so decided to see Bad Times at El Royale instead

Can you just text from Chris Hemsworth now and say, “Hey, I got an idea. Do you want to talk?”

[Laughs] We have a very healthy relationship, that’s for sure. We’re very fond of one another.

Hemsworth plays a Charles Manson-type character, what interests you about a figure like that?

For me, it was all about finding something different for Chris. Chris got cast in “Thor” in the middle of [making] “Cabin in the Woods,” so I got to see this young actor just launched into the stratosphere. It’s been really fun to see how he has grown and changed, and yet, how he has also stayed exactly the same. He’s still the same wonderful, hardworking, emotional performer that I met almost a decade ago. I knew that it was time for him to do something different. I was excited to write something that would give him a chance to explore darker territory. And I think he was probably eager to get to play something that is a little left of center from the sort of stuff he usually plays. So it very much came together as we created this character of Billy Lee.




Is it fair to say that writing something for Chris was one of the primary starting points for the script?

The truth is, I don’t really think about actors when I’m writing, but every time I finish a script I look at it and the first thing I think is, “OK, who could Chris play?” When I’m writing I try to only think about the characters. But once I finished, he’s definitely one of the first people I called. I just love working with him so much.