Chris Hemsworth has shared how his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis has fundamentally changed his outlook on life, success and time, admitting it has made him much more aware of how fragile everything really is.
talking to the guardian In a profile published on February 3, the Australian actor says that the illness affecting his father, Craig, has forced him to slow down and reassess his priorities.
“My appetite to move forward has really been curbed,” Hemsworth said, adding that the diagnosis has made him “more aware of the fragility of things.”
“You start to think, ‘My dad won’t be here forever.’”
The 42-year-old explained that the change is not limited to his relationship with his parents. Watching her children grow up has been another emotional marker of the passage of time.
“My children are now 11 and 13 years old. Those nights when they fought to sleep in our bed suddenly don’t happen anymore,” he told the newspaper, reflecting on how quickly those small everyday moments disappear.
Hemsworth said he is now reconsidering what success really means to him.
“I used to think that maybe if I got nominated for something, I’d feel good about myself. Or maybe if I had the biggest movie of all time or launched another franchise, then I’d feel accomplished,” he said.
“It’s absurd. My self-esteem is no longer based on all those external things, although I still have to remind myself of that.”
His wife, Elsa Pataky, has played a big role in keeping him grounded, and Hemsworth says he’s learning to relax more and make more deliberate, meaningful decisions about work and life.
That more reflective side of the actor was visible in his National Geographic documentary. Chris Hemsworth: a road trip to rememberreleased in November 2025, which focused on her father’s early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and the reminiscence therapy they used together.
Hemsworth admitted that he initially wondered if he was exposing too much of himself.
“I wondered if I was letting people get too far in,” he said. “You’re not going to believe in the action star or the Marvel character anymore? And I want people to know my fears and insecurities to this level?”
In the end, he said, the project became deeply personal.
“It was a love letter to my father,” Hemsworth explained, noting how uncomfortable conversations about Alzheimer’s can be.
“People like to pretend [Alzheimer’s is] “It doesn’t happen, because it’s too uncomfortable for them, so you suffer in silence.”
He added that people often avoid asking the toughest questions, such as whether someone is afraid or struggling.
Bart Layton, who directed Hemsworth in Crime 101He said the actor’s candor challenged his own assumptions.
“I was expecting a very different type of human, one that was more classically alpha,” Layton said.
“And what you find is someone who is really thoughtful and sensitive and insecure like we all are.”
Hemsworth currently stars in the heist thriller Crime 101co-written by Peter Straughan, alongside Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte.
The film will hit theaters on February 13.
