At over 190 centimetres tall with broad shoulders and a six-pack to match, you might think that 19 year-old actor Liam Hemsworth is a bit of a handful. But according to the man himself, he’s calmed down a lot. “When I was a little kid I was a devil,” he says with his deep booming voice. “My brothers called me 666. I was seriously crazy. Once I even tried to stab them with real knives. Thank goodness when I got to about ten I started to mellow.” The brothers in question are Chris and Luke Hemsworth – both also actors – and the threesome have been quite a force in Australian television over the past five years.
Oldest brother Luke played the role of John Carter in Neighbours and has recently been seen in Tangle and Carla Cametti PD. Middle brother Chris was a Home and Away graduate before heading for Hollywood and picking up the part of George Kirk (Captain Kirk’s father) in last year’s Star Trek movie. He’s also just been cast as Thor in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the Thor super-hero story, Marvel Comic’s next big outing. Then there’s the latest – and some say hottest – Hemsworth off the block: little brother Liam. He played the paraplegic Josh Taylor in Neighbours for a couple of years, after starting his career in an episode of McLeod’s Daughters. It was a tiny part, but left the then 17 year old with a thirst for acting. “I didn’t get an acting job until the last year of school when I picked up a small part in McLeod’s Daughters. I only missed one week of school, but when I came back I just didn’t want to be there anymore. My head wasn’t in the same place and I knew I had to get out. So I left school and went laying floors with my brother whilst I auditioned for parts. I decided that acting was what I wanted to do, and I was lucky that it’s worked out.”
With supportive parents who had seen the process work for Chris, Liam headed for Hollywood after his stint in Neighbours. “Going to the States was a huge step,” says Hemsworth. “I was always working towards one day going to Los Angeles, because it’s where the biggest movies are made and where the biggest directors work, but it’s an enormous decision.” Securing a leading part in Disney’s upcoming The Last Songwithin weeks of his arrival, the plan clearly paid off. Hemsworth believes his years working in Australia television were critical to his speedy success. “It was the best preparation you could get, and gave me a huge advantage. You walk into a casting room in L.A. and no one knows you so they think you have no experience. But amost immediately they can tell you know what you are doing. You have one up on everyone else.”
In The Last Song, Hemsworth plays the part of Will Blakelee, a young man from a laid-back Southern beach town who falls in love with a difficult teenager visiting her estranged father. His leading lady is none other than American teen super-star Miley Cyrus, and the gossip rags are full of chatter that Miley and Liam are now an item. Hemsworth remains wonderfully understated and relaxed about both the tittle-tattle and the limelight. “I’ve played romantic stuff before, but nothing quite like this,” he says with a grin. “It’s the hardest stuff for me. You want romance not to look awkward – which is exactly what it is when you have to kiss someone with a hundred people on set. Before I’d seen the script, I was worried that my character would just be the typical love interest but once I read it, I realised it was going to be great.”
Hemsworth met Miley Cyrus – for whom the whole film had been carefully constructed – at a script reading. A few weeks later he was running along a beach with her in hand. “The first kiss is always the most awkward, especially when you’ve only known someone for a couple of weeks and you have to make it look like you’re in love. Luckily on the first day of shooting, we had a scene where we were running through water and splashing and having fun. It wasn’t in the script but suddenly the director yelled “kiss” so we got thrown into it. There was no time to get nervous.”
Away from the cameras the two young leads were also getting on well, which made things easy for Hemsworth. “We had great chemistry from the first time we met, and if you genuinely like being around someone, then there’s no real work to be done.” He also has nothing but admiration for the young singer/actress, star of the Hannah Montana TV series. “She’s incredible,” he admits. “She is really down to earth and works harder than anyone else. She films during the week and records music at weekends. She doesn’t stop.”
It doesn’t look like Hemsworth is going to stop either. Like his Thor brother Chris, he’s already been cast as the lead in a new epic 3D feature film Arabian Nights, to be directed by Chuck Russel, who made The Mask and The Scorpion King. It’s just the kind of blitzkrieg project that Hemsworth has been after. “We start filming in September,” he says, “and it’s going to be amazing. I love big epic stores with swords, fighting and action. The Mask was one of my favourite films as a kid, so it seems strange to be working with the director who made that.”
Not as strange for Hemsworth as seeing his own face on huge billboards around Hollywood. “The last few weeks promoting The Last Song has been very weird,” he says refectively. “I keep stopping the car and taking photos. It just doesn’t seem real.”
