The actor shared how he found out about the accident and how it put things in perspective.
Chris Hemsworth is turning 40 and thinking about life!
In an interview with British GQ, the Thor actor reflects on the new milestone and how friend and fellow Marvel star Jeremy Renner's near-fatal accident changed his perspective.
"I don’t think I wanna turn 40," Hemsworth, whose birthday is Aug. 11, tells the outlet. "I still feel like I’m 25 and I’ve got heaps of time. Now I’m like, 'Oh, I could be halfway. More than halfway.'"
He adds, "It is a lot of time. If I get there! The reality of 'I’m not going to be here forever' is sinking in."
Hemsworth faced that reality in January when he got the news of Renner's accident, where he suffered 30-plus broken bones when he was crushed by a snowplow near his home in the Mt. Rose Highway area of Reno, Nevada, on New Year's Day.
"We were all on our Avengers text chain, we were all chatting. And it was wild. None of us really knew how serious it was," Hemsworth says. "I think anything like that, it’s an immediate realization of 'Wow, any of us can go at any minute…'"
He adds, "We’re getting to the age now where we’re going to start losing people we love."
Hemsworth shares in the interview that his grandfather recently died at the age of 93 following a battle with Alzheimer’s. While attending the funeral, Hemsworth says that it made him think of the legacy he will leave behind -- and why his movies aren't the most important part of his life.
"It made me think about my own life," he tells the publication. "And it wasn’t about career or anything. It was about being remembered as someone who was good and kind and contributed something of value… I certainly don’t think about the films I’m going to leave behind and how people are going to remember me in that sense. I hope that people think of me fondly and that I was a good person. That I was a good bloke. Like my grandpa."
Still, part of the Australian actor's legacy is his role in the Marvel cinematic universe as Thor, whom he has played since 2011. After playing the God of Thunder in eight films, Hemsworth is taking a break from the role and acting in general as things now have to be "worthy of my time."
"I love the experience," he says about playing Thor. "I love the fact that I’ve been able to do something fairly different throughout the process. Thor 1 and 2 were their own thing, Thor 3 and 4 were a very different feel… and then even Avengers, the Lebowski Thor, the Infinity War Thor, due to different directors and I think mostly my own need to do something different. You know, I got sick of the character pretty quick every couple of years," he says with a laugh.
As for picking up the hammer again, Hemsworth says that it has to be the right Thor.
"If I was going to do something again it would have to be tonally different," he says. "And we’d have to do something very drastic to keep people on their toes. Otherwise it’s just the fatigue of those characters and those films, where people are like, 'I’ve seen it.'"
While at home in Australia, taking a break from acting, Hemsworth has been spending time with his wife, Elsa Pataky, and their three children, India, 11, and twins, Tristan and Sasha, 9.
The Limitless actor reveals that the time with them is the most important and that's what his break from acting has been all about.
"These years are the golden ones, but they’re fleeting. Time is precious, and once it’s gone you’re never going to get it back," he tells the magazine. "Yes, it’s daunting and terrifying, the awareness that the clock is ticking. But I’m going to soak up every moment."
RELATED CONTENT:
