Chris Hemsworth will be turning 40 this August. Just like us, some celebs who hit a new milestone take the time to re-evaluate their life and direction. He’s been living his life, with Hemsworth trying to impress his kids with his workout skills and also celebrating the release of his latest action flick Extraction 2 on Netflix. After the Thor actor made the decision to take a break from acting, he’s come clean debunking the rumors that this life-changing reason is due to the time he took an Alzheimer’s genetics test.
When Chris Hemsworth was filming the Disney+-subscribed docuseries Limitless, he took a genetics test that reportedly revealed his risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease when he gets older is eight to ten times higher than that of the general population. This led to reports that the MCU actor would be the next to retire from acting due to this startling diagnosis. While speaking to ET Canada, the Australian actor said his reasons for taking a break from acting were not connected to the genetics test results.
It all got a little sort of blown out of proportion. I wanted to take off because I’ve been working for 10 years, and I’ve got three kids that I want to spend more time with.
This break is completely understandable as he’s played Thor for over a decade and is part of the Extraction series and more. Once you’ve become part of a film series that’s achieved massive success, it can be hard to break away from it. Hemsworth recently moved his family to Australia away from the Hollywood glitz. This new transition seems to have done wonders for his family like going on camping trips with his sons and his 8-year-old son ripping it up on the waves. While I’m sure his children have a lot of fun on Bring Your Kid to Work Day on their father’s film sets, there’s nothing like spending some quality time with your family away from Hollywood glamor.
During an episode of Limitless, the Star Trek actor discovered that he had two copies of APOE4 (the apolipoprotein E gene) which he got from each of his parents. After learning about these shocking results, Hemsworth said in a confessional that this revelation invoked in him fears of eventually not being able to remember his wife, kids, or the career he’s built. As the Disney+ series is about different methods humans have used to increase their health, the Melbourne-born actor said it was more than just one episode of this show that helped him assess his life going forward.
The information about the predisposition… allowed me to make all the changes — whether it be nutrition, my training, my mental fitness. Which is the point of the series. The whole point for me was to give people access to tools, knowledge, information on how to live a better, longer, healthier life.
For all we know, maybe this means Chris Hemsworth will want to focus more on achieving fitness, keeping himself healthy, and making more memories with his family away from distractions. The Rush actor has said that he felt like he couldn’t take a break from acting in the past from the non-stop business of playing Thor and all of the other roles that followed him. It’s about finding the time to just put that part of your life on pause and not allow any more moments to pass by that you could be enjoying with your loved ones instead.
While discovering you carry the gene that can ultimately have you develop Alzheimer’s disease can be unsettling to find out, this discovery was not the reason why Chris Hemsworth wanted to take a break from acting. He clearly wants to explore other aspects of life outside of his career and this break could help accomplish that for him. But it doesn’t mean he’s willing to chuck Thor’s hammer away completely. He’s said he’s still game to reprise Thor as long as a fun, unpredictable way to bring back the iconic Marvel superhero. If you want to see Hemsworth return as Tyler Rake in Extraction 2, it’s available now on your Netflix subscription.
