Chris Hemsworth and Mad Max the movies were a match made in biker gang heaven.
Writer-director George Miller tells PEOPLE Thor star has ties to his film franchise that began back in 1979. Chris’ father Craig “was hanging out with a biker gang that was in the first Mad Max“, says the Australian director. “There is a photograph!”
Chris, 40, plays a biker in Miller’s latest Wasteland venture: Dementus, a wild warlord who drives a chariot made of motorcycles, in Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga. The epic predecessor to the Oscar-winning 2015 Mad Max: Fury Roadthe new film stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa in her early years.
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In what Miller, 79, calls a “full circle” moment, Chris’ father almost joined the original Mad Max the 1979 film, in which Mel Gibson played a policeman seeking revenge amid Australia’s social and environmental collapse.
“He was a social worker who went to university, otherwise he would have been part of that bikie gang in Melbourne,” Miller recalls.
Earlier this month, Chris confirmed the fact in an interview with Cinemablend, saying, “My dad used to race motorcycles and he knew all the crew that did a lot of the stunts and vehicles in the movie.”
‘Mad Max’ from 1979.
Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
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Miller tells PEOPLE he was cast for the role FuriousA deranged villain was no easy feat. “I had no idea who could play Dementus,” he admits. But after meeting Chris and learning about his “remarkable parents,” he says, “I thought, ‘Gosh, the guy’s not even 40, and he’s got so much wisdom. A very smart, very wise person.’
“I gave him the script and he responded really well to the character,” adds Miller. “I’ve worked with some really good actors, and he’s definitely up there with them.”
When Chris was first cast as Dementus, he made it clear in an Instagram post that he had the highest regard for Miller. “Mad Max was the pinnacle and a big reason I got into storytelling,” he wrote in a post in 2020. The franchise, he said, “meant the world to me as a kid growing up in Australia.”
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(L-R:) Craig Hemsworth and Chris Hemsworth on May 15.
Lionel Hahn/Getty
On Thursday, May 23, Chris received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a ceremony attended by his wife, Elsa Pataky, their three children, and both of his parents.
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In a speech in his honor Furious muse, Miller told the story of Craig’s proximity in 1979. Mad Max. He then praised Chris, saying: “He’s a great actor and I’m so happy to say he’s a great human being.”
Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga it’s in theaters now.
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Source: HIS Education