"I loved film and TV, but it was like we had no money," Hemsworth told Variety in 2019. "I wanted to pay off their house, initially. That was my sort of thing."
The actor went on to say that his motivation led him to "put too much pressure" on himself when it came to auditions.
"If I hadn't taken it upon myself to take care of my family, I might have been more relaxed."
Hemsworth ended up eventually being able to accomplish his goal of paying off the house, telling GQ Australia: "That was the first thing I did. As you get older, the roles reverse – they had us so young, they worked long hours, they gave up all their youth, to give us a great life."
He also jokingly told GQ US that acting appealed to him because he was always a "liar" and used to fib in order to get out of things he didn't want to do around the house.
"I'd pretend to be sick or broken in some way and incapable of doing any real work," he said. "That's where it all started."