The Untold Truth Of Liam Hemsworth

The following article includes brief references to child abuse.

As one of the three wonders from the Land Down Under in his famous family, Liam Hemsworth hasn't had to be too concerned about being overshadowed by his older brothers, "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth and "Westworld" actor Luke Hemsworth. In fact, Chris helped Liam land the role that would make him a global superstar, that of Gale Hawthorne in "The Hunger Games." Chris told MTV's Hollywood Crush that he assumed the role of Katniss Everdeen when Liam needed a partner to run lines with ahead of his audition. "Swear to God. I read that. Put my girly American accent on," Chris recalled.

Liam also had to perfect an American accent to get cast as Gale, telling MTV News in another interview that this wasn't too difficult because he'd grown up watching American films. One such movie was "Independence Day," as he recalled to Luke when the older Hemsworth interviewed him for #Legend in 2016. Liam's parents thought he was too young to enjoy the somewhat scary 1996 action classic when they purchased it on VHS, but he sneakily watched Will Smith save the world from aliens, anyway. "I didn't know what was going on as a kid but I absolutely loved it," Liam recalled. Many years later, he would land a starring role in the movie's 2016 sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence."

For fans who are hungry for more facts about "The Hunger Games" star from the outback, grab a Vegemite sandwich and a cold cup of Milo and read on!

During his idyllic younger years living in Phillip Island, Victoria, Liam Hemsworth dreamed of being a celebrity. However, he told GQ Style Australia (via Just Jared) that his original goal was to be a famous competitive surfer like Kelly Slater. "I surfed competitively and made it to the state rounds where I was competing with the top surfers in Victoria," he boasted.

But while riding waves became second nature to Hemsworth, his oceanic obsession wasn't without risk. In a 2012 interview with Men's Health, he said that he's had a shark encounter and some pretty gnarly wipeouts. The star also learned that even the shallows aren't safe when the motion of the ocean is capable of tying you up like a water buffalo wrangler, which is an occupation his dad once had. "When I was a kid, one time I got my leg rope wrapped around my whole body like a ball, underwater," Hemsworth recalled. "Couldn't get up. I was in waist-deep water, but I almost drowned."

Hemsworth got another reminder of how dangerous surfing can be when he landed his first major role on Aussie TV; his "Neighbours" character, Josh Taylor, was paraplegic due to injuries from a surfing accident. But Hemsworth kept surfing for fun, and he eventually got the chance to meet his childhood hero. In 2018, the actor told The Lane that Slater had invited him to hang 10 at his surf ranch. "Never smiled so much in one day," Hemsworth said.

According to Liam Hemsworth, he was so badly behaved as a child that his uncles gave him the nickname Triple Six (666). "They said they tried to exorcise me a few times and it didn't work. ... I was a psychopath," Liam confessed on "Popcorn with Peter Travers" in 2019. He also revealed that he was a Satanic Sour Patch Kid, saying, "I was really sweet, and then I was really evil."

In his defense, Liam had to hold his own against his older brothers, Luke Hemsworth and Chris Hemsworth, who were pretty mischievous themselves. In a 2012 Details interview, Chris fondly reminisced about how they would dress Liam in layers and use him for target practice with their air rifles. "I'd bend over to feed the guinea pigs and I'd get a pellet in the a** out of nowhere," Liam recalled. He eventually began using weapons against his brothers, as well. On "Conan," Liam said that his grandfather gave the three reckless rogues a throwing knife when they were children, which was admittedly a terrible error in judgment. "I threw it at [Chris'] head when I was about 8, and the handle hit him," Liam recalled.

The Hemsworth boys also used the knife to play a dangerous game: They'd toss it at the ground to see how close they could get to each other's feet. "It was kind of blunt, but it would still hurt a lot if it hit you," Liam told Esquire Middle East.

Luke Hemsworth was the first member of his family to get bitten by the acting bug. He made his small-screen debut on "Neighbours" in 2001, six years before Liam Hemsworth joined the cast of the Aussie soap. Luke told ET that it was after that gig that he decided to start his own flooring business, viewing it as a form of financial security that would allow him to keep auditioning for other roles. Liam followed his brother's lead after appearing on "McLeod's Daughters" in 2007. At the time, he was still a student. "I only missed one week of school, but when I came back I just didn't want to be there anymore," Liam recalled to Indie Activity. "My head wasn't in the same place and I knew I had to get out. So I left school and went laying floors with my brother whilst I auditioned for parts." It was during this time that he landed his own role in "Neighbours."

