Chris Hemsworth takes '87-year-old wife' on date after finding out he has greater chance of getting Alzheimer's

It's often said that you should face your fears head-on, and this is exactly what Chris Hemsworth did after discovering he has an increased risk of Alzheimer's.

The Thor actor, 39, was given the news after undergoing genetic testing, and in a bid to help him come to terms with it, he took his '87-year-old wife' on a date. Watch below:

The unusual date was filmed as part of the actor's Disney+ docuseries Limitless, which saw his wife Elsa Pataky, 46, transformed into an old woman.

The transformation took place because there is unfortunately a very real chance that the pair will not grow old together.

Hemsworth has two copies of the APOE4 gene, which increases a person's chances of developing the degenerative disease.

To put what this means for Hemsworth into context, he is eight to ten times more likely to develop the illness.

While this did not come as a huge surprise to the actor as his grandfather has Alzheimer's, it also meant that he is more aware than most of what it can do to a person's mind.

On episode five of the series, he said that his biggest fear, should he develop the disease, is being put into a position where he can no longer remember his wife and children.

So in a bid to give them a chance to dine together as elderly people who do actually know each other, she was transformed into an older woman.

This was a total surprise for Hemsworth too, who was told that he was going to dinner with an elderly fan.

The transformation was so dramatic that Elsa admitted she wasn't sure if she wanted her partner to see her looking so old.

"I'm not sure I want Chris to see me like this," she said.

Disney+ / Limitless

But her fears were completely unfounded, and in response to her 'older' self, the actor said she was still very much 'beautiful'.

This completely touched the hearts of fans when the clip was posted to social media, many of whom described it as 'romantic' and 'heartbreaking'.

He told Vanity Fair of his Alzheimer's prognosis: "They took all my bloodwork and did a bunch of tests and the plan was to on-camera tell me all the results and then talk about how you can improve this and that.

"And Peter Attia, who is the longevity doctor in that episode, and overseeing a lot of the show, called [show creator] Darren [Aronofsky] and said, 'I don't want to tell him this on camera. We need to have an off-side conversation and see if he even wants this to be in the show'. It was pretty shocking because he called me up and he told me."

Hopefully, should the worst come to the worst, Hemsworth can take some comfort in the knowledge that he's already met his wife as an older woman, and therefore he may well still remember her.