Emily Blunt & Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth says the set of The Huntsman: Winter’s War was “like a big creche”.

Australian Hemsworth stars alongside Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron and Jessica Chastain in the Snow White and the Huntsman prequel.

“We had all our kids on set most days, chasing each other round with weapons which doesn’t tend to happen at most childcare centres,” he told the BBC.

“My daughter went to school and would tell people her dad works in a castle!”

Hemsworth has three young children, while co-star Emily Blunt is expecting her second child, having given birth to daughter Hazel in 2014.

She said that playing the part of Freya, the Ice Queen, who loses her child at the start of the film, “affected [her] really deeply”.

“What I loved is that you meet the origin of this character, as a very normal girl who just wanted to fall in love and have a baby and lead a simple life, and yet she goes through this traumatic experience of losing a child in a really awful way, and it just shifts her into a complete 180.

“I found those scenes just so upsetting and really, really shocking to do. I think when you become a mother you are able to engage emotionally in a way that you just have a better understanding of what it would feel like.”

Before taking on the title role in a sequel to Mary Poppins, which Blunt says is “a really exciting, but quite daunting prospect… I’m not really allowed to talk about it” – the actress is making the most of her pregnancy by taking on voice work in upcoming releases.

Her vocal talents will soon appear in My Little Pony – The Movie, Gnomeo & Juliet: Sherlock Gnomes and Animal Crackers.

“You can do that when you’re pregnant! It’s really fun and really easy, and you can pop in in your pyjamas, and no one would ever know.”

For Blunt it was the presence of “three very empowered, layered, dynamic female roles” that encouraged her to sign on to fairytale fantasy The Huntsman.

“It’s really unusual within a film to have such powerhouse characters in it for women, so that was huge,” she said.

From one female-driven movie to another, Hemsworth is due to appear next in a remake of Ghostbusters, with a new all-female cast.

“The film’s a hell of a lot of fun,” he said.

“There are more out takes on that than anything I’ve done. It was a highly improvised set, but those women are geniuses of the comedy world. I think it will be pretty special.”
The Huntsman: Winter’s War is on general release now.

View the original article on BBC.co.uk – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35959405