 50 different versions of Thor, you know, that Kenneth Branagh cut together in the first film, you know. Like, and whether you liked it or not, that, you know, that was a version that was put together by a lot of other people. You know, and that was something kind of satisfying, or it takes the weight off in thinking, you know what, I actually can't control this no matter how much I think I can or I try to. There's some comfort in kind of letting go with it. And especially walking onto a set like this with an ensemble like that, it's like, good, we can share this weight, you know. And although the finger gets pointed at individuals, whether director, writer, you know, actor, whatever, It's a team effort, you know, work or fail. The first time I saw him trying to get into a Formula 3 car, I cracked up. I thought, this is Thor trying to get into a Formula 3 car. That's what Ron says. The first thing Ron said to me, you know, Thor's not going to fit in a Formula 1 car, man. I'll lose weight. I'll lose weight. I'll lose weight. Did they have to build a car for you We had to pull the seat out a couple of times and I had to sit on the chassis and the metal piping underneath. But James was the same height as me. He was one of the tallest Formula One drivers and had a hell of a time getting in the car. And the weight I got down to was similar to him, so I understood his feelings.

The biggest challenge in your process of characterization?

Um, I'd say the same as what Daniel was saying, as far as, you know, you're playing a real person that's iconic. Figure and this becomes a whole lot of responsibility and weight and, you know, there's his family members and what have you that, you know, you want to be respectful and, you know, do it justice. I made the mistake of going to a pre-kickoff party for the film with a whole bunch of drivers and people from the industry who knew these guys and I thought, "Oh, this will be great, you know, I'll get some good advice." Within like 5 minutes of being there, I was like, what am I doing here? Because everyone was like, you know, he doesn't look like this. And you know, he speaks like this. And what are you going to do with the accent? And how are you going to walk? And hey. And it was like, oh my god, these opinions, you know? And but then I adopted the thing of, you know what? Just like he approached life and driving, as did Nicky, which was do it your way and disregard the sort of exterior opinions out there.

Lewis seems almost fearless. Is there anything that scares you in your life?

My life? Yeah, look, a lot of things. Mainly, you know, I think most of us, our mind is sort of, you know, convinces us that things are worse than they are or better than they are and sets us up for a fall constantly, you know. And I think it's— and this business, I think about that a lot, you know, about what's real, what's not, and what exactly am I doing and what do I aspire to be and why and all this sort of questions. And I always come back to just simplifying things, you know, and just sort of day by day and, you know, Usually what scares you the most is what doesn't actually exist. In amongst doing it, it's actually not so bad. Like that, coming out here, beforehand it was like, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." You get out there and you go, "Okay, I'm alive, I lived." And yeah. Grew up near Melbourne, Australia in an Aboriginal community, huh? I did, yeah. I grew up in Melbourne and then moved to Northern Territory in an Aboriginal community. Buffalo and crocodiles, and it was a rather unusual, you know, childhood compared to the rest of— Sure.

