Furiosa Villain Dementus Shares Something With Marvel's Thor, And Chris Hemsworth Hates It
Before I begin, let's just get this out of the way and admit that Marvel's "Thor" and "Furiosa" star Chris Hemsworth is an absolute hunk. I don't know what's in the water in Australia, but all variants of the Brothers Hemsworth (Chris, Luke, and Liam) are all dreamboats in their own way. Chris in particular looks like what happens when a 10-year-old makes a custom character in a superhero video game, which is why so many people were shocked to see his face transformed with prosthetics to play Dementus in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."
His luscious locks were now matted with dust and filth, his facial bone structure was thickened to give him a more historical Roman look, and his megawatt smile now showed the wear and tear of living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Don't get me wrong, Hemsworth can obviously still get it and this character will undoubtedly join Walton Goggins' Ghoul from "Fallout" in the "Can I Say Something?" category of questionable fandom thirsting, but Dementus is a far cry from the God of Thunder.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hemsworth talked about what a "real departure" it was to play a character that doesn't look like himself. He told the interviewer, "It was nice..." before catching himself and correcting his initial thought. "I was about to say it was nice not to wear a cape, but ... I did have a cape in this film," he said. Oh, Marvel. Your inescapable stranglehold on culture continues.
Capes are impractical for superheroes and wasteland warlords
Not only does Hemsworth wear a cape in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," but it's also one that looks quite a bit like the cape he made famous. ("And it's red — or it becomes red eventually, as well. The absurdity of that.") Lest we forget, Thor also wears a red cape, something that film director George Miller hadn't realized when deciding on his costuming. "It's not intentional to be a comparison of Thor," said Hemsworth, "but I found a wonderful departure to it — to play the villain, transform, and inhabit a completely different physicality was a lot of fun." Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the titular Furiosa in the film, asked Hemsworth during the interview, "After years of capes, are they annoying?"
EW reported that Hemsworth didn't even take a moment to think about his answer before replying, "Hate 'em. So impractical." I don't know about you, but whenever I think about capes, the first thing that comes to mind is Edna Mode in "The Incredibles" talking about how Thunderhead was killed when his cape snagged on a missile fin, Stratogale's cape got her sucked into a jet turbine, and how capes caused the demise of Meta-Man in an express elevator, Dynaguy snagged on takeoff, and Splashdown being sucked into a vortex. Simply put, NO CAPES! Well, unless you're Chris Hemsworth, and then I guess you have to wear capes.
For what it's worth, no one can pull off a red cape quite like he can, and even if he finds them to be impractical, at least he still looks cool as hell. You can catch Hemsworth in all his caped glory when "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" opens in theaters on May 24, 2024.