Busting out

Chris Hemsworth talks turning sidekick for Ghostbusters role...

You need a male receptionist for your all-female Ghostbusters reboot. Who you gonna call? If you’re Paul Feig, then Chris Hemsworth, it seems. While comedy had been a big gap on the

actor’s CV, his hosting of Saturday Night Live in March last year spurred the Bridesmaids director to get straight on the blower. “Paul called me up,” reports Hemsworth, “and said, ‘That was great!

I didn’t know you could do that! Do you have a bigger interest in doing more?’” The Thor star confessed he’d always wanted to make ’em laugh

– though he probably would’ve wished for a slightly less pant-wetting experience than lining up alongside experienced comediennes Melissa

McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. “The night before we started shooting, I called Paul and said, ‘What am I doing?’ We didn’t have a script really – I had a couple of lines. He

said, ‘It’s fine – this is the way we work!’” Well known for his improvisation techniques, Feig simply wanted to dump Hemsworth in the mix and see what flew. Easier said than done when his only comedy credit is a cameo in Vacation. “That was scary,” admits the Australian. “But it was

so liberating. OK – if it doesn’t work, it’s not my fault! As opposed to, ‘Here’s the greatest script in

the world, don’t screw it up!’” With Hemsworth playing the Ghostbusters’ bespectacled, bike-riding secretary Kevin – a reversal of the original, which saw Annie Potts

as the shrill Janine – it’s enough to make you shout, “We got one!” Will the switcheroo work? “There’s a whole new spin on it,” he argues. “It feels less of a remake. What they bring to it is something very unique. Not just being female – but they’re so, so funny and so, so, smart. I think

people will be blown away by it.”