Chris Hemsworth is "taking time off" from his career after thinking about his own mortality.

The 39-year-old actor - who has daughter India, 12, and eight-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan with wife Elsa Pataky - had been working on an episode of his National Geographic’s 'Limitless' series which focused on death and quickly realised that he wants to spend more time with his family while he still can.

He said: "Doing an episode on death and facing your own mortality made me go, 'Oh God, I'm not ready to go yet. I want to sit and be in this space with a greater sense of stillness and gratitude. And then you start talking about kids and family and going, 'Oh my God, they're getting older, they're growing up and I keep slapping another movie on top of another movie.' Before you know it, they're 18 and they've moved out of house, and I missed the window. It really triggered something in me to want to take some time off."

The 'Thor' actor is currently on a publicity tour for his docuseries but explained that as soon as he has completed that, he will be taking a "good chunk" of time away so that he can "simplify" his life.

He told Vanity Fair magazine: "Since we finished the show, I've been completing the things I was already contracted to do. Now when I finish this tour this week, I'm going home and I'm going to have a good chunk of time off and just simplify. Be with the kids, be with my wife.

"I felt like I'd been in a sprint for 10 years, and all these moments that were dream scenarios would fly by. Moments that I should have been stepping back and going, 'Wow, this is incredible,' I was inundated with other kinds of requests and asks and being pulled in different directions. [I was] not really kind of enjoying what was right in front of me."