By Savannah Young for Daily Mail Australia
22:06 Apr 02, 2023 updated 22:42 Apr 02, 2023
Chris Hemsworth reportedly took a big step back from Hollywood movie roles after learning he was genetically susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Australian actor, 39, said he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon, but is taking a step back in acting after discovering he was at a higher risk of developing the progressive disease.
Hemsworth has four projects in the works – including an upcoming Avengers sequel where he returns as Thor, and an untitled biopic about wrestling icon Hulk Hogan.
However, a source said Page six That his agenda seems clear after these films.
He does not plan to take on many roles because [learning about his high risk for] Alzheimer’s,” the insider told the outlet.
said the former Home and Away star Vanity Fair In November he said he was “not talking about retirement by any means”, but that he was taking a “more structured approach to things”.
In that same interview, Hemsworth revealed that he had Alzheimer’s after filming a confrontational episode about death for his Disney+ documentary series Limitless.
After a blood test for the program, he was informed that he was 8 to 10 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than the general population, as he is one of only two to three percent of people with two copies of the APOE4 gene.
“Yes,” he said, “there was a severity in navigating it.” Most of us like to avoid talking about death in the hope that we will somehow avoid it.
The former Home and Away star added, “We all have this belief that we’re going to figure it out. Then all of a sudden we’re told that some big sign is actually pointing to this as the way it’s going to happen, and the fact of it just sinks in.”
Playing on Chris’ stardom through superhero movies, Limitless follows him as he pushes up against the limits of what his body can do.
The bloody work he helped on the show brought to the surprising news that he’s at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain condition characterized in part by memory loss.
The actor reacted to the news that he was predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease by adopting a healthier lifestyle.
“For me, the positivity of that was like, ‘Right, if I didn’t know this information, I wouldn’t have made the changes you made,'” he said.
“I wasn’t aware of any of that, so now I feel grateful that I have in my arsenal some kind of tool to best prepare myself and prevent things from happening that way.”
As for how he coped emotionally, “It quickly became a self-defeating kind of banter, if you will. It’s just the way I am, my family, there’s a sense of humor.”
As a result, Chris lives in fear of contracting the disease and forgetting about his wife Elsa Pataky as well as their daughter India, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, eight.
“The idea that I won’t be able to remember the life I’ve lived, or my wife, my children, is probably my greatest fear,” he said.
