Chris Hemsworth has opened up about his discovery that he has a higher-than-average chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia that progressively causes memory loss. However, he didn’t want it to become some “hokey grab at empathy” for entertainment within the show.
According to Vanity Fair, the 39-year-old actor took genetic tests for Limitless, a docuseries that explores how to age slower. The results showed that he has two copies of the gene APOE4, which has been linked to an increased risk of developing the degenerative brain disorder.
“There was an intensity to navigating it.” Chris said, adding that the experience made him face his own mortality.
“Slapping another movie on top of another movie. It really triggered something in me to want to take some time off,” The Thor: Love and Thunder star, whose grandfather has Alzheimer’s, said. “And since we finished the show, I’ve been completing the things I was already contracted to do. 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.” According to Deadline, the actor has already finished shooting for his next roles in Extraction 2 and the Mad Max spin-off Furiosa.
The actor, who collaborated on the series with creator and producer Darren Aronofsky, said he learned he had two copies of the gene after getting bloodwork for the fifth episode.
“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. And Peter Attia, who is the longevity doctor in that episode, and overseeing a lot of the show, called Darren 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,” Hemsworth recalled.
Still, Hemsworth emphasized that he doesn’t want to “manipulate” or “overdramatize” what he learned, noting that he has received a “cause for concern,” not a hard diagnosis. In fact, he said he decided to leave his health revelation in the episode so that other people could learn — like he did — that there are preventative steps that can be taken to combat Alzheimer’s.
