'Thor: Love and Thunder' star Tessa Thompson says she beat Chris Hemsworth in ice bath challenge 'by a minute'

• "Thor: Love and Thunder" star Tessa Thompson said she beat Chris Hemsworth's time in an ice bath.
• Thompson told Insider that she only found out later that Hemsworth was timing her.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" star Tessa Thompson told Insider she beat Chris Hemsworth at spending more time in an ice bath despite not intentionally competing with him.

Last month, Hemsworth, who plays the titular character in the latest Marvel movie, told Entertainment Tonight that he competed with Thompson, who plays Valkyrie, during on-set workouts. Hemsworth explained that Thompson began spending longer amounts of time in ice baths, which are used for recovery after exercise, so he tried to beat her.

"That was the real test of strength," Hemsworth said. "I'd done it a bit, but I sort of was keeping my time in there to a minute or two, and [Tessa] came in the first day and did 3½ minutes. So then we all had to try and do three minutes."

However, Thompson told Insider on the red carpet at the UK premiere of "Love and Thunder" in London on Tuesday that she had no idea that Hemsworth was competing with her.

"Chris, I learned, was competing with me over ice baths and he was really clocking the amount of time that I was spending in the ice bath," Thompson said. "I was not competing with him. I was competing with myself, but it turns out that in competing with myself, I beat him by a minute."

She added: "That's a good reminder that you are your only competition that you should concentrate on."

Chris Pratt, who reprises his role as Star-Lord in the movie, previously told SFX magazine that Hemsworth is like "Thor in real life" as competitiveness is one of the character's key traits in the movies.

Hemsworth has also admitted he was intimidated by his co-star Natalie Portman when he first saw her transformation into the Mighty Thor.

He told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere of the film: "[It was] a little stab to the ego, but I quickly got over it and I was in awe of everything she had done on and off the screen. I'm such a fan."

Portman previously said in an interview with Variety that this is the first time she was asked to get "as big as possible" for a role in her 30-year-long career.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is in theaters on July 8. Read Insider's review here.