Chris Hemsworth can wield a large hammer, but can he manage drumsticks? As Ed Sheeran fans in Romania found out, the actor could keep a beat as drummed onstage for “Thinking Out Loud” during the singer’s Bucharest concert Saturday.
As the duo revealed on social media soon after, Hemsworth’s onstage cameo will feature in the upcoming season of his Nat Geo and Disney+’s docuseries Limitless, where the Thor actor subjects himself to different experiences in an attempt to both lengthen and improve his life.
“Basically what happened is Chris emailed me last December saying he was doing a documentary on cognitive health and the benefits of learning an instrument,” Sheeran explained backstage in a video posted on Instagram. “He came to visit me, and he has learned drums. So he’s going to come onstage in front of 70,000 [people].”
Hemsworth added of the task, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. It’ll be nice to put this one to bed.”
The actor then quietly joined the singer onstage for “Thinking Out Loud,” with Sheeran not revealing his celebrity drummer to the crowd until the end of the performance:
Backstage, Sheeran told Hemsworth, “You really, really did well,” and handed him a “Participation Award” to remember the moment.
Hemsworth has long been a superfan, friend and self-described “stalker” of Sheeran’s, attending a handful of his concerts over the past few years; Sheeran, in turn, attended the premiere of Hemsworth’s Extraction 2.
“He’s the most incredible musician, obviously, good person, humble, kind, great sense of humor,” Hemsworth told Extra last year. “That level of fame and success, you don’t see that kind of personality very often.”
In the same interview, when asked if he’d ever collaborate with Sheeran, Hemsworth quipped, “I’d rather bring him into a film than me try and sing. That would be catastrophic.”