Chris Hemsworth is said to be taking a huge step back from Hollywood film roles after discovering he is genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Australian actor, 39, isn’t planning on retiring anytime soon, but is slowing down.
Hemsworth currently has four projects in the works – including an upcoming Avengers sequel where he returns as his character Thor, and an untitled biopic about wrestling icon Hulk Hogan.
However, a source told Page Six his schedule is looking clear beyond these films.
‘He doesn’t plan to take on many roles because of [learning about his high risk for] Alzheimer’s,’ an insider told the the publication.
The former Home and Away star told Vanity Fair in November he’s ‘not talking about retiring by any means,’ but taking ‘a more curated approach to things’.
In the same interview, Hemsworth disclosed he’s at higher risk of suffering Alzheimer’s disease after filming a confronting episode about death for his Disney+ docuseries Limitless.
After having bloodwork done for the program, he was informed he is ‘between eight and 10 times’ likelier to develop Alzheimer’s than the general population, because he is one of only two to three percent of people with two copies of the gene APOE4.
‘Yeah, there was an intensity to navigating it,’ he said.
‘Most of us, we like to avoid speaking about death in the hope that we’ll somehow avoid it.’
The former Home and Away star added: ‘We all have this belief that we’ll figure it out. Then to all of a sudden be told some big indicators are actually pointing to this as the route which is going to happen, the reality of it sinks in. Your own mortality.’
The actor reacted to the news of his own predisposition to Alzheimer’s by following a healthier lifestyle.
‘For me, the positive of it was like: “Right, if I didn’t know this information, I wouldn’t have made the changes I made,”‘ he said.
‘I just wasn’t aware of any of it, so now I feel thankful that I have in my arsenal the sort of tools to best prepare myself and prevent things happening in that way.’
As for how he coped emotionally, ‘very quickly it became a self deprecating sort of joke, if you will. It’s just the way I am, my family, there’s a sense of humor.’
As a result, Chris lives in dread of developing the illness and forgetting 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 experienced, or my wife, my kids, is probably my biggest fear,’ he said.
Chris, Elsa and their three children reside in a $30million mansion in Broken Head, near the celebrity enclave of Byron Bay.
The fortress like property, which sits high above Seven Mile Beach, boasts a gymnasium, butler’s pantry, fire pit, change rooms, outdoor play area for the thre
