Chris Hemsworth Opens Up About Moving His Family Back to Australia: 'It's a Much More Simple Life'
Chris Hemsworth is known as a blockbuster leading man, the living incarnation of a Norse god, and 2014’s Sexiest Man Alive, but at home with wife Elsa Pataky and their three kids, he’s just “Dad.”
“It’s no longer all about me, which is quite refreshing,” the 32-year-old actor divulges in the latest issue of Modern Luxury. “Acting is the most self-absorbed world, where you are thinking about your feelings... You are constantly having to self-analyze or analyze a character you are playing, so you are internalizing and thinking, thinking, thinking about me... It’s just a horrible, noisy conversation. Once the kids arrived, I was like, ‘Wow, this is what life is about.’”
Hemsworth and Pataky recently moved their brood -- 3-year-old daughter India and 2-year-old twin sons Tristan and Sasha -- back to the his native Australia, seeking a more peaceful family life than the pair of actors found in Los Angeles.
“L.A. is a tough place to get around with kids,” he admits. “There’s not a whole lot of foot traffic. It was all about loading up the car and car seats. Here, we just walk out the door and head to the beach down the street. It’s a much more simple life.”
A simple life which includes keeping their kids out of the spotlight as much as possible, though Pataky did recently share this adorable Instagram of Hemsworth wrapping his boys in a bear hug to celebrate their second birthday.
Hemsworth has nothing bad to say about his career path, simply noting that life Down Under has been a welcomed change. "I love what I do as an actor, but when you are surrounded by it constantly, it becomes a bit suffocating,” the Ghostbusters star said. “It’s nice to have conversations with people and be a part of a community that doesn’t live and breathe that world.”
“We were living shoulder to shoulder in the suburbs and thought that’s not how we want our kids to grow up,” he adds of life in L.A. “Moving to a kind of farm setup back here on the coast in Australia has been the best thing.”
While he’s probably best known now for his role as Thor in the Marvel cinematic universe, the actor also admits that he nearly didn’t take the part.
“I remember being in Vancouver shooting The Cabin in the Woods, and being on the phone with my reps, questioning it,” he recalls. “I wanna go back and slap myself. Thank God I went for it. I love that world, I love that character, I love that cast, whether it’s been Thor or The Avengers. It’s opened up every door for me, and I’ve been able to do many things in between. I should have an altar for that character.”
The entire issue of Modern Luxury — including Ray Rogers’s article featuring Hemsworth — is available on newsstands nationwide and for download at modernluxury.com.