Here are some lovely photos of Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky at last night’s London premiere of Rush, the Formula One movie where Chris plays James Hunt. This is the first red carpet Chris has walked in months and months. He looks slightly uncomfortable, but maybe everyone looks slightly uncomfortable compared to Elsa’s overzealous joy at being around the cameras. Elsa’s jumpsuit thing is Elie Saab – I kind of like it, even though I think it’s kind of wrong for the premiere.

Interestingly enough, Elsa and Chris also did a big kiss for the cameras, which I’m sure she loved. One thing is clear – Chris wants us to think that he adores his wife. Is this strategy or is it genuine – or both? I just read Chris’s Telegraph interview, and after I finished it… I kind of think he just goes out of his way to be really respectful of Elsa and his marriage. I’m not joking, there is no punchline. While I think there’s something fishy going on with Chris these days, I’m not sure it’s about his marriage. You can read Chris’s full interview here.

He isn’t into driving fast in his real-life SUV: “It has a babyseat and surfboard in the back, it’s a pretty mellow thing. I go ‘Slow down, what’s the rush, there’s a red light.’ She says: ‘Shut up, when did you become a driving instructor?’”

On Rush: “I love the fantasy world and the movies I’ve been doing but it was nice not to be wielding some sort of weapon. I was looking for something more character-driven.”

Advice from Matt Damon: “Matt Damon once said to me, ‘Just stay boring. Don’t go spilling out of a club at four in the morning and you’ll be fine.’ The paparazzi got bored with us. Because we are pretty boring.”

On the real-life James Hunt: “Yeah. What I love about him, and I like to think I have, is a sort of childlike quality. There’s a cheeky little kid aspect to him. That sense of fun and adventure is something I find appealing. And sometimes I would love to act like he did. I’m not talking about the women,” he adds hastily. “I’m talking about how he says what he wants to say or the reaction he has to the reporter.”

Losing weight for Rush: “I went from about 215 [lb] to 185. That was painful. I’d much rather put on weight than have to lose weight. Basically I went from lifting weights and eating lots of protein to just the opposite: running, cardio, overtraining and undereating. My wife was pregnant at the time and she reminds me that I was moodier than she was.”

Trying to get James Hunt’s voice: “That is what I was most anxious about. I find the American accent much easier.”

Hunt’s issues: “There was an immense amount of talent there and if you funnel it into something it’s great but if it’s pointed in the wrong direction then it can be chaotic.” Hunt drank himself to oblivion, took drugs and ricocheted through women. “But the thing I found interesting,” says Hemsworth, “is that his ex-girlfriends all had very positive things to say about him. Over the last couple of years I’ve met three or four women who have said ‘I used to date James’ or ‘I slept with him’. And they all said he was a very sweet guy.” I ask if he thinks that Hunt’s behaviour was excusable. “No,” he says adamantly. “There were things he did that were absolutely inexcusable, like urinating in public. He said he was drunk and on a sleeping pill. Who knows? He was drunk at his own wedding.” Hemsworth laughs. “I was sober at mine. A little.”

His early role on Aussie soap “Home & Away”: “That was my biggest learning curve. I spent three-and-a-half years on the show. You shoot 20 scenes a day, five episodes a week, so you either sink or swim. If you can make it in that kind of environment, a movie set, where you have two or three days to do a scene and months to prepare, feels like a luxury.”

Coming to Hollywood: “I got a film fairly quickly and felt like I was on a roll. I would walk into auditions sounding like Crocodile Dundee, thinking, ‘This is going to be a novelty for them.’ Then I realised that there are a million other Australians here and I should just shut up.” The work dried up. “Everything stopped for nine months. I was about to go back home. I was sick of being told ‘no’. My pride was like [he makes a noise like a deflating balloon].” But things started to take an upturn when he decided that he no longer cared. “I lost that pent-up anxiety and desperation.”

Being recognized: “Thor,” he says, slightly wearily. “It overshadows everything.” Does he ever get sick of it? “You know…” he laughs, giving me a what-can-I-say look. “It’s great. I’m lucky. Thor has kicked off everything I’m doing and it’s been the greatest thing for me, but I am aware that I need to mix it up a bit.”

He’s still insecure: “That sort of insecurity still flares up, the idea that it could all end tomorrow. I’m more aware than ever of the frailty of it all. There’s a million and one examples of guys who were the guy or the girl and then overnight you never hear from them again.”

On Robert Downey Jr. getting $50 million for The Avengers: Age of Ultron: “I don’t get anything like that,” says Hemsworth with mock despondence. Yes, he agrees, “we’re talking obscene amounts of money” but, he points out candidly, he does not feel it is morally wrong. “When a film like that makes $1.6 billion, then whatever the fee that Downey gets is only relative. Who [should] get the money? Someone’s got to get it.”

The Fifty Shades of Grey rumor: “I keep hearing that rumour too,” he says, adding that he hasn’t read the book. “My friend’s sister read it and was like, ‘Yuck, I can’t think of Chris like that’.” Not that he has been officially approached to play Grey. “I think everyone’s name is in that hat,” he says with ­typical self-deprecation, adding with a laugh: “Look: if I took on that role [after James Hunt] it would begin to seem like typecasting.”

[From The Telegraph]

I like a lot of his quotes. And seriously, Matt Damon gets around, doesn’t he? Matty D is doling out advice to everybody these days. Okay, so that part made me chuckle. Chris might want to be boring and he might want the paps to ignore him, but Elsa does not. At all. Elsa is the one making sure the paps get their candid photos whenever Chris has a movie to promote. Let’s be real here. I wonder if Matty D gave Chris any advice about THAT.

Photos courtesy of WENN.