The man behind Thor won’t be hanging up his hammer anytime soon.
Two years after announcing his increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s, Chris Hemsworth hopes to clear up any confusion. In a new interview with Vanity Fairhe addresses all the false claims that he has been officially diagnosed with this type of dementia and is retiring.
“It really pissed me off because it felt like I had become vulnerable about something personal and shared that,” the Marvel star tells the magazine. “No matter how many times I said, ‘This is not a death sentence,’ the story revealed that I had dementia and was rethinking my life, retiring, and so on.”
Chris, 40, first learned of his risk of the disease when he underwent genetic testing for one of his episodes Disney+ and National Geographic series, Limitless. The show follows the actor as he overcomes episodic challenges in the name of longevity and aging better. In one episode it was like that shared on camera that the father of three carries two copies of the APOE4 genemaking him eight to ten times more likely to develop the disease than someone in the general population.
While the star dealt with those who mistook the discovery for an actual diagnosis, he manages to inject a bit of humor into the ordeal. “I read a really funny comment at the end of an article.” The Angry star told Vanity Fair. “‘I hope Chris forgets he’s retiring and comes back.'”
“It’s all a bit out of balance,” he said had already told ET in 2023 about the mix-up surrounding his break from acting. “I wanted to take some time off because I have been working for 10 years and have three children that I would like to spend more time with. The information about the predisposition… enabled me to make a whole range of other changes… from diet to my training to my mental fitness.”
For the Hemsworth family, Alzheimer’s is a matter of the heart. Accordingly Vanity Fair, his late grandfather, who battled the disease, carried the gene, as did his father, Craig. “Craig has begun to deal with the early signs of the disease,” Vanity FairThe article reads.
Chris tells the magazine, “I know my dad is going through a transition of acceptance: ‘I’m no longer that big, strong man with all the answers that everyone hopes for guidance now.'”
Dementia has recently been at the center of Hollywood headlines The diagnoses of frontotemporal dementia by Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams.
“To all families, there is real hope that we can do something about this disease,” Dr. Allison Reiss, a member of the Alzheimer Foundation of America’s Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board, told ET about frontotemporal dementia. “…I believe so much in the research community and new technologies that if we put our minds to it and if we put our energy and effort into it, we can find things. “It’s not impossible and I just want it” to get it done.
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