Chris Hemsworth thinks his career could be "killing" him after getting into acting to help his parents.

The 40-year-old actor has opened up on how he pursued a career on the big screen after seeing his mother and father struggled with money when he was younger, and he wanted to help them get "out of debt".

Speaking in new Disney+ docuseries 'Limitless', he explained: "If I'm totally honest, I did acting to get my parents out of debt.

"It could be killing me. When I first started acting, my parents had very little money.

"Talking to my dad about when he's going to be able to pay the bank off and him saying, 'Never, we'll die having to pay it off', that really bothered me from a young age."

He still suffers from "stress" and "anxiety" to this day when he finds himself taking on "too many projects" due to that same mentality.

He added: "What gives me huge anxiety and evokes stress is when I'm trying to take care of too many things, too many projects.

"I still have these thoughts of like, it's all going to go away if I don't say yes to these things.

"I can still feel stress eating away at me, and I don't want it to rule my life."

The 'Thor' star has discovered through testing on his 'Limitless' docuseries that his chances of developing the degenerative condition are eight to 10 times higher than average because he has two copies of the APOE4 gene.

He is taking steps to look after the health of his brain with his grandfather Martin dying of the disease, and his dad Craig, 68, showing early signs.

Chris recently admitted he has always been prone to overthinking, which has led to feelings of anxiety, but his mother Leonie used to help keep him distracted from a young age.

He told the Sunday Times Culture magazine: “She would say I was letting something consume me.

"The danger for me is if I’m bored or become stagnant. Then I’ll find problems that aren’t there.

"I wouldn’t [call it depression]. I have anxiety that I have to quickly figure out how to appease — like everybody I face these emotions screaming for attention, so it’s about keeping them balanced to stop me falling into problematic emotional states. Mum was always very good, when I was growing up, at reminding me of that.”