Chris Hemsworth has admitted he had concerns about sharing the fact he has a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease than the average person, after disclosing the information in a 2022 documentary series.
The Thor actor shared his discovery with the world in Limitless, revealing that his maternal grandfather had the disease, and that he is eight to 10 times more likely to develop the disease than average.
Reflecting on his decision to share the news with fans, the 42-year-old told The Guardian: “I wondered if I was letting people too far in.
“Are they no longer going to believe in the action star or the Marvel character? And do I want people to know my fears and insecurities to this level?”
Hemsworth explored the subject again last year in A Road Trip To Remember, which saw the Melbourne-born star go on a motorcycle trip around Australia with his dad Craig, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Describing the documentary as “deeply personal”, Hemsworth said: “It was a love letter to my father. It empowered him for a period, and stimulated memories that were being taken away from him.”
Hemsworth’s increased risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is due to the fact he has inherited two copies of the APOE4 gene.
“They took all my bloodwork and did a bunch of tests, and the plan was to on-camera tell me all the results and then talk about how you can improve this and that,” he told Vanity Fair at the time.
“And Peter Attia, who is the longevity doctor in that episode, and overseeing a lot of the show, called [show creator] Darren [Aronofsky] and said, ‘I don’t want to tell him this on camera. We need to have an off-side conversation and see if he even wants this to be in the show.’
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“It was pretty shocking because he called me up and he told me.”
He later shared his annoyance at reports that claimed he could potentially retire from acting as a result of the finding.
“It really kind of pissed me off because it felt like I had been vulnerable with something personal and shared this,” he told Vanity Fair in another interview. “No matter how much I said: ‘This is not a death sentence,’ the story became that I have dementia and I’m reconsidering life and retiring and so on.”
The Marvel star has said his dad’s diagnosis forced him to reconsider his priorities, though, revealing on Jay Shetty’s podcast: “I know I’m not going to get 10 years down the track and go, ‘I’m glad I did those extra three or four films.’
“I’m going to say, ‘I wish I spent more time with him, and with my mom, and with my brothers, and my wife, my kids, and family, and friends.
Hemsworth has one daughter and twin sons with his wife, Elsa Pataky.
Alzheimer’s, which is a type of dementia, affects about 1-in-4 people over 65, according to the NHS. This increases to 1-in-6 for people over 80. Age is the biggest risk factor, but other lifestyle factors – such as smoking and blood pressure – can affect a person’s chance of developing the disease.
