Robert Downey Jr. Gives an 'Avengers' Roast to Chris Hemsworth at Walk of Fame Ceremony

Good morning, Hollywood! My name is Sarah Zarell and I am the chair of the board of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has proudly been hosting the Walk of Fame for more than 60 years for millions of people around the world and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the star ceremony for Chris Hemsworth. I'd now like to introduce Walk of Famer and Hall of Famer, iHeartRadio music personality, Ellen Kay! She will be our emcee. All right, this is the best, loudest, rowdiest crowd we've ever had for Chris Hemsworth! And you saw Elsa Pataki and Robert Downey Jr. All right, good morning. I'm Ellen Kay. I'm so excited to be your host for this history-making festivity, welcoming Chris Hemsworth to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And before we start, I want to give a big shout out to our live stream partner, Variety, and to all the fans watching around the world and especially to Australia. We want to give a big thank you to our friends here at Ovation Hollywood for helping us with this special day and ceremony. Now, the Hollywood Walk of Fame recognizes achievement in the categories of motion pictures, radio, live theater, live performance, sports entertainment, recording and television. And today, in the category of motion pictures, we honor Chris Hemsworth with star number 2,781 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And you are here to witness it. So before we invite Chris to the stage, let me tell you a little bit about our honoree. Chris Hemsworth is one of the most popular and sought-after actors in Hollywood. After his massive success in the Marvel Universe franchise, Chris teamed up with the Russo brothers yet again for the Netflix original film Extraction, bringing in 99 million viewers within the first four weeks alone. The film became the most-watched original movie Netflix had ever made. Of the six Marvel and global Avengers franchise films, Chris has starred in Avengers Endgame, remains one of the highest-grossing movies of all time with a haul of over $2.7 billion worldwide. Introduced as Thor in the 2011 hit film, Chris continued his legacy in Thor Ragnarok and Thor Love and Thunder. Chris will next be seen in the highly-anticipated George Miller Mad Max prequel Furiosa, a Mad Max saga, in theaters tomorrow. And I was reading today it's going to win like, I think $65 million, number one at the box office. Born and raised in Australia, where he began his acting career, Chris made his U.S. feature film debut in the blockbuster Star Trek, playing the role of George Kirk. Other lead roles for today's honoree, and you do not have to hold your applause, Spiderhead, Snow White and the Huntsman, and the prequel The Huntsman, Winter's War, and Men in Black International. His other films include Ghostbusters, Vacation, Rush, In the Heart of the Sea, 12 Strong, and Bad Times at the El Royale. Oh, and recently, the star of Hot Ones. An active philanthropist, Chris supports the Australian Childhood Foundation and is passionate about ocean conservation. Please help me welcome to the stage our newest Walk of Famer, Chris Hemsworth. Before we hear from Chris, we have a couple of friends of yours who would like to say a few words. Our first speaker today is also an Aussie, an Academy Award winning filmmaker. He began his career with the feature film directorial debut of Mad Max, which he also co-wrote. The global phenomenon spawned three successful sequels with Mad Max 2, The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, and Mad Max Fury Road, which saw the return of Max and introduced the world to Furiosa. The film grossed more than $380 million worldwide and earned six Academy Awards. His other films include Happy Feet, Babe, and Lorenzo's Oil. Please welcome to the stage, George Miller. So, 45 years ago, when we started off making the first Mad Max, there were a group of motorcycle riders who were going to appear in the film, and one of them happened to be a guy called Craig Hemsworth. He's sitting down here. He was 19 at the time. He couldn't do the film because he was going to university, and that's where he met Leone, his wife, and they ended up becoming social workers who were very, very influential in Australia working with troubled kids. Now, 45 years later, I got to work with one of their sons, Chris, in Furiosa, and the film only finished about a month ago with Anya and Chris and a whole bunch of wonderful actors. I got to know him as a professional working, and I was incredibly impressed by the way that he worked well beyond my expectations and in the way that he brought people together. So he's a great actor, and I'm so happy to say he's a great human being. When it comes to stars, I think you can have stars all the way in that direction and all the way in that direction. You can have them in the night sky, and Chris, I think this is fantastic that this is happening to you. Thank you so much. Thank you, George. And before I introduce our next speaker, we have some incredible guests in the audience today, including Chris's beautiful wife and actress, Elsa Fataki, and their kids. Actress Anya Taylor-Joy, and film producer Doug Mitchell, friend of the chamber, actress Angela Vial is here. And our next speaker is an Academy Award winning actor who has captivated all of us with his remarkable performances. I get up early, and I love happy coffee. Dazzling Dark Roast is the best. Most recently, this guy won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the critically acclaimed feature Oppenheimer. His iconic portrayal of Iron Man, Tony Stark, has become the cornerstone of an unparalleled 10-year cinematic journey. I don't even need to say his name, but please welcome to the stage Chris's friend and co-star, Robert Downey