I was about to quit. I always wanted to act, and one of the first things I wanted to do when I got any money was pay my parents’ house off. I’d asked Dad once when he thought he’d pay it off and he said, “Honestly, probably never.” Most people are in that boat and I wanted to change that. So I was super active with auditions. Then in that eight-month period, I got more and more anxious, to the point where I couldn’t harness that energy. I was trying to convince myself I wasn’t nervous before auditions rather than grabbing hold of it and going, [deep intake of breath] “Use it, raise up your awareness here, sharpen your focus.”And then my mentality changed, which came from being at a point where I was like, “I’m going to go back to Australia.”
I had one more audition where I was like, “Do this for his house. Think about reasons other than yourself.” That was for The Cabin in the Woods, and I got that job, and from there I got Red Dawn. And then I got Thor.
“I’d like to be remembered more for the person I am… was. Someone who’s compassionate. Someone who had a good sense of humour. Someone who enjoyed life and made the most of things and didn’t take it too seriously, but worked hard and shirted up for family and friends when needed.”
“Basically, you lead by example. Be a good person. Live life with integrity and honesty and hopefully some of that will rub off on [my kids]. But most of the time I’m learning from them.”
“I just love the theatrical experience. I think there’s nothing quite like it, and the industry will change in a big way if we don’t get people to the cinema.”
There’s a mentor element with Downey. There’s an incredible friendship with Scarlett and [Jeremy] Renner and [Mark] Ruffalo. With Chris Evans, I have a real brotherly bond. I think they wouldn’t pair us up on this press tour, because we just spend the whole time screwing around and none of it is on topic.”
