Liam Hemsworth Talks The Hunger Games, J.Law, & Brothers

“If you put the work in, and you show that you’re willing to work hard, you’ll succeed. I feel that I often put in more work, and that is what separates me from the other people,”

says actor Liam Hemsworth of his work ethic in his cover interview for NYLON Guys.

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Hemsworth says growing up in Australia he and his brothers (actors Chris and Luke) played with rifles, bows and arrows handmade by their grandfather. “For some reason, my grandpa thought they would be good to give to us—we would just do stupid shit out in the bush.” Says Hemsworth, the youngest,

“I think everyone agrees that I was the naughtiest as a kid. My uncles used to call me ‘Devil Child,’ or ‘Triple’ for triple six. They used to tell my brother Chris that they were going to get the demons out of him because he was also a little crazy. But to me, they’d just be like, ‘You’re too far gone. There’s no exorcising you anymore.’”

Of his Hunger Games castmates, Hemsworth says:

“I’ve been friends with all these people for so many years now…. I’m so lucky to have Jennifer [Lawrence] and Josh [Hutcherson] and Woody [Harrelson] and all these other great people. We’ve created really strong bonds.”

And of the fun on the set: “It’s like high school because we’ll mess around for half the day and then we’ll do a little bit of work. Everyone’s goofing around and trying to mess each other up.”

Adds The Hunger Games (Mockingjay –Part 1) director, Francis Lawrence, “Jen was hands down the biggest joker, but any time you had Liam in a scene with some combination of Jen, Josh, or Woody, there were going to be a lot of laughs.” And says Harrelson, “My rapport with Jen and Josh: We got on like a house fire. It was a longer process to get to know Liam. But it was only a matter of time before we were cracking each other up in scenes. We had to not look at each other or we’d mess up the shot.”

Hemsworth, 24, has already worked with an enviable group of A-list vets, telling NYLON Guys:

Woody’s [Harrelson]

like a little kid. “Me and Jen [Lawrence] always call him a Labrador because you throw something and he’ll fetch it. When he does turn it on, he’s got the most intense, crazy look in his eyes. He’s such a great actor, yet he can be so free and just have fun with the whole thing.”

“When we were on set [of Paranoia], I asked 

Harrison Ford

if he ever doubted what he was doing or why he was doing it. He kind of stopped for a second and was like, ‘No. Not for a second. This is the best job in the world.’”

Billy Bob’s [Thornton]

the nicest guy in the world. We became really good friends. We had this one scene where he was yelling at me. I could see he was kind of having a hard time. He comes over, and he’s like [affecting Thornton’s drawl], ‘Man, I really just have a tough time doing scenes like this with people I feel, you know, brotherly with.’”

The Oct/Nov issue of NYLON Guys goes on sale October 2, 2014.