For many actors, living in Hollywood is the ultimate dream. But for actor Chris Hemsworth, stepping away from Los Angeles and returning home to Australia turned out to be the best choice he ever made.

The Marvel star recently opened up about his decision to leave Hollywood behind, revealing that relocating his family away from the spotlight brought a sense of peace and balance to their lives.

Hemsworth shared that the constant presence of paparazzi and the pressures of life in Los Angeles made him realize he wanted something different for his family.

“It was right around the time my boys were born, and it was just, we kind of were set up in LA and not enjoying it, you know? Like nothing was shooting there. We were filming kind of everywhere else,” Hemsworth explained during an episode of the podcast SmartLess.

The actor said that every time he returned home from work, he was reminded of the downsides of living in such a high-profile place.

“And then … you’d come home and paparazzi and all the sort of the trappings of, you know, living in that space,” Hemsworth added.

Instead, Hemsworth and his wife, actress Elsa Pataky, decided to move their growing family back to Australia. The couple, who met in 2010 and married just three months after making their relationship public, share three children together.

Their new home is far removed from the chaos of Hollywood. The family now lives on a large farm where their kids can enjoy the outdoors and experience a slower pace of life.

“You know, when you come back from work, you wanna go on a holiday? Like coming home for me is – it feels like a holiday. We have big farm and horses and motorbikes and surf,” Hemsworth said.

The lifestyle is similar to the one Hemsworth experienced growing up. He and his brothers, Liam and Luke Hemsworth, spent their childhood surrounded by nature just outside Melbourne.

“We lived about 20 minutes from, like, the main sort of suburban areas in Melbourne up in the hills,” Hemsworth recalled. “And the nearest neighbor was a kilometer or two away.”

“It was just all bush land and rainforest sort of set up around us,” he continued. “And so we would just [have] … adventures outdoors and playing different characters.”

Those childhood adventures, he believes, may have sparked his early interest in acting.

Before his Hollywood success, however, Hemsworth had a much less glamorous job. He revealed that one of his first jobs involved repairing breast milk pumps for an appliance manufacturer.

“And they would come back to us, and I’d have to repair them when, like the little belt, the motor belt would break,” he said. “You’d also have to clean all the dried milk that was on them.”

Despite his humble beginnings, Hemsworth eventually found success in the early 2000s with roles on Australian television before landing the role that would change his life: Thor in Marvel’s cinematic universe.

Today, the actor is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Yet when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024, he made it clear that his family remains the most important part of his journey.

“I want to say thank you to my beautiful wife, who has been here for my entire career basically by my side, endlessly encouraging and supportive,” he said.

“The fact [is] that nothing that I do, any of these moments, these special occasions and events, none of it is special without you by my side. I love you.”