Thor star Chris Hemsworth has revealed he intends to take time away from his acting career after discovering he has a significantly heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
During filming for his new Disney+ documentary series Limitless, which sees the Australian actor pushing his body to reach its maximum potential, Hemsworth learned he’s part of the 2-3% of the population who possess two copies of the gene ApoE4. That makes him as much as 10 times more likely to develop the disease than those without both copies of the gene.
“The show, which initially was an exploration of longevity… became even more relevant and important for me, even more poignant than I ever thought it would be,” Hemsworth told Vanity Fair. “It was a really good catalyst to dive into everything I needed to be doing in either the prevention front or the management front or however you want to classify it.”
While ApoE4 isn’t a pre-deterministic gene, it strongly suggests Hemsworth will one day suffer from which is news that wasn’t particularly shocking to him because his grandfather also suffers from the disease.
But even though the news wasn’t surprising, Hemsworth said filming Limitless and hearing about his increased risk was unsettling and has forced him to reconsider his priorities in life, particularly when it comes to the types of projects he works on and the amount of time he spends with his family.
“Doing an episode on death and facing your own mortality made me go, ‘Oh God, I’m not ready to go yet’,” said Hemsworth. “It really triggered something in me to want to take some time off. And 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.”
Limitless with Chris Hemsworth is out now on Disney+
