He’s the god of thunder and normally lives in the fictional realm of Asgard, but when Thor comes back down to earth he likes to stay in Richmond.

Or rather Chris Hemsworth, the actor who plays the Marvel Avenger, sets up in town when he’s got filming commitments in London.

Speaking to Richmond and Twickenham Times on the press tour of his latest movie, In the Heart of the Sea (out December 26), the muscular Aussie dad-of-three revealed: “I’ve done five or six films here. I love it here.

“It’s nice to just have a change of scenery. You want different locations and so on. I love it here, the crews and so on are fantastic.

“We used to stay in Richmond and Twickenham a lot and it’s just beautiful, great for family.

“We were coming from LA at the time where there was a not a lot of foot traffic and this is the complete opposite. You can walk with kids in the stroller and so on.”

And the cast enjoyed some high jinks when they were in town, according to Hemsworth’s co-star Benjamin Walker.

The predominantly male cast – which included Kingston actor Tom Holland and 28 Days Later’s Cillian Murphy – played the crew of a ship that was wrecked by a whale in the true story that inspired Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick.

In order to play starving sailors, the cast went on a strict diet to lose weight. All of which made their bond tighter - even if their drinking abilities declined.

Walker, who starred in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, said: “It was mostly about because we could let loose and just be guys, it was like sailors climbing aboard.

“It was kind of pathetic by the end because we were all so thin and hadn’t eaten. We would have one drink and be asleep or stupid. We were the cheapest dates ever.”

  • We spoke to the stars of In the Heart of the Sea, including Kingston’s Tom Holland and director Ron Howard. Pick up your copy of Richmond and Twickenham Times on December 17, or check rttimes.co.uk/vibe later this week for full coverage.

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