Jr. Oh, hi. First of all, I cannot wait for Furiosa. In case you're wondering, you just look anywhere around here, this is going to be the film of 2024. I can't wait. I'm going to see it three times. I want commitments that everyone is going to see it three times, be like Barbenheimer Plus. I want you to go to one theater and see this film three times instead of three other movies. I want you to know I wrote all my comments myself, which is why they're going to be quite insightful and brilliant. Beyond the cape and the hammer is a contagious Aussie charm. You are a remarkable human being. It's no fun following you. You're a legend. Seeing Anya here and everybody in the family is amazing. Chris is a bit daunting to describe. He's very elusive because of the the pretty packaging. However, upon further inspection, Dan on that it all night. He has a true blue wit and he has a depth of soul. And it has been my sincere pleasure to know you low these many years. But you keep us Hollywood folks on our toes because you're you're just the real dude. And now here comes the roast. I reached out to his fellow Avengers to distill to three simple describing words. What is Chris Hemsworth? First off, Renner says absurdly, annoyingly amazing. Ruffalo came in strong with friend from work. Oh, that's a callback. Now I get it. Scarlet got to the heart of it with sensitive leading lady. Captain America calls him second best Chris. And I'm just going to bring it right here to the moment to the here and now with joy and such a sense of there's no one who deserves this more. He is Hollywood star recipient. All right. Thank you, Robert. I'm going to hand it over now to Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Steve Nissen. All right. It's either good morning or good afternoon, Hollywood. My name is Steve Nissen. I'm president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. And as has been said before, the Chamber of Commerce has been administering the Walk of Fame for over six decades. There are 2780 other geniuses of arts in the media. And we're about to add one more on this hollowed sidewalk in Chris Hemsworth. Now, Chris, it's 7,937 miles from your birthplace in Melbourne to this very spot. That's 12,774 kilometers for those of you who use the other system. This is one of the most prime pieces of real estate in all of Hollywood that you will be gracing really forever in perpetuity. One of the most famous intersections in the entire world. Now, even though this is a street of dreams and aspirations and creativity, it's also a real place in the city of Los Angeles. And so on behalf of the city of Los Angeles and our council member, Hugo Soto Martinez, who represents this area, we'd like to present you with a plaque from the city. All right. Before we hear from Chris, there's one other thing I have to say. On behalf of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, I now declare today Chris Hemsworth Day in Hollywood! Take it away, Chris. Thank you very much. Thank you. Firstly, thank you, George and Robert. Two icons of the industry. Two of my heroes. Having not just been able to meet them in person, but to spend time with them, to work with them was an absolute honor. And I learned so much from both of you. The sense of humility and encouragement they both gave me. What I learned about discipline and respect and enjoying yourself on the set and including everyone who's part of the process and understanding it's a team effort. That's something I'll never forget. And I'm eternally grateful, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you very much to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Walk of Fame Selection Committee for this honor. This is a dream come true. It's kind of amazing and hard to articulate. To Warner Brothers, Pam Abbey, Mike DeLuca, Josh Goldstein, the entire Warner Brothers publicity and marketing team. We've just been on the Furiosa press tour for the last three weeks and it's been incredible. And again, George speaks to this a lot, but the team effort, the collective spirit that's involved is second to none. And I'm honored to be a part of the group and the team at Warner Brothers. And yeah, thank you. And the Furiosa team, Anya Taylor-Joy. Obviously, George Miller, Doug Mitchell, the entire cast and crew who made that film. It was an incredible experience. Thank you, guys. And thanks for being here today. I, like many actors, on my way to an audition would drive through this section here in Hollywood Boulevard and see the billboards of films that I wished I was a part of or films that were inspiring me. The stars on the sidewalk here and sort of ask myself or wonder, wow, you know, one day or what if or what would that be like? And what would that represent? How would I feel when that happened if ever I was to make it anywhere close to it? And again, it's kind of a dream state sort of quality to it. I feel like I'm about to wake up in some way and this is not real at all. It's all something I've imagined. But to be in reality, I feel a wonderful, profound sense of gratitude. That's a feeling I keep coming back to because I'm well aware of the many, many people that have been involved in this journey. The many, many people, my family, my friends, my team who have encouraged me, have kept me passionate, kept me on the right track, picked me up when I fell. But been there as people of support and that support network. And I share this with all of them, from Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel who really sort of launched my career. I am indebted to you guys and you, Kevin, forever as the cinema audience that has been encapsulated by the films you've presented, all of them. And so to be a part of that is a dream. I have my agent, Brian Lord, my publicist, Robin Baum, my entire team at CAA, my lawyers, all my family, friends. You