Marvel Studios

Chris Hemsworth Stopped Eating Meat for Onscreen ‘Thor' Kiss With Vegan Natalie Portman

"He was just being thoughtful," Portman said of her co-star, who, she joked, normally "eats meat like every half hour"

Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman
Luca Teuchmann/WireImage

Chris Hemsworth may be a carnivore, but he's A-OK in the eyes of noted Hollywood vegan Natalie Portman.

Portman, who co-stars with Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe flick “Thor: Love and Thunder,” opened up during an interview with the UK radio series “Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp" about how Hemsworth quit eating meat — temporarily — before the pair filmed an onscreen kiss.

"The day we had a kiss scene he didn’t eat meat that morning, because I’m vegan. And he eats meat like every half hour," the Oscar winner, whose character, Jane Foster, is revealed as the new Mighty Thor in the movie.

Portman implied that she would never ask a co-star to change their eating habits in order to kiss her onscreen, but she was touched all the same by Hemsworth's gesture.

"That’s not something I’m angry about or care about, but he was just being thoughtful. He’s just a very nice person," said Portman.

Joining Portman in the interview was co-star Tessa Thompson, who also sang Hemsworth's praises.

“I didn’t even know he could go without eating meat. He’s just like, eating bison in the morning," Thompson joked.

Portman, who has followed a plant-based diet for many years, opened up in June 2018 about her dream of creating a vegan cooking show.

During a Q&A panel after a screening of the 2018 documentary "Eating Animals," based on the 2009 book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Portman, who co-produced and narrated the movie, said the program could act as a "starter kit" for newbies veganism.

“I’ll share with you guys my dream,” the actor told the audience, according to Indie Wire. “It would be my dream to make one of those cooking shows, but only for vegan food. It could provide you with a starter kit if you want to be a vegan.”

Portman said in a 2010 op-ed for the Huffington Post that she went vegan — following 20 years as a vegetarian — after reading Foer's book.

"...This book reminded me that some things are just wrong. Perhaps others disagree with me that animals have personalities, but the highly documented torture of animals is unacceptable, and the human cost Foer describes in his book, of which I was previously unaware, is universally compelling," she wrote at the time.

Portman also opened up in 2011 about falling off the vegan wagon while pregnant with her son Aleph.

“I actually went back to being vegetarian when I became pregnant, just because I felt like I wanted that stuff,” she said during a phone interview with the Q100 Bert Show in Atlanta at the time. “I was listening to my body to have eggs and dairy and that sort of stuff.”

“If you’re not eating eggs, then you can’t have cookies or cake from regular bakeries, which can become a problem when that’s all you want to eat,” she said. 

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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