Tessa Thompson has nothing but love and some, uh, interesting descriptors for her Thor costar Chris Hemsworth.
The actress, who premiered her new film Hedda at the BFI London Film Festival, sat for one of the fest’s screen talks Monday, where she reflected on her time making multiple Marvel movies with Hemsworth. According to Variety, she likened her scene partner to “a baby with muscles, a very big infant.”
Thompson seemed to mean that affectionately, adding that Hemsworth has “no inhibition” and “will just do anything, you know, to get the laugh and to discover, so it’s a pleasure to work with him.”
The Valkyrie actress and Hemsworth, who plays the hammer-swinging superhero Thor, have shared the screen in the Marvel movies Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Ragnarok, and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Making those films is “so goofy” sometimes, Thompson said. “The mechanism of making those films requires a place of pure imagination, you know, where you just have to play like a kid.”
But it’s an experience the actress sought out. “I really wanted to make a movie like that, because I’m not sure I can do that, and I really want to figure out if I can,” Thompson said. “And it was just so fun. It really, really freed me up.”
Thompson had similar praise for Taika Waititi, who directed her and Hemsworth in Ragnarok and Love and Thunder. Per Variety, Thompson quipped that Waititi’s childlike approach to filmmaking is “terrifying” and “he should be stopped.” She likened the filmmaker to “a huge infant, just, he’s like an infant with a bank account.”
Jacopo M. Raule/Getty Images
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Elsewhere in the conversation, Thompson discussed her time working with Ryan Coogler on Creed, and her role in Hedda, which teams her up once more with The Marvels director Nia DaCosta.
In Hedda, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, Thompson takes on the title role, which she said was a challenge. “I really like to do things that terrify me, I really like that,” she said.
Thompson credits DaCosta with her ultimately landing the part. “I became conscious that I’m not sure I would have got the opportunity were it not for a filmmaker that was interested in putting people like me in the center of a frame,” she said.
Hedda will hit select U.S. theaters on Oct. 22, and will stream on Amazon Prime Video starting Oct. 29.
