‘Thor’, After Facing His Own Mortality, is Taking a Break from Acting; “A Good Chunk of Time Off”

After the press tour for his new Disney+ docuseries “Limitless,” Chris Hemsworth is taking “time off” from acting.

The 39-year-old actor told Vanity Fair that after filming the last episode of the series, which is about death and dying, he decided to take a break from acting to spend time with his family. The “Thor” actor and his wife, Elsa Pataky, have a 10-year-old daughter named India and twin 8-year-old sons named Tristan and Sasha.

“Doing an episode on death and facing your own mortality made me go, ‘Oh God, I’m not ready to go yet,’” he said.

He went on, “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.”

The native from Australia said, “It really made me feel like I needed to take a break. 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.”

The actor will take ‘a good chunk of time off’ to ‘simplify’ after learning of his genetic predisposition to the degenerative brain disorder. https://t.co/ItKWJKSobL

— The Australian (@australian) November 21, 2022

In the six-part series, Hemsworth pushes his body and mind to the limit as he looks for ways to stop getting old and live longer.

Hemsworth found out while making the show that he is 8–10 times more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease than the average person.

In the fifth episode, he meets with Dr. Peter Attia, an expert on living a long life, and takes a number of genetic tests.

Attia tells Hemsworth in the show, “We’ve got every blood test one can get.  And you’ve got two copies of APOE4. A set from your mom and a set from your dad.”

The strongest link between Alzheimer’s disease and APOE4 is that it makes you more likely to get Alzheimer’s. However, not much is known about it.

“The idea that I won’t be able to remember the life I experienced, or my wife, my kids, is probably my biggest fear,” the “Avengers” star said in the episode.

Attia told Hemsworth, “It’s my belief that if we take every step possible, we can reduce your risk to that of anyone else.”

The actor from “Extraction” also said that his grandfather has the disease. “He either doesn’t remember who we are, you know, his grandkids, but also even his own children, for years. It’s heartbreaking.”

Hemsworth told Vanity Fair in an interview that this realization made him make big changes in his life. He also said that Disney+ told him they could take his test results out of the episode.

Hemsworth told the outlet, “I thought, ‘No, look, if this is a motivator for people to take better care of themselves and also understand that there are steps you can take — then fantastic.‘

“My concern was I just didn’t want to manipulate it and overdramatize it, and make it into some sort of hokey grab at empathy or whatever for entertainment.”