Chris Hemsworth’s Best Performance Isn’t As A Hero But As A Terrifying Villain
Chris Hemsworth plays Billy Lee, a menacing cult leader in Bad Times at the El Royale.
Chris Hemsworth is undoubtedly best known for playing the superhero and Avenger Thor. It’s a great role for him too, and he’s shown he can bring both gravitas and humor to the mighty God of Thunder. However, he’s far from a hero in arguably his best role — a cult leader in Bad Times at the El Royale.
Bad Times at the El Royale was a box office bomb, but it’s definitely an underrated film. It had a lot going for it, too, as its dynamite cast included Chris Hemsworth, Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, Xavier Dolan, and Shea Whigham. Despite this, the film only managed to pull in $31.9 million against a production budget of $32 million.
Still, Chris Hemsworth’s performance in the film is undeniably one of the best parts. The neo-noir film takes place in a hotel located along the California–Nevada border in the 1960s and follows six strangers and an employee at the hotel. Hemsworth plays a terrifying and charismatic cult leader named Billy Lee and instantly ratchets up the tension when he makes his appearance.
Cult leader characters are always at their most terrifying when they have a magnetic quality to them, and Drew Goddard’s direction and script smartly use Hemsworth’s good looks and charm to full effect here. Rather than using them to make him a likable and affable character, it has the opposite effect and makes his villain all the scarier. Hemsworth seems to relish the chance to play the villain for once and flex his range, and his performance here warrants him getting more villain roles in the future.
Bad Times at the El Royale was director/writer Drew Goddard’s second collaboration with Chris Hemsworth. The first was 2011’s Cabin in the Woods. While Hemsworth didn’t play the villain there, Cabin in the Woods is still arguably one of his best movies.
Maybe Hemsworth and Goddard should collaborate more often, as they clearly make a good pair.
In short, Bad Times at the El Royale is well worth a watch if you want to see Chris Hemsworth in villain mode. But Hemsworth also released his latest movie on Netflix if you prefer hero Hemsworth. The follow-up to his hit 2020 Netflix film Extraction just hit the streamer and is now available to watch.
In Extraction 2, Hemsworth returns as mercenary Tyler Rake, who is ready to take on his next mission. Extraction 2, like the previous film, is directed by Sam Hargrove and written by Joe Russo based on the graphic novel Ciudad he co-wrote with Ande Parks, Anthony Russo, Fernando León González, and Eric Skillman.
Along with Chris Hemsworth, the action-packed film stars Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, Tinatin Dalakishvili, and Idris Elba. The film is already getting good reviews, so it’s probably worth your time as well.
If you want to have a solid Chris Hemsworth double-feature that shows off his range, Extraction 2 and Bad Times at the El Royal would definitely be a good movie night. Hemsworth doesn’t have another film scheduled until 2024, so it might be a while until we see a new performance from him. We’ll keep you updated on his projects in the meantime.
