Chris Evans Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

Put on the suit, let's do some rounds, who do you think is stronger, Captain America or Iron Man? Well I'm biased so I'm going to say cap, but who's smarter, who's richer, eh, I'll give it to Tony Fantastic Four now imagine that, but everywhere he wasn't a big comic book reader. I read a lot now, but at the time and apart from the '80s and early '90s, Batman, Superman, things like that, that new wave of superhero movies, Spider-Man, the X-Men had just started, so it was really exciting, you know, Marvel hadn't even gotten their name back yet, so that movie was on Fox, it was one of the biggest movies they had made up to that point. so I was ecstatic and it was a fun role to play, it was full of life and he reacted the way I probably would have reacted if I had been given superpowers.

I'm so close to the flying boys I can taste it, you can't fly yet. Johnny, can you explain that? Oh Jesus, well, it was my first time doing those big action stunts, you know, you show up on a set that's two blocks long and these giant wires and explosions and green screens, and you know things you see on other movie sets. , you know, and it's kind of like wow, I make movies, this is cool and having a good time with the cast we had a lot of fun this was the early 2000s this is before social media I think probably everyone I had a Nokia flip phone, you know?

So it was still a time when you knew between takes not everyone was buried in their phones, you were chatting and you know at night you were socializing, yeah I'm in my early 20s, it was a good time oh foreigner, Marvel had big plans and the goal was to create this tapestry and integrate these worlds in a way that hadn't really been done before and I knew what the comics offered me, you know about the character like

most

comics do. There are several different writers writing for that character and several different story lines, so you're not quite sure which ones they'll follow.

Yeah, it wasn't much about where the character was going to end up. up top was more about, you know, the burden of trying to create this universe, but that didn't really fall into my lap, that was other people's responsibility and we had Downy driving, you know what I mean, like there was already done very well with Iron. Man, and it was such a phenomenon that you felt like okay, we're on the right foot before we start. Does anyone want to go out? Want to see how fans see it? You know what I mean? I've heard about movies being made or remade, which is very dear to my heart, you realize how protective and possessive you are of that role and you want to make sure that the person playing the character respects that perspective and isn't like you.

I know they know the character, but this is my moment and I'm going to do my thing, which is stumble from the beginning, so the first step is to try to understand why other people like them and honor that as best you can. Avengers Assemble, there's a lot of it. of funny moments at the end of the game because those are a lot of moments that are in service of the fandom, but for a lot of those setup montages where we're about to go back and get the Stones, they're some of the original people and we just have to Being in this room for weeks.

Obviously I really like the scene where I pick up Milner for the first time in the game. It's that you are fully aware of what you have to be a part of. You are really very grateful. day and just trying to take it all in, you know. I think when you're in the middle it's always like another Marvel movie next year, not that you take it for granted, but it just doesn't resonate the same way when Wow, we'll be rapping in a couple weeks and I'll put down the shield and that It's just that it's been such a big part of my life for a decade, so

most

of the endgame was a really lovely experience, how does anyone else's feel?

It's not like the last day was, you know, emotional, it's like graduating school, I mean, like you know today is coming and then all of a sudden it's here and you feel like it happened too fast and I mean it's changing my life. It won't always be the same, my family's life isn't, I mean, I mean, the ripple effect of signing up for that role is something immeasurable at least for me and it was a beautiful moment full of gratitude Scott Pilgrim vs. the world that really you don't know I don't know about the league, um, the seven evil Strange, but he said you know Lucas.

Lee is a movie star, but in reality he doesn't have much range and he thinks he's great, but in reality he's terrible and I think you'd be perfect. I told him it was okay, he spent a lot of time trying to make me look comfortable, but at the end of the day, I'm still hanging from the cables and I had a device where my shoe was connected to the skateboard, so when I try an ollie, it comes to mind , so you know, but you get immersed because you're in this big warehouse and Mary is in the corner working with swords and Mike and Jason are there doing this big action sequence, so you know you're happy to be a part of it, that It's probably the most fun I've ever had in a movie. again at the beginning of my career 20 years but a great cast of people in the same place I want to have their babies adopted the cast was very connected hey hey I'm not stupid oh doubly he's good right leaving was heartbreaking it really was like the first time I was like, I mean, I can hang out guys if you need me, you know you don't want to miss anything, another movie where there was a rehearsal period that was more physical, you know, a lot of people had action sequences.

I had to learn how to skateboard, but rehearsal was so much fun, then you leave and come back a month later to do your part and you have such horrible fomo. You know what they've been up to, have you ever had fun? Send me. photos, yes, to this day, that email chain is still very active when I first saw it after they finished editing before its release. I saw it and I thought this movie was going to be huge, you know? and then, interestingly enough, it came out and There were many moons that have to align for a film to not only be good but to be successful, but it's good to know that it continues to find new audiences and has created a bit of a cult following, so that.

We're doing this animated series and I've never been a part of something where all Edgar had to do was say, "Hey, you guys want to do this," and it was a race to jump everyone, yeah, of course, of course , no, there is no brain. room, so yeah, it's a little family mind, another team movie at the time, I would have picked any movie, but yeah, being able to scare some of those movies that I grew up on was a treat. Hi Jake, there were the Ferris Bueller elements that my dad was into. the movie was about Ferris' father, you know, being somewhat adjacent to Ferris Bueller was pretty exciting at the time, it's more intimidating, keeping things fresh on the film set is the biggest challenge, a drama, you can always Find something that makes you feel honest. comedy, you know when you tell a joke or you know, you know the comedic timing that's coming, it's very easy to get stale, you have to be really agile and inherently funny, which I don't know if I am, so it's an uphill battle.

