"It's my biggest fear." Chris Hemsworth is taking a break from acting following a serious health revelation.

After 20 years of acting, Chris Hemsworth is taking a step back to spend time with his wife and children. 

The actor announced the news this weekend following the release of his Disney+ series, Limitless. 

The new docuseries explore the impacts of time and age and in the final episode, showed Hemsworth being confronted by his own mortality. 

Watch the trailer for Limitless, only on Disney+, here. Story continues after video. 

While filming Limitless, the Marvel actor underwent a series of new genetic tests that could give him more insight into his genetic roadmap. But the plan changed when the doctor received Hemsworth's results, which showed he had a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease.

"'I don’t want to tell [Hemsworth] 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 the doctor saying while in conversation with Vanity Fair.

"It was pretty shocking because he called me up and he told me."

Hemsworth has eight to 10 times the normal risk of developing the illness.

"His makeup includes two copies of the gene APOE4, one from his mother, the other from his father, which studies have linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease," the doctor said in the docuseries.

Chris Hemsworth in Limitless. Image: Disney+.

The tense news was followed by a round of questions Hemsworth said no one would answer. 

"I wish I’d had a more intense follow-up with it because I didn’t really know what to think. I was like, 'Am I supposed to be worried? Is this concerning?'" he said.

His parents found out right after he did, and they had questions too. The actor's paternal grandfather has Alzheimer's Disease.

The actor admitted that possibly getting the disease is "my biggest fear."

"I’m not sure [my grandfather] actually remembers much anymore and he slips in and out of Dutch, which is his original language," Hemsworth said. "He’ll be talking [in] Dutch and English and then a mash-up and then maybe some other new words as well."

Following the announcement and the release of his latest project, Hemsworth announced he's taking time off to "just simplify."

"Doing an episode on death and facing your own mortality made me go, 'Oh God, I’m not ready to go yet'," he explained. "I want to sit and be in this space with a greater sense of stillness and gratitude."

The actor shares three kids with his wife Elsa Pataky; daughter India Rose, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, eight.

Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky and two of their three children, Sasha and Tristan. Image: Getty.

"It really triggered something in me to want to take some time off... 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," he said. 

"Be with the kids, be with my wife."

While Hemsworth does face an increased risk of Alzheimer's, the actor has said his DNA is only a "strong indication" of what could happen - it is certainly not a predetermination. If anything, the actor said, the new knowledge has inspired him to manage the risk by maintaining his physical and mental health and dealing with it through humour.

"It was confronting initially, but very quickly it became a self-deprecating sort of joke, if you will," he explained. "It’s just the way I am, my family, there’s a sense of humour."

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. Story continues after audio. 

The Thor actor said that when producers for Limitless offered to remove the confronting news of his increased Alzheimer's risk from the show altogether, he pushed back.

"Look, if this is a motivator for people to take better care of themselves and also understand that there are steps you can take - then fantastic," he explained. "My concern was I just didn’t want to manipulate it and overdramatise it, and make it into some sort of hokey grab at empathy, or whatever, for entertainment.

"It’s not like I’ve been handed my resignation."

Hemsworth has already completed production on several huge new films including Netflix’s Extraction 2 and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Furiosa.

Feature Image: Getty.