Far from Home

[Andy]

far from home

Townsville Bulletin

25 August 2006

Life is a whirl for soapie star Chris Hemsworth, but as he tells lendl ryan before his Townsville visit, home is not necessarily where his heart is . . .

Google Chris Hemsworth and you will come across sites such as shirtless forever, hunks now, hottest on tv and chris 4eva.

Troll through the pages and you will unearth comments like "i like chris hemsworth -- no i LOVE chris hemsworth," and " i was counting the ice creams and when i looked up he happened to be looking in my direction . . . then our eyes met . . . i was in love."

What the?

Anyway, the point is, the 23-year-old star has developed quite a following since joining the cast of Seven's long-time-running soap Home and Away.

And, as Savvy found out after chatting to the Summer Bay hottie, he's well aware of it.

"My younger brother tells me all this stuff," he said.

"Apparently, even on MSN chat rooms there are people pretending to be me and my brother has jumped on a couple of times and had a go at them.

"But it doesn't bother me because I try and not look at it too much and try and keep my head in the real world."

Yet, as you would expect life has changed for the soap star.

Since being yanked out of acting oblivion and thrown on to the set as Kim Hyde, things haven't been the same.

Now, even a trip to the corner store requires planning and precision.

"It's a totally different lifestyle now than what I was used to," he explained.

"I still try and do what I have always done, but with that said I think you have to be a bit selective of where you go.

"Sometimes if you want to duck in and get something from the shop it's not that easy."

Girls throwing their knickers at you?

"No, but if that's what happens up in Townsville I can't wait to come up there," he joked.

"But seriously, because the demographic of the show is everyone from younger kids to the older age group, you get all types of people coming up to you and most of the time it's positive, which is good."

Despite the sudden fame and hype that accompanies his every move Chris appears very down to earth.

When asked how he managed to remain grounded, he said it was because acting for him was about being an actor, not a star.

"I didn't go into the industry for all that, the fame and hype, I went into it for the acting," he said.

"All the other stuff is great, but at the end of the day I'm just an actor."

But Chris' popularity hasn't been the only aspect of the Victorian on the rise.

His acting ability and skill is also sky-rocketing with every explosion, drama and love affair the show's writers conceive.

And unfortunately for all Home and Away faithfuls, this could mean the departure of Summer Bay's golden boy.

"I think you get to a point where you learn what you can learn from one thing but in order to get further you have to move on to something else," he said.

Does that mean goodbye Kim Hyde, see you later Chris Hemsworth?

"I'm not allowed to talk about exactly when but at some stage in the next year I could be moving on," Chris said.

"Film is where I want to be and my manager is starting to make contacts over there (LA) with agents and managers, so next year sometime I might be making a move."

Chris Hemsworth will be guest judge for the Townsville Amateurs Fashions on the Field and the Savvy Covergirl/guy competition at Cluden tomorrow.

[shen]

Thanks for the article!

[scribe85]

yay! He's is leaving soon!!! yay!!!

[lisawinnie]

Where abouts in the paper is it because I went on the website and couldn't find it.

[xxgulcanxx]

Thanks for posting yey he's leaving soon!

[Stuart2006]

Thanks for posting