Before Chris Hemsworth took Thor to new and unexpected directions, he showed off his comedic chops as a clueless receptionist in the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.

In this week’s issue of Variety, Hemsworth reveals that he almost quit the movie directed by Paul Feig. “The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out,” Hemsworth says. “Three or four weeks prior, Paul said to me, ‘I’m going to write up the character. Don’t worry.’ And then I got the script and nothing had changed.”

His agent, Bryan Lourd, set up a last-minute meeting with Feig, who assured Hemsworth there would be a lot to do — through improvisation. “I was really scared walking onto that set,” Hemsworth says. “I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.”

Hemsworth credits “Ghostbusters” with priming audiences to accept Thor’s turn to screwball comedy in “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame.” He would have liked to have done a “Ghostbusters” sequel, and he hasn’t forgiven the online fanboys who viciously attacked the reboot partly because the new stars were played by women. “That whole period I was like, ‘What ownership do you guys have over those characters?’” Hemsworth says. “‘Oh, you watched the film, therefore you should have a say over where it goes?’ I thought it was very unfortunate and kind of disappointing.”

For more from Hemsworth, including what he thinks about Thor’s future and his upcoming role in “Men in Black: International,” read our cover story here.