Chris Hemsworth is officially a feminist. In an interview promoting his upcoming movie, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the 32-year-old actor revealed he doesn’t shy away from the label.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” Hemsworth told RadioTimes when asked if he identified as a feminist. “My mum’s a big feminist. I think that my views on things, as far as respect for women and so on, came from my mum. My dad has a very balanced and respectful view on a lot of things too. They were huge positive influences in my life.”
Hemsworth went on to say that Huntsman’s tenacious, female-heavy cast was a major reason he signed on to the film in the first place. “The strength of it was in these three women and their performances, the heart and soul that they’ve blended through their characters,” he said. “I think the balance has been tipped for a long time heavily in the men’s direction. There are seven to eight male superheroes and one female in there. This is the opposite.”
The actor joins a growing list of Hollywood men that have embraced “feminist” as an identifier in recent years. At a press conference ahead of his 2014 Sound of Change performance, John Legend staunchly declared “all men should be feminists,” and in 2014, Joseph-Gordon Levitt shared an entire video dedicated to why he totes the term. “To me it just means your gender doesn’t have to define who you are,” Gordon-Levitt said. “You can be whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be regardless of your gender.”
In Huntsman, the prequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, Hemsworth reprises his role as axe-swinging warrior Eric in his quest to take down evil ice queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron). He stars alongside a bevy of tough-minded women, including Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, and Sophie Cookson.
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