In a 2018 interview with "Young Hollywood," Luke said that Liam only stayed in his employ for a day or two because he found the work too strenuous, but Liam told the Herald Sun that he laid floors for six months. Liam held various other jobs before acting started paying his bills, however. He told Vanity Fair that he was a park ranger at the Penguin Parade attraction on Phillip Island, and he also worked at a local bakery and bowling alley.

Liam Hemsworth's desire to make it to Hollywood was fueled by his sibling rivalry with Chris Hemsworth. "I saw my brother doing it, and I thought I could do it better," Liam told Interview of Chris' earlier acting success. According to Chris, Liam proved this when both Hemsworths auditioned for the role of Thor — at first, at least. "I think my audition sucked," Chris told Wired. While he didn't make the list of finalists being considered for the coveted MCU role, Liam did. 

Ultimately, it was decided that a more seasoned actor needed to wield the Marvel superhero's hammer, which Liam was fine with. In a 2019 GQ Australia interview, he insisted that there were no hard feelings when Chris got another shot at the part. "I was screen testing when I was 18. The other guys in it were all late twenties or early thirties. I didn't feel Thor-ish," he recalled.

Being invited to screen test for Thor had gotten Liam to leave Australia for Hollywood, and once he was there, he decided to stick around. Per the Herald Sun, he and Chris shared an apartment, and from the sounds of it, Chris was a positive influence on his baby bro. "[Chris] always made sure that I knew my lines," Liam told The Lane. "He would say, 'Make sure put the work in now, when you get to set it's easy but right now is when you f***ing work!'"

In addition to coming excruciatingly close to winning the role of Thor only to lose it to his older brother, Liam Hemsworth learned that a promised part in "The Expendables" had been cut soon after he arrived in Hollywood. "So basically, I had nothing," he said on "Today." But before he gave up and flew back to Australia, he got some good news. At first, his audition for the 2010 film "The Last Song" seemed to be another failure, but the actor who initially beat him out for that role ended up losing the job. This gave Hemsworth another opportunity to audition for the part alongside his future co-lead, Miley Cyrus.

Hemsworth and the "Hannah Montana" star had zero time to prepare for their first on-screen liplock, so they were lucky that they had instant chemistry. "On the first day of shooting, we had a scene where we were running through water and splashing and having fun," Hemsworth recalled to Indie Activity. "It wasn't in the script but suddenly the director yelled 'kiss' so we got thrown into it." Sparks also flew away from the set of the romantic Nicholas Sparks movie, and the actors soon found themselves discussing their relationship in interviews. On "The Graham Norton Show," Cyrus revealed that they began dating the same day they shot that kissing scene. She also said that she was a big admirer of Hemsworth's abs but complained about him wearing board shorts everywhere.

Because Liam Hemsworth's character in "The Hunger Games" lives in a dystopian society where food is scarce, the actor got hungry to prepare for the part, telling That Shelf that he trained hard and lost around 15 pounds. Shooting the film was also pretty brutal; he revealed that it got so hot on location in North Carolina that some extras passed out.

To make matters worse, Hemsworth told Collider that the driver who was supposed to take him to the movie's set didn't pick him up on back-to-back days. The producers reacted to this revelation by buying him a bike as a joke and telling him to use it to get to work if he got forgotten again. "It was kind of a punch in the face and a gift at the same time," Hemsworth said.

Hemsworth left the bike in his trailer for weeks, and his co-star, Josh Hutcherson, later confessed to swiping it and having it sent home to his younger brother. But Hutcherson sort of made up for his thievery by taking Hemsworth out to eat at a White Castle, something he'd wanted to do ever since watching the comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2013, Hemsworth recalled (via E! News), "We bought three or four of these briefcases of White Castle burgers." They ate them at Hutcherson's house — then both barfed in his garden. "This is when we really became good friends," Hemsworth said.

Filming "The Hunger Games," a movie that imagines a world where children are forced to kill each other in a televised event, made Liam Hemsworth think about child exploitation in the media. While talking about his role as an ambassador for the Australian Childhood Foundation, he told That Shelf in 2012 that he viewed "Toddlers & Tiaras" as a form of alleged child abuse. 

"You have young children that don't know what they're doing and are too young to make their own decisions, and you have these parents that are allowing and forcing them to do it," he said. As pointed out in a 2011 CNN report, the TLC reality series centered on child beauty pageants was often criticized for sexualizing children. In one episode, for example, a contestant wore a miniature version of Julia Roberts' sex worker costume from "Pretty Woman" during a competition. 

