Chris Hemsworth has come a long way from being homegrown Aussie talent on Home and Away to fronting his own action-packed Hollywood blockbusters.
But despite his global success, the Thor star has never forgotten his roots.
Hemsworth has been reflecting on where his career first began not just for a laugh but for a cause deeply personal to him: helping his father hold on to those precious memories.
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That mission is at the heart of his new Hulu/Disney+ documentary, Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember.
To mark the release, Hemsworth shared a clip from the new documentary of his parents, Craig and Julie, at home watching a home video of their son’s earliest role.
In the grainy footage, a teenage-looking Hemsworth is doing his best impersonation of the late Steve Irwin.
Dressed in the Crocodile Hunter’s signature khaki outfit, Hemsworth channels his enthusiasm.
“How you going folks?” he says, slipping into his best Irwin accent.
“We’ve got a real bloody ripper in store for you today. It’s gonna be bloody unreal!”
The young Hemsworth then announces he’s tracking down a Siberian Tiger Australian Fox, which, as the clip reveals, is simply the family dog.
“Next week, we’ll be chasing the Australian grasshopper! Can’t wait!” he adds.
In the clip posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Hemsworth’s parents can be seen laughing as they watch.
“My first self-appointed, unofficial acting gig. I drew inspiration from one of my heroes, the crocodile hunter himself,” Hemsworth posted.
But watching the old footage of their son doesn’t just offer a dose of nostalgia. It has become part of Hemsworth’s mission to reconnect his father with his old memories.
In A Road Trip to Remember, Hemsworth and his 71-year-old father embark on a journey across Australia, revisiting the places that shaped their lives.
The trip was prompted by Craig’s recent diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer’s — a disease Hemsworth himself has a genetic predisposition toward.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and gradually impairs memory, thinking and behaviour as brain connections deteriorate over time.
In the film, Hemsworth reveals he carries two copies of the APOE4 gene which puts him at a higher risk of developing the illness, but right now he just wants to “continue on with life”.
“I feel I’ve been so busy, I probably haven’t spent as much time with my dad as I would want to,” Hemsworth says at the start of the film.
Throughout the road trip they explore reminiscence therapy, which involves a discussion of past experiences and events between a person living with dementia and their carers and family.
This approach often uses photos, old newspaper articles and items from the person’s past to evoke memories and stimulate storytelling.
Reviews found reminiscence therapy and creating a life story book had a positive impact on the quality of life of the person living with dementia.
Hemsworth explains in the documentary while Alzheimer’s disrupts memory networks, reminiscence therapy works to rebuild them through multisensory experiences.
“Seeing, touching and hearing our past can make it easier to remember,” he says.
Along the way, Hemsworth attempts to “supersize” reminiscence therapy for his dad by stopping at his childhood home and meeting up with old friends.
The actor even staged the Melbourne home they lived in together when Hemsworth was a kid in the 1990s.
“I think my dad got a lot out of today,” Hemsworth says in the film.
“The experience of coming back to our old house in Melbourne has stimulated nostalgia and triggered memories.
“It feels like there’s been a real benefit.”