Did your parents work, move you there, or—

Yeah, my parents worked on a cattle station with my auntie and uncle. See, and so we as kids went up and just— Well, that must have been fun as a kid. It was great. Yeah, it was my introduction to life, and it was, uh, as vivid and as exciting as it could have been. How does somebody start a career like, like what you've accomplished, uh, in a community like that? You know, we were back and forth. We didn't live there the whole time, but I think part of living there, you know, sparked some, you know, imagination. And my dad read, you know, many books to us as kids and always had a love for storytelling and films and fantasy. And I think that was the sort of beginning of it all. And then it wasn't until I finished school I thought, this looks like fun, I could do this maybe as a career. And so you started acting in Australia? Yeah, I tried to. I spent a few years on building sites and horticultural laboring and, you know, things that allowed me to take a day off if I needed to. But then J.J. Abrams saw you as a part of Star Trek and brought you over? He did, yeah. Well, I was in America at the time and I just shot a little independent film and came back and met with J.J. I was on a Friday night in his office across his desk and he said— we read the scene, he said, "That's great, you start on Monday." And I was— Just like that. —on the Starship Enterprise. In Mark Ruffalo, you don't see the Hulk, which is, I think, a perfect sort of contrast because it's that sort of vulnerability and that fear of what's to come if he does turn into that guy. He doesn't necessarily like who that guy is, you know? But it's just a good bunch, you know? I mean, Robert is an actor and, you know, everything he's done is incredible, and as is all of this cast. And so watching all of them work and their different styles and getting everyone together in one big scene has been really exciting. Can I talk about working with Kenneth Branagh on this? Yeah, he's incredible. He was the first play I ever did, or acting piece, was Much Ado About Nothing, which, you know, we all studied his film over and over again. So to come full circle and work with him now was incredible. Ken's one of the people I've ever been challenged so much with changing things, doing it different. Okay, we've got that, now try this. And it really gets you out of that sort of bad habit of saying, oh no, my character only does this. And I think when you limit yourself like that, you limit possibilities. And Ken was all about experimenting and just going for it and taking that risk. It works sometimes, sometimes it doesn't, and, uh, you know, that's part of the journey.

Hard to actually get the muscle bulk on? It was.

The eating was probably the most difficult part. It wasn't the fun kind of eating either. It was copious amounts of chicken breast and various animal proteins and what have you. When you say copious amounts, is that not fat? He reckons it's CGI.

I wish it was that easy.

Is that real? Yeah, I wouldn't have spent 6 months in the gym. I read the comic books and noticed the character was 700 kilograms, so that certainly lit a bit of fire. Okay. I remember the first time I read it, I thought, "Okay, it's a horror film. You know, there's some different points." And then the more I read it, the more I spoke to Drew and Joss, and once we were shooting and just saw what they were doing with this thing, it was like, "Wow, this is something special." Both of them are such kind of, you know, geniuses in their own sort of way about the knowledge of film and, you know, ideas for shots. And stories and just that creativity is just kind of constantly sort of buzzing. And, you know, every take and, you know, we're 2 months in, you know, Drew after every take is like, "This could possibly be the greatest scene ever." And, you know, "I love this film and I love my job." And, you know, so that enthusiasm certainly is great. You know, it just keeps that, keeps you moving forward and feeling good about what we're doing.

Since you guys seem to be game today, I would like to play a little game with you. Okay. All right, I'd like to have you guys fill out the online dating profiles for your characters. Oh, uh-huh.

Thor and Captain America.

OK.

OK, so first of all, you need to choose a screen name. Wingnut. Honorable One.

Wow, that's sexy.

Wingnut was a really cool—

Screen name? This is the real me.

Oh, T-Hammer. T-Hammer. T-Hammer. It's T-Hammer. It's T-Hammer. That's perfect. T-Hammer@gmail. That's all in the swing. Hiding out here. Good one.

Like that. Good one. Occupation?

Hero. Yeah, well, hero, I mean— Provider of like safety and good times. Nuclear physicist? All-round nice guy. Yeah, boring.

I'd be a linguist.

Very good.

True linguist. Yes, you're right. Okay, ideal first date? Color me mine.

Oh, so nice. Yeah. Roller skating?

Hulk on roller skates. That could get interesting.

You'd probably like take him to the movies and a dinner. You're like, "I'll fly you to another universe." Maybe we'll check out the Nine Realms. I don't know. I got no plans tomorrow night.

Biggest turn-on and biggest turn-off. Biggest turn-on? How about, um, honesty?

Anger? Anger issues?

For turn-on? Yeah, turn-on. Yeah. Anger issues.

Okay, right.

Hey, big guy. Biggest turn-off?

Do you want me to answer the off? Maybe. Yes. Tattoos. Dishonesty. Small shoes.

Man without anger issues. Like anybody with small shoes.

Man without anger issues.

Perfect. There you go.

Is this for Tinder?

Is this where—

It could be. We're going to sell this somewhere. Yeah, wouldn't it be great? If you could step into the shoes of one other Avenger for a day, who would it be?

