Liam Hemsworth is one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t struggled, he tells Men’s Health for their May cover story.
Hemsworth got real about his tough 2019, which included a public split from his partner of a decade and wife of a year Miley Cyrus, and a serious health scare.
The 30-year-old says: “I was vegan for almost four years, and then February of last year I was feeling lethargic. Then I got a kidney stone. It was one of the most painful weeks of my life. I was doing press for Isn’t It Romantic. But I had to go to the hospital and get surgery.”
While it’s “all good now,” he explains that he had to reduce his vegetable load. He says: “Once you get one kidney stone, you have a 50 percent chance of getting another one if you continue eating the way you were eating. Well, my particular kidney stone was a calciumoxalate kidney stone. It forms from having too much oxalate in your diet. Oxalates are really high in a lot of vegetables, specifically spinach, almonds, beetroot, potatoes. Every morning, I was having five handfuls of spinach and then almond milk, almond butter, and also some vegan protein in a smoothie. And that was what I considered super healthy. So I had to completely rethink what I was putting in my body.”
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He also opened up about hitting a rough patch in his career and considering a back-up career: “I had a really naive confidence. I got flown over to do a screen test for Thor. So I had some confidence, and I was doing auditions as much as I could. I was cast in the first Expendables film, and then the script got rewritten and they cut me out of it. My parents always said, ‘Have a backup plan.’ Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was like, ‘I’ve probably got to do a trade, be a builder or landscaper,’ But also, I was like, ‘I’m going to make this happen.’ And acting was what I set my mind on.”