know, a lot of these guys here, I slept on various couches. I borrowed money from, I still owe money to a few of them. Guys I went to school with that I'm still working with, Luke Zocchi, Aaron Grist, Luca Matteo, Evan. You know, one of my oldest friends, Josh McDonald, who's here today, who I, when I was probably, we went to primary school together. And when we were six years old, right up until when we were the end of high school, 18, we would be reciting movies and lines from movies and doing it just for the pure passion and joy of it. And not knowing or thinking I was going to be an actor one day, but just because we love storytelling. We love to be a part of that process. And we'd have little tape recorders and we'd play the background music and soundtracks to different things. And just this morning, Josh was in my room and quoting movies and going, do you know this one? Do you know this one? And so to be here now and to have this dream be reality, to be a much larger kid than I was then, but still be doing the same thing, which is living out my passion and my dream, is again, hard to put into words. It has a very surreal quality to it. But again, I'm beyond grateful for it. I think a lot of the reason that I believed in myself doing this was the belief that my friends and family had for me. And specifically my parents who raised me with the belief that if you choose something you're passionate about, if you lean to that thing that you love with your heart and soul, then the purpose and the meaning is laid out in front of you. And to give things value by committing to it. And we don't say rising into love. We say falling into love. So fall into it. There's a leap of faith that occurs and there's a risk in that. But if you have people around you to catch you and support you, then it's a far easier risk to take. And I'm so thankful for my parents' encouragement along the way. And the confidence they gave myself and my brothers to pursue something that we were passionate about that ignited curiosity and creativity. And just to keep your head down and keep pushing forward. So thank you, guys. I want to say thank you to my beautiful wife who has been here for my entire career basically by my side. Endlessly encouraging and supportive. And it doesn't get lost upon me that she put aside her own dreams in order to support mine. And I'm again forever in your debt. And the fact that nothing that I do, any of these moments, these special occasions, all these events, none of it's as special without you by my side. And I love you. And then my kids who, my kids are endlessly inspiring for so many reasons. They're an abundance of joy and passion. They inspire me to increase my VO2 max and my strength and conditioning just to wrangle them and keep up with them. But their ability to live in the moment and to dive into life head first and to have fun and be joyous and playful is a constant reminder that that's what life's about. And it's a constant inspiration. So I love you guys. And lastly, to the fans, to the audience, to you guys who show up and buy the tickets and allow all of us in this space to continue to live out this crazy dream and you've made it a reality. Again, I wouldn't be here without you all. I love you so much. Thank you for the support. Love you all. Cheers. All right. We're about to unveil the star. Now, the star will be here permanently for generations to come. But we in the ceremony, we only get a few hours. And that is thanks to both the city of Los Angeles and our wonderful host will allow us to park in front of their building. So a big thank you to Ovation and to Cecilia Gomez and her team for making this possible. And now, drum roll. It's time to unveil the star. So shall we go down? Chris, Chris, can I ask you a question? What are you standing there for? I hit you, bro. Just stand on it. There you go. Oh! That smile. Right in the middle, Chris. Down below, sir. Right in front of you. Hey, Chris. All right. Chris, right. Straight ahead. Chris. Quick picture. You too, guys. Anya. Anya, can we get sunglasses? Can we get on the star? Chris, walk on the star. Let's get on the star, guys. I don't want to stand. Walk on the star. There you go. Aha. And everybody just cheers. Left. Smile straight ahead. Guys, right down below, please. Right down below. Smile. Everybody on your left. Anya, Anya. Actually, we've got two sharks. We do Chris and Anya. Chris and Anya. Chris and Anya, real quick. There you go. Chris and Anya on the star. Ah, there you go. Those smiles. Chris and Anya. Anya, that beautiful smile. We're in the middle. Do you want this? Chris, right below. Chris and Anya. We're on the left. Anya. Chris and Robert. I'm supporting the family. Come on over here, guys. Robert. Let's get Robert. Robert. Get the marble. Right in the middle, guys. Steve, over here. Got it. Can we get RDJ? RDJ. Over here, guys. Got it. Here's Robert. Family shot. Here it is. There you go. That's awesome. And that smile. That's the spirit. Guys, right in front of you, please. Right here. Go right there, guys. Those big smiles. Right here, guys. To your right, please. Guys, right down here, please. Everybody, right down here. To your left. And then right here, in the middle. There you go. Guys, one time, right here below. Guys, down below, please. And everybody to the left a bit. And everybody to the left. And as a group, in the center. Chris. Chris, can we do one without the pop? Right in those smiles, right there, guys. Straight ahead. Guys, right down below. One with your boys. Chris and Elsa. Quick two-shot. Elsa. Yeah. And those smiles straight ahead, please. Chris and Elsa, just over here. On your left. Guys, down in front. Chris, Elsa to the left. One kiss. Wow, guys. Oh, yeah. Give it to me. Right in front. Right in the middle, guys. Bobby D. And Robert and Chris, just right over here.