Amidst all the piling anticipation of his upcoming Mad Max prequel, Chris Hemsworth called out media outlets for exaggerating his Alzheimers predisposition in a recent interview. The Marvel star admitted feeling “pissed” by the numerous headlines adjoining his Hollywood hiatus with Alzheimer’s disease, besides talking about all things sunny about his life in Australia.
On two separate occasions, Hemsworth had talked about taking a brief acting break to be near his family and how a genetic test revealed he was more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later on in life. The media blew it out of proportion by hinting at the Thor star’s retirement from Hollywood owing to his genetic condition. Now. Hemsworth is sharing his unfiltered reaction to the matter.
Chris Hemsworth addresses persistent rumors
The 40-year-old star shines bright on the cover of Vanity Fair’s May issue ahead of his anticipated movie, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s release later this month. Living his best life back home in Australia to spend more time with family and be as far away from Hollywood, Chris Hemsworth still seems perturbed by the absurd rumors that flew out in 2023. “It really kind of pissed me off because it felt like I had been vulnerable with something personal and shared this,” Hemsworth said of media outlets linking his confession on potential Alzheimers and an acting hiatus.
Further, the Australian star clarified, “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.” He was working on the National Geographic docuseries when a genetic test discovered that the actor had two copies of the gene APOE4. It meant the father of three was eight to ten times more prone to Alzheimer’s disease. Unaware of the consequence, Hemsworth candidly revealed the fact in a November 2022 Vanity Fair interview hardly worrying about it.
The media were a bit too worried it seems, as they linked the matter to the Avenger’s short break from Hollywood in 2023. Later, publications claimed that Hemsworth was doing “mindfulness work” and practicing “stillness” which propelled rumors about his retirement from the movies. “I did read a really funny comment at the bottom of one article: ‘I hope Chris forgets he’s retiring and comes back,’” the surfing enthusiast jokingly recalled on Tuesday, April 30.
Hemsworth shares 9-year-old twin sons, Tristan and Sasha, and a daughter India, 11, with Spanish actor and wife Elsa Pataky.
Chris Hemsworth breaks out from his typecast action roles
Hemsworth was happy to embody the biker warlord, Dementus in the upcoming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy. Sporting a prosthetic nose and brown lens, Hemsworth claimed even his friends hardly recognized him in the trailer. He thanked director Ron Howard for taking him “out of that typecast space of the muscly action guy and let me play a character with complications and darkness.”
Speaking of the impact of his character in the prequel to 2015’s Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, Hemsworth conceded, “I remember thinking at the time, Oh, this is going to change everything.” The star’s acting hiatus allowed him to reflect on the several action projects he’d starred in all this while and be struck with the realization to steer his career towards the helms of Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, and Martin Scorsese among other notable filmmakers.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to be released on 23 May 2024.
