It’s official: Chris Hemsworth is an absolute dreamboat. The In the Heart of the Sea actor opened up about parenthood during a new interview with Parade magazine. The hunky Aussie star shared a heartwarming story involving his 3-year-old daughter, India.
“Last week, we were in the car driving somewhere, and my little girl was in the back seat with me. I was really tired, and I leaned over and I put my head on her lap, without even thinking about it. I just wanted to lie down a little bit and sleep because it was a 40-minute drive. And she started patting my head and singing a song through her pacifier,” Hemsworth, 32, recalled. “I don’t even know what song it was. . .I looked at my wife, who was in the front seat, and she had tears in her eyes.”
“There’s the idea that we as parents spend all this time protecting our children. No, I think they’re protecting us,” he continued. “Sitting in the car with my head on her lap and her singing to me, there was this understanding of, ‘Wow, she’s looking after Dad, and that’s her job.’ You know? And that was such a joy. Oh, there’s nothing better! It was the happiest moment of my life.”
Hemsworth and his model-actress wife, Elsa Pataky, 39 — who married in 2010 — are also parents to twin sons Tristan and Sasha, 21 months. The family now lives on Phillip Island off Australia’s coast, near Hemsworth’s parents, Craig and Leonie. Hemsworth explained that he and Pataky moved from L.A. to live a more private life.
“In the space of three years, we had our kids and simultaneously my career was happening, and everything changed. We’d leave the house and there would be six paparazzi out in front,” he told the mag. “In L.A., more than anywhere else in the world, paparazzi are everywhere, 24/7. We felt suffocated. The agitation you feel from the paparazzi rippled in the house.”
Hemsworth described his new sanctuary as a “quiet little surf town.” An hour outside Melbourne, the island has proved to be a nice escape from Hollywood.
“There are other things in my life now — family, kids. I don’t want to have to be in the position where I care if the phone stops ringing. I’m okay about potentially not acting,” he revealed. “That just may be me trying to convince myself in case it does happen, but I’ve always been weirdly aware of that.”
Even more, Hemsworth credits fatherhood for giving him the greatest lesson in the world. “For the first time, it’s not about me anymore. This internal dialogue about my own boring story isn’t at the forefront of my thoughts. It’s about them now, their welfare,” he said. “If I make a film, what is that going to allow us to do? What is it going to give them? That’s been really refreshing, I’ve got to say, because it’s so easy to become self-centered, particularly for me in this business.”
