Chris Hemsworth ‘taking on fewer acting roles’ after discovering he is predisposed to Alzheimer’s

Chris Hemsworth is said to be taking a huge step back from Hollywood film roles after learning he is genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.

The Australian actor, 39, said he isn’t planning on retiring any time soon, but is slowing down on acting following the discovery that he is at higher risk of the progressive disease.

Hemsworth 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 has told Page Six that 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,’ the insider told the outlet. 

The former Home and Away star told Vanity Fair in November that he’s ‘not talking about retiring by any means,’ but he’s taking ‘a more curated approach to things’.

In that same interview, Hemsworth made his Alzheimer’s revelation 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 reflected. ‘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.’

Playing on Chris’ stardom through superhero movies, Limitless follows him as he pushes up against the boundaries of what his body can do.

The bloodwork he got in aid of the show resulted in the bombshell news that he is several times likelier than the general population to get Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain condition characterised in part by memory loss.

The actor reacted to the news of his own predisposition to Alzheimer’s by cultivating 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.