The Australian Childhood Foundation offers support for young victims of abuse. According to the organization's website, the compassionate example Hemsworth's mother and father set for him and his brothers inspired the actor to become one of its ambassadors and help raise awareness of its cause. "They have worked in child protection for twenty years and have only ever given me encouragement and support, and I always felt safe and loved," Hemsworth said of his parents. "The world is a scary enough place as it is for children. It is important that home should always be a safe place for them."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

Whenever Jennifer Lawrence got hungry right before filming kissing scenes with Liam Hemsworth in "The Hunger Games" movies, she forced her poor co-star to suffer. "She would make a point of eating garlic or tuna fish, something that was disgusting," Hemsworth recalled to Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show" in 2012. She would at least warn him about the pungent snacks she consumed before puckering up, and she also made sure to let him know that she didn't chase them with toothpaste. This wasn't the only way Lawrence distracted Hemsworth during shooting. "Right before a take, [she] would turn to me and ask me if I liked having sex with kangaroos or anything along those lines," Hemsworth later said on "The Graham Norton Show." "You never really know what's going to come out of her mouth." Except for a foul odor, apparently.

Lawrence had a kissing confession of her own to make while playing "Plead the Fifth" on "Watch What Happens Live" in 2015. Even though she made kissing her a gross experience for Hemsworth while they were at work, when Andy Cohen asked her if she and her co-star had ever snogged during their downtime, Lawrence confessed that they had. "Liam's real hot," she said in her defense. But on "Conan," she described Liam and his brothers as "disgusting." Lawrence revealed that they're the types of guys who will dare each other to eat scabs — which is arguably much worse than noshing on tuna.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth first got engaged in 2012, but the young lovebirds called it quits in 2013. The following year, Liam spent over $6.8 million on a bachelor pad in Malibu, where his big brother, Chris Hemsworth, already owned a home. The previous owner of Liam's property was "Break My Stride" hitmaker Matthew Wilder, who produced some of Cyrus' early music, per Dirt. 

When Cyrus appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2017, she revealed that she actually recorded her debut album "Meet Miley Cyrus" inside that very home. Liam was unaware of this, but apparently, Wilder owned some evidence of his past work with the pop star in the form of plaques with Cyrus' name on them. "[Wilder] hid all the plaques in the garage so [Liam] would still buy the house," Cyrus recalled. "So then [Liam] went to move in, and he was like, 'F***! I cannot get away — this b***h is all over my f***ing house!'"

Cyrus' hit song "Malibu" references her relationship with Liam as well as the house, which the couple would end up sharing after they got back together in 2016. While reflecting back on their breakup that same year, Hemsworth told GQ Australia, "At the time we were going in different directions and it's just what needed to happen. We were both super young and it was a good decision at the time — we both needed that."

Soon after Liam Hemsworth began dating Miley Cyrus, he became a big fan of Billy Ray Cyrus' music and the man himself. "He's just one of the nicest guys. Very accommodating," Hemsworth told Details of the "Achy Breaky Heart" hitmaker. Billy Ray also had a lot of love for the actor who stole his daughter's heart, telling ET in 2017, "Liam is a great guy. I like his heart. He's got a great spirit about him. I'll tell you something you don't know about him though: he's a great artist." After seeing hundreds of Hemsworth's paintings, Billy Ray said that his future son-in-law's art was worthy of being put on display for others to admire. "It's like doing meditation or something," Hemsworth told Men's Journal of why he loves to paint. "You just let yourself go for a while and focus on the moment at hand, and you can stop worrying about everything in your life."

Hemsworth also put his artistic eye to good use when he snapped the photo that Miley used as her "Malibu" cover art. Aside from acting, some of the other talents he possesses are the ability to play guitar and his adeptness in the kitchen. "I'll do anything Italian, like spaghetti or pizzas. I studied cooking all through high school," the actor told Women's Health. "I'm kind of known around my household for making really good smoothies," Hemsworth further boasted on "Popcorn with Peter Travers."

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth once shared their Malibu digs with a large menagerie of mammals, including miniature horses, dogs, cats, and pigs. So when a wildfire threatened their home in November 2018, there was a lot more at stake than their belongings and the house itself. Cyrus was in South Africa filming "Black Mirror" at the time, but Hemsworth managed to load up all of their pets and get them safely off the property with some help from his friends. 

"Cats hate crates more than pigs. That's what I've learned from this whole situation," Hemsworth joked to GQ Australia in 2019. But on "Popcorn with Peter Travers," he said that the pigs were the most difficult pets to capture, recalling that it took nearly an hour of chasing them around and spraying them with a hose before he and a friend managed to corral them and secure them inside large crates. They then loaded the hefty swine into the back of a truck. Hemsworth said that the animals' stable burned down, so if he hadn't been home at the time, the fire would have killed them.

Hemsworth shared a photo on Twitter of the ashy remnants of his home, but while he and Cyrus lost so much, they were grateful that their furry family survived unscathed. On "The Howard Stern Show" (via Radar), Cyrus said of her heroic beau, "He got a lot of action for saving the animals."

