The Marvel star Chris Hemsworth is rumored to be retiring from Hollywood acting after learning he has a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease.
Chris Hemsworth is ‘taking on fewer acting roles’ and stepping away from Hollywood as a result of his recent discovery that he has a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease
The 39-year-old Australian actor has no plans to retire, but he is reducing his workload.
Hemsworth is now working on four other projects, including a sequel to The Avengers in which he reprises his role as Thor and an unnamed biopic on the legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan.
A reliable source, however, has said that after these movies, he has a somewhat open calendar.
‘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.
He told in November last year that he’s ‘not talking about retiring by any means,’ but taking ‘a more curated approach to things’.
Hemsworth said in the same interview that after filming a somber episode about mortality for his Disney+ documentary series Limitless, he is more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
He is one of only 2 or 3% of the population with two copies of the APOE4 gene, so after having bloodwork done for the program he was advised he is ‘between eight and 10 times’ likelier to acquire Alzheimer’s than the general population.
‘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.’