Knives Out stop, stop, stop, stop, you drive down Ransom, call me Ransom, it's my middle name. I mean, I love a murder mystery. I love a set. I love most of them. I mean, the cast is just phenomenal and Ryan Johnson again is another director who really knows what. he wants to and it was a role that I felt confident in, it was an intimidating role just because a lot of the

characters

are colorful and you don't know how far to go or how grounded I do this and again you let Ryan guide you but it was just the job of your dreams, it is a wonder with a good law.

I'll be out in no time and then you'll see how much hell I can cause in your life you little vicious, oh that was great. scene I didn't love having vomit on my face. I have so much love for Michael Shannon. I just think he's the funniest guy. I don't think anyone realizes how dry and sharp he is and knows he's funny too. I'll make these like, you know, quiet side comments and he'll just have the slightest mark on his face, so we were doing that scene where he shoves the cookies in my face and just yells, how about some more cookies, a glass full of milk and like well, he took all the meats and didn't break, he's just very committed, absolutely hilarious, so that might be my favorite scene, snowmates, when I first read the script, I didn't fully understand it .

I thought, what do you know when it's a world? movie that is uh World building, you know you're creating a completely separate environment, there's a kind of presumption that you have to say Okay, so everyone accepts this, that's how no one gets outraged because this is the structure that just the normal kind, You have to decide where in your brain you spend your time understanding your head, you go down the Intimate Path and just make it about the character, you try to make it about what it took for that Society to emerge. Getting to that place is a challenge, but you can watch until Swinton is in the film, you can see his approach to this larger than life character, precisely 74 of you will die abroad, they suffer from the misplaced optimism of the damned , again we had some.

Good rehearsal for that project too and director Bong is a visionary when you work with someone who knows exactly what they want, even if it's not exactly how you saw it, it builds trust and that, as an actor, that's the most important thing is to trust the director, otherwise you will be playing defensively, otherwise you will be like that on the first take. I'll do this just so I can at least protect that, then I'll try this, but I don't want to try that because I don't know if they know how to use that opinion and any opinion I give them could be used against me and you know, when you have a director who is so convinced of what his vision is, that's when you say great when you say John.

Paul says how high up we had those gimbal cars, these little ones, as you know, they just like a subtle motion, so there's a lot of boat legs at the end of the day, you wobble back to your hotel room, unbelievably, uh , useful, the tangible. environment unlike Marvel, where you're talking to green screens and imaginary aliens, everything was there, you know, for you to touch and react to with sunlight. Do I have to explain it to you? We have a payload to deliver to the heart of our nearest star we are delivering that payload because that star is dying and if it dies we die everything dies so that is our mission there is literally nothing more important than completing our mission, it is very ossified in many ways, but it is like the engine it is a kind of moral compass prioritizes the mission first at the expense of people's feelings in many ways it is very clean it believes strongly in what it believes in for the most part selfless you know and there's a mission and he's going to do it and I like it, I like those types of roles, we don't have enough oxygen reserves to get us to our payload delivery point let alone survive the trip back, so cancels ticker parade.

I was very aware of Danny Boyle, I mean. he's a huge talent and he really comes from the theater world as well, so the approach was very rehearsal based, you know, in my short career at the time, I certainly had never had a film that had as much prep time as so that the entire cast came to light. A couple of weeks before, Danny had us all live together in these little apartments for a couple of weeks. We experience the loss of space. We took diving lessons to experience weightlessness. He rented theaters to see these, you know, Das Boot and all the right stuff, all these movies.

To get ourselves in the right mindset, we rehearsed a lot and it got to a point where when you were filming you knew what you were doing, so on a film you show up on the first day and you meet the actor. When you first read the words that had a very theatrical approach, I think I felt a little spoiled showing the jury that the reason my client was fired was because he falsified his resume, not because he was. above your head and reported that the trucks were not being repaired and people were dying as a result correct, say yes, yes, that was the first time I played a real person and he had passed away a few years before, so you have a unique burden that comes. with that we met his family, we met his brother and you know, you just get personal stories and socially relevant themes that I was excited to be a part of and a really fun role, a director, the Kasson brothers, Mark Cassen, who is now my producing partner and dear friend, it was a really exciting time, a very creative and fulfilling role, butalso very demanding, and that coincided just when I received the offer to do Captain America, you know?

I was coming off a flat and I was so happy with that kind of cinema and Captain America just felt like a different universe and I wasn't really sure if that was the world I wanted to go into, so that's part of the reasons. why I was so cautious and said no to Captain America. a couple of times because of the experience I had with the flat tire, you know, I just wasn't sure which avenue to take. In hindsight you realize that nothing is binary, you can build any kind of path you want, but at the time it just felt overwhelming.

Yeah well at least I have the courage to lose for what it isSometimes, in big movies, there are a hundred cooks in the kitchen, every decision is filtered through a billion teams of people and working on punctures feels like a couple