With more than 57 million people living with dementia, Chris Hemsworth is sharing his family’s experience with overcoming the disease.
In National Geographic‘s first look at Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember, directed by Tom Barbor-Might, the Australian actor and his father Craig hit the road on motorcycle amid the patriarch’s diagnosis with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
“My dad and I are going on a road trip, back into our past,” says Chris in the trailer that was released Thursday. “He has early-stage Alzheimer’s. I wanna do everything I can to help him. Turns out, this experience could help fight the disease.”
The MCU star explained that “different places instantly bring those memories to life” for his father as they traveled across Australia for the one-hour documentary, which premieres Nov. 23 on National Geographic and streams Nov. 24 on Disney+ and Hulu.
In addition to rekindling their bond and strengthening his father’s memories, Chris explores the effective science of social connection with Craig, guided by Dr. Suraj Samtani, a dementia specialist and clinical psychologist at the University of New South Wales Centre for Healthy Brain Aging. Dr. Samtani worked worked with the Hemsworth family over the course of a year.
“My Dad and I had always spoken about taking a trip back to the Northern Territory, where our family had lived years ago, but we had never been able to set aside the time to actually do it,” said Chris. “More recently the idea of taking that road trip reemerged with more pressing importance. The result was a more profound, more moving, and more surprising journey than I ever anticipated.”
Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember is produced by Protozoa, Nutopia and Wild State for National Geographic. Tom Watt-Smith, Peter Lovering, Arif Nurmohamed and Jane Root serve as executive producers for Nutopia. Creators Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa also executive produce, and Chris Hemsworth, Ben Grayson and Brandon Hill are executive producers for Wild State. directs the documentary. Bengt Anderson and Simon Raikes are executive producers for National Geographic.
