Chris Hemsworth takes a Hollywood break after health discovery
Chris Hemsworth is “taking time off” from his career after thinking about his own mortality and wants to spend more time with his family while he can.
The 39-year-old actor – who has daughter India, 12, and eight-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan with wife Elsa Pataky – had been working on an episode of his National Geographic’s ‘Limitless’ series which focused on death and quickly realized that he wants to spend more time with his family while he still can.
He said: “Doing an episode on death and facing your own mortality made me go, ‘Oh God, I’m not ready to go yet. I want to sit and be in this space with a greater sense of stillness and gratitude. And then you start talking about kids and family and going, ‘Oh my God, they’re getting older, they’re growing up and I keep slapping another movie on top of another movie.’ Before you know it, they’re 18 and they’ve moved out of house, and I missed the window. It really triggered something in me to want to take some time off.”
Hemsworth also found out he is at a risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. He learned that he has two copies of the gene ApoE4, one from his mother and one from his father, making him between eight and 10 times more likely to develop the disease than those without both copies of the gene.
About 2 to 3 percent of the population carries two copies of the gene.
“It’s not like I’ve been handed my resignation,” Hemsworth said, but added the news “really triggered something in me to want to take some time off.”
“If you look at Alzheimer’s prevention, the benefit of preventative steps is that it affects the rest of your life,” he said.
The ‘Thor’ actor is currently on a publicity tour for his docuseries but explained that as soon as he has completed that, he will be taking a “good chunk” of time away so that he can “simplify” his life.
Chris Hemsworth told Vanity Fair magazine: “Since we finished the show, I’ve been completing the things I was already contracted to do. Now when I finish this tour this week, I’m going home and I’m going to have a good chunk of time off and just simplify. Be with the kids, be with my wife.
“I felt like I’d been in a sprint for 10 years, and all these moments that were dream scenarios would fly by. Moments that I should have been stepping back and going, ‘Wow, this is incredible,’ I was inundated with other kinds of requests and asks and being pulled in different directions. [I was] not really kind of enjoying what was right in front of me.”
