A reflective moment. Chris Hemsworth opened up about how Jeremy Renner’s nearly fatal snowplow accident impacted his mindset.
“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,” the Thor: Love and Thunder actor, 39, recalled in an interview with British GQ published on Tuesday, June 6. “I think anything like that, it’s an immediate realization of ‘Wow, any of us can go at any minute.’”
Renner, 52 — who stars in the Avengers franchise alongside Hemsworth — was run over by a snowplow in January near his home in Reno, Nevada. The Hawkeye star suffered “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” at the time, according to his rep. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital and underwent surgery for his numerous injuries. Renner later revealed to Jimmy Kimmel that he broke “35 or so” bones during the New Year’s Day incident.
At the time of Renner’s accident, Hemsworth and several of their Marvel costars sent their well-wishes to the Mayor of Kingstown actor.
“We’re getting to the age now where we’re going to start losing people we love,” Hemsworth told the magazine. (The actor also noted that he recently lost his 93-year-old grandfather, who had Alzheimer’s disease.)
Health has been top of mind for the Australia native in recent months. In November 2022, the Thor star revealed while filming his docuseries Limitless — which focuses on facing the reality of aging and death — that he has a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s. Hemsworth underwent a series of genetic tests for the National Geographic show and learned that he has two copies of the gene APOE4: one from his mother and the other from his father.
“It’s like one in a thousand people [who have two copies of the gene] … or one in 10,000. I can’t remember,” Hemsworth said to Vanity Fair at the time, adding that the results make him “eight to 10 times more likely” to battle the neurodegenerative condition in his lifetime.
At the time of the diagnosis, Hemsworth had not shared the news with his kids. The Thor: Ragnarok actor and his wife, Elsa Pataky, share three children: India, 10, and twins Sasha and Tristan, 9.
“I don’t think they could have grasped the concept or have the understanding,” he explained. “But again … it’s not like I’ve been handed my resignation and this is what it is. … It’s not quite that situation, thankfully. One day I’m sure I’ll bring it up. They probably want to test themselves and [find out], ‘Are you in the category that’s going to be sensitive to this or not?’”