I'd probably want to play Captain America and just make him good. Mm. So good. Just to play Thor for a second as an interesting guy.

As someone with layers.

Wow. You know layers? You know, like when there's depth behind the eyes? I'll just hit my cap a little light. Muscles are great, but just kind of like, oh, there's something beneath the veneer. What's Cap going to do? The right thing. Maybe I'd love to bring Thor to life. That's so boring. He sends messages of me. Let me open the door for you. No, that's sexist. If you look into the meaning of that.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because George Sid asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to profile in a future top 10, please check out the link down in the description below and you can cast your vote on who we should do next. I also want to give a quick shout out to Imran Dean. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and posting that great picture to Instagram. It looks so colorful. I hope you enjoyed that beautiful summer or spring day when you posted it. I really, really, really appreciate the support again, and I hope you enjoyed the read. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

Since entering the Hollywood scene in 2009's Star Trek, Chris Hemsworth has captured America's heart tackling big roles like Thor. Smaller ones like Formula One racer James Hunt in Rush.

Level playing field now, my ratty little friend.

And even made us laugh in movies like Vacation.

You could make hot water come out of the cold faucet.

And on SNL.

Taxi! Everything I do, you want it to be different from the last, and doing like things like that just helps sort of reinvigorate you and you learn different things. Hello, I'm here about the receptionist job.

Hi, Abby, we spoke on the phone. We did. Hello there.

Okay, you're hired. Kevin, he's a big Dumb puppy dog.

Ow. It's a Ken doll with the inside scooped out. Kevin. Hi, can you answer the phone?

Can't, it's in the fish tank.

Uh, no, the one on the desk that's ringing. That one. Ah, that one.

He has no idea what they even do. What's this place called again? When I watch this movie, I go, "I just want more Kevin." Here is your coffee, Abby. Thank you.

Did you get sugar in it this time? Mmm.

Aye, aye, Captain. Yeah, the sugar's in it.

Sugar's in it. I'm holding it. It's like a waste.

Chris Hemsworth is a huge comedic talent. Seriously, there's no way that you're this sweet, this funny, this fine.

That's just not fair. He's so funny. He's such a funny improviser. Can I ask why no glass?

They just kept getting dirty, so I took them out.

Kristen and I were fully crying. We were laughing that hard because of what Chris was talking about.

So then it became a character thing for him.

Don't listen. Hello?

Covered his eyes. Kevin thinks he's going to become a Ghostbuster too. We need to form a group and build something to fight these damn ghosts.

That's exactly what we already do here.

Takes a whole lot of the equipment, gets a bike, builds his own uniform, and it's like, look, you know, I'm one of the gang now.

I asked Kevin to throw together a couple of logos for us. Oh, you do see how this might make us look bad.

Is it the boobs you don't like? Because I can make them bigger.

Ah. Do you know when the first time you felt successful was? Do you ever feel like, yes, I've made it?

No, I think it's an ongoing, you know, challenge. There's things you feel proud of, and then there's films where you feel like, I could have done that better, you know, or I wish I'd done this or tried that. I remember in high school when I first started thinking about You know, talking about being an actor, it was like, you know, I'm going to Hollywood. That was sort of my, you know, my thing. And it was just because I loved those kind of films, you know, as a kid. I loved that sort of films that took me to another place or another universe and sort of, you know, that vivid sort of concept that took me out of, you know, reality and transferred me to, you know, somewhere else. And that was, I mean, even now if I look at this film and, you know, the first time I saw it was when the visual effects weren't finished and seeing it last night when they were finished and both times, you know, I felt like a kid again. I was entertained, I was laughing, I was, you know, cheering and all that. And I was in the film. Honestly, like, when you, you know, from an acting point of view, it's really tough to watch yourself, you know, you're your biggest critic, anyone, you know, not just as an actor, as a writer or, you know, anyone in life, we judge ourselves more than anyone, you know, so when you get swept away in the, you know, the ride of it all, that's someone's doing something right and that was, you know, I really felt that with this film.