As an Australian native, it is natural to understand why Chris Hemsworth enjoys surfing, but what we didn’t know is that he had near death experiences on more than one occasion.
The hunky Aussie opened up about the fact that he has feared for his life several times, when he was left underwater ”at the end of” his breath, struggling to reach the surface.
That doesn’t bode well for the 30-year-old married man and father of a young daughter, India, with wife Elsa Pataky.
During an interview with GQ Magazine he said,
”I’ve surfed a couple of times where I’ve been pinned under a reef and I’m right at the end of my breath, and there’s nothing else you want to see more than the surface.”
He also shared that he has been hitting the waves since he was a young boy, but has never had a face-to-face encounter with a shark. However, Chris Hemsworth says he is certain they have been around while he was on his board.
”I’ve surfed most of my life and without a doubt there’s been sharks in the water when I’ve been there. I’ve never seen a shark, but there’s no doubt there would’ve been one around.”
Hemsworth plays another daredevil, James Hunt, in the Ron Howard Formula One film Rush, which he has been promoting at the Toronto International Film Festival to great reviews.
Chris doesn’t think about his mortality riding the waves or driving at unmatched speeds for his new film, but everyday events do make him consider the risks.
”It’s the near misses that you don’t see when you’re walking down the street, then later you think, ‘S**t, that bus was two inches away from hitting me.’”
However, playing the hard-living Hunt in the film about the on-track rivalry between close friends Hunt and Niki Lauda made him aware of the fragility of life,
”There were moments when driving on the track where you think, ‘I better pull back here’, because you think of how things could end up.”
Chris Hemsworth stars as British Formula One driver James Hunt, opposite Daniel Brühl as Austrian legend Niki Lauda in Rush.