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth's decade-long Hollywood love story includes a real phoenix moment: In December 2018, they reacted to their home being reduced to ashes by deciding to tie the knot ASAP. "Just going through something this emotional with someone, it brings you closer and we felt like we'd lost a big part of our lives, so we wanted to make a new part of our lives," Hemsworth told GQ Australia. "It was something really good coming out of a horrible situation." But their marital bliss didn't last long at all. Less than a year later, Cyrus and Hemsworth announced that they were separating. The news came shortly after Cyrus was photographed making out with "The Hills: New Beginnings" star Kaitlynn Carter, per ET.

Cyrus later took to Twitter to address rumors that infidelity had played a role in her and Hemsworth's decision to call it quits in August 2019. "I can admit to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating," she wrote. "I've said it before & it remains true, I love Liam and always will." While Hemsworth would largely remain tight-lipped about their split, Cyrus possibly referenced it in her 2023 song "Flowers," which she released on her ex's birthday. The emotional track includes the lyrics, "We were right till we weren't / Built a home and watched it burn."

Liam Hemsworth gave his "Hunger Games" co-star, Woody Harrelson, credit for inspiring him to start researching veganism. "After all the information I gathered about the mistreatment of animals, I couldn't continue to eat meat," Hemsworth told Men's Journal in 2015. While a nutritionist had previously encouraged the actor to increase his red meat consumption, Hemsworth said that following this advice seemed to make him feel more poorly than before, providing him with further confirmation that he was making the right move by going vegan. In 2016, the dietary decision also earned him the title of PETA's sexiest male vegetarian celebrity.

But while giving up meat initially improved the way he felt, in 2020, Hemsworth told Men's Health that he had to give his eating habits another major overhaul after he got a kidney stone. As he explained, his veganism was to blame. "My particular kidney stone was a calcium-oxalate kidney stone. It forms from having too much oxalate in your diet," he said. "Oxalates are really high in a lot of vegetables, specifically spinach, almonds, beetroot, potatoes." In addition to having to reevaluate his views on eating meat, Hemsworth had to undergo surgery to have the kidney stone removed. "It was one of the most painful weeks of my life," he said. 

In response to Hemsworth's revelation, The Beet pointed out that he apparently could have simply changed which veggies he was consuming instead of reintroducing meat to his diet.

After his split from Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth's next serious relationship was with Aussie model Gabriella Brooks. Shortly before they were first romantically linked in late 2019, Brooks and her own longtime love — Taylor Swift's future fling, Matty Healy — called it quits.

In March 2020, a source claimed to Us Weekly, "[Liam] feels more at home with Gabriella than he did with Miley and feels like he can be his complete self without any drama." While Liam would occasionally open up about his relationship with Cyrus during interviews, he and Brooks seemingly decided to keep their romance as private as possible. "My personal relationship is very, very important and very sacred to me. And I feel like in an industry where so much is put out on show, there are some things you just want to keep to yourself," Brooks told The Daily Telegraph's Stellar in 2021. However, she did share some praise for her boyfriend's family, saying, "They are the most beautiful people and I'm very lucky to know them." Brooks also revealed that she quarantined with Liam at the start of the pandemic.

Brooks and Liam only make rare appearances together on social media, such as when Chris Hemsworth shared an Instagram photo of the couple attending Luke Hemsworth's birthday party in November 2020. So, it was a sure sign that they were getting more serious when they finally walked their first red carpet together at the 2022 "Poker Face" premiere.

In October 2022, Henry Cavill shocked fans of his Netflix series "The Witcher" by announcing that his days of having to worry about coins being tossed at him were coming to an end. He revealed that Liam Hemsworth would be replacing him as the monster slayer Geralt of Rivia starting with the show's fourth season. It's rare for such a switch to happen with a lead character, but Cavill assured his fans that his beloved White Wolf would be in good hands. "I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam's take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men," he wrote in part on Instagram.

In a February 2023 interview with Red Carpet News TV, Joey Batey — who plays Geralt's dear friend, Jaskier — praised Hemsworth for having the courage to take on the difficult task of trying to win over Cavill's many admirers. "We get on really, really well," he said of his new co-star. "... Immediately, I was like, 'Huh. I can see why you're stepping into these shoes. You have the bravery, the strength to do this.'" 

As for Hemsworth, he previously wrote in part on Instagram, "As a 'Witcher' fan I'm over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia." So, if nothing else, he had his own enthusiasm and the support of a key castmate to bolster him as he embarked on a hero's journey that was seemingly both a blessing and a burden.