Nordic track: Chris Hemsworth traveled a rough road to win the role of'Thor'

To get the most coveted role in all of Midgard— Earth to non-Vikings —Chris Hemsworthhad to endure more than just an audition.

He overcame a gauntlet.

"Thor"directorKenneth Branaghdesigned trials befitting a God of Thunder: Hemsworth first would have to tell a braggart's tale of past victories. Then he would have to convincingly slam down Mjolnir, or at least a prop version of the hammer whose blows were once believed to unleash lightning.

Finally, he must fight his way through a brace of stunt men.

"We {created} an enormous lightning blast for him, so we could see how he reacted to what it's like when you have the most powerful weapon in the world in your hand,"says Branagh.

"He had to kick and throw people, he had to wear that cape and feel completely at ease with it, and he needed to tell stories because Thor is a storyteller as well."

Two years later, the 27-year-old Australian still can't believe that he earned the right to play the legendaryMarvel Comicssuperhero. The movie arrives Friday.

"It was the first audition I picked up where it said, 'Must be over 6-feet-1,'"says Hemsworth, who had 2 inches to spare."It was the most vivid sort of audition I've ever had. Normally you just come in and you sit down and read a couple of scenes."

But there's nothing normal about Thor, a superhero who isn't nearly as recognizable asSpider-Manor Superman. Though Vikings worshipped the Thunder God for hundreds of years, Thor had been an afterthought for centuries
— untilStan LeeandJack Kirbybrainstormed up a comic book version.

The stakes are high for Thor to vanquish his foes at the box office— including the formidable, just-released"Fast Five,"the latest inVin Diesel's car franchise. And the pressure goes beyond just one movie: Hemsworth will joinRobert Downey Jr.(Iron Man),Chris Evans(Captain America) andMark Ruffalo(The Hulk) in next year's franchise-within-a-franchise
starter,"The Avengers."

"There is a lot of pressure,"saysPaul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst forHollywood.com."And also remember, a year ago 'Iron Man 2' opened to $128 million on the same weekend.

"Each Avengers character has to have a draw in order to make the Avengers movie the huge blockbuster it seems to be destined to be. Each of these characters is an important cog in the wheel."

So Marvel Studios handpicked Branagh, anOscar-nominatedactor-writer-director, to lend some Shakespearean heft to the story of a brash prince longing to prove his mettle as a future king to his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins).

"As much as he's a god, he can travel through space and he has these superpowers and this super-strength— but I think what's very arresting in the story, to be paradoxical and contrary about it, is the human element,"says Branagh.

And the story does have its nods to the Bard with its themes of sibling rivalry and father and son acceptance. Eager to prove his right to rule Asgard— a golden city on another planet linked by a hole in space to Earth, where his people were once mistakenly worshipped as gods by the Vikings — Thor breaks the kingdom's uneasy peace with the Frost Giants.

Banished to Earth for plunging his people into war, he must find some humility in the hardscrabble desert ofNew Mexico, with a doe-eyed astrophysicist (Natalie Portman) as his guide.

Only then can he earn his birthright and smite the enemies taking advantage of his absence at Asgard, where his mischievous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) covets the throne.

"There's an exterior strength and toughness to him, but underneath there's at times a lot of confusion and vulnerability
and that was great to explore,"says Hemsworth.

Don't tell Branagh that this tale is just another entry in a summer clogged with big-budget superhero movies. (The X-Men,Green Lanternand Captain America all are ready for their closeup in the next few months.) The 50-year-old has been waiting for this chance since he was a little boy buying Thor comic books at his local sweet-shop inBelfast.

"It just seemed to me that that Thor— that the comic itself — was carved out of granite,"he says.

"Frankly, no one in the process {of making a movie like this} ever loses that kid-in-the-candy-shop feeling."

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