Chris Hemsworth appeared on an earlier episode of the “SmartLess” podcast while promoting ‘Crime 101.’
He candidly discussed his decision to leave Los Angeles with his family at the peak of his Marvel celebrity. Five years into their marriage, Hemsworth and his wife, actor Elsa Pataky, decided to move their family to Australia, Hemsworth’s native country, and leave Los Angeles.
“It was right around the time my boys were born, and it was just, we kind of were set up in L.A. and not enjoying it, you know?” he said. “Like nothing was shooting there. We were filming kind of everywhere else and then… you’d come home and paparazzi and all the sort of the trappings of, you know, living in that space.”
Relocating out of Los Angeles, according to Hemsworth, was the “greatest decision. It didn’t interfere with his acting career because he was also traveling to film several of his movies.
“You know, when you come back from work, you wanna go on a holiday?” Regarding residing in Australia, Hemsworth remarked, “It’s like coming home for me—it feels like a holiday. We have a big farm, horses, motorbikes, and surf.”
Hollywood protests further decreased the number of films being filmed in Los Angeles, and the actor’s departure from the industry occurred years before the outbreak of COVID.
According to Variety’s report from last month, the number of film, television, and commercial manufacturing days in Los Angeles decreased by 12.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025. That maintained a decreasing trajectory that began in 2022. The total output volume for 2025 was roughly half of what it was in 2019.
Hemsworth will return as Thor in “Avengers: Doomsday” in December of this year.



