Before he portrayed Thor, the God of Thunder on the big screen, Chris Hemsworth was channelling a hometown hero: Steve Irwin, the original Wildlife Warrior.
In a hilarious yet heartfelt throwback video, the Aussie actor dressed up as the late conservationist – khakis and all – while filming himself in a bush setting as if he was in an episode of The Crocodile Hunter.
“How you going folks?” a teenage-looking Hemsworth said in his best Steve Irwin accent. “We’ve got a real bloody ripper in store for you today. It’s gonna be bloody unreal!”
Hemsworth then ran off into the bush for an adventure, saying on camera that he was on the lookout for a fictional Siberian tiger Australian fox.
“Have a Looksie. That’s what I’m talking about,” he said after spotting a “fox” in the wild. “Deadly-as. He’s digging a hole probably to drag some humans into it.”
He then ran and tackled the “fox”, aka his family dog.
“Next week, we’ll be chasing the Australian grasshopper! Can’t wait!” he said on camera.
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The clip features in the actor’s new documentary, Chris Hemsworth’s Road Trip to Remember, which premiered on National Geographic this week, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
To mark its release, Hemsworth hosted a screening of his Steve Irwin video which was attended by his dad Craig and mum Leonie, who laughed over their son’s childhood antics.
“You almost spelled ‘crocodile’ correct,” his dad said of Hemsworth’s handwritten ‘Crocidile Hunter’ sign. “This is gold.”
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Hemsworth then shared the clip of his parents watching him impersonate Irwin on Instagram, in which he joked about the video being his first “acting gig”.
“My first self-appointed, unofficial acting gig,” he captioned the clip. “I drew inspiration from one of my heroes, the Crocodile Hunter himself.”
“Thanks for getting me my highest grade ever in school, a C-.”
The late Wildlife Warrior’s son, Robert Irwin, said his dad would have been so impressed, he surely would have given the actor a higher grade
“I reckon Dad would’ve been stoked,” Robert commented on Instagram.
The 21-year-old was just two when his dad passed away tragically in 2006. The beloved star was killed by a stingray while filming in the Great Barrier. He was 44.
