Chris Hemsworth plays a game of cat and mouse with Mark Ruffalo in Crime 101.
The Bart Layton-directed film, which premieres exclusively in theaters globally on Friday, follows a jewel thief (Hemsworth) whose heists along the 101 freeway in Southern California capture the attention of a relentless detective (Ruffalo).
The actors have lost count of the number of times they’ve worked together, Hemsworth told ABC Audio, as both are OG members of The Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But this film was completely different than any of their other acting collaborations, Hemsworth said.
“It’s super refreshing. We’ve talked about doing other stuff together for a long time. And I sent him the script, and he immediately flipped for it and said, ‘This is brilliant,'” Hemsworth said. “And off we went.”
While the tone of Crime 101 is much different than that of an MCU joint, Hemsworth says their iconic superhero personas weren’t far away from this film’s set.
“We brought some of our Thor and Hulk energy initially of just the excitement,” Hemsworth said. “And then Bart [Layton] was like, ‘Whoa, different energy, different film.'”
Hemsworth said striking a different tone with Ruffalo this time around was wonderful, but it was also intimidating.
“It was quite lovely to step into completely different shoes, but quite uncomfortable, too, because it’s like acting in front of a family member, you know?” Hemsworth said. “They know your tricks, and now you’re doing something very different. And so it was quite unsettling, but as it should have been for the characters, too.”
The Thor actor said he and Ruffalo “just had a fantastic time” making this film together.
“He’s one of my favorite people,” Hemsworth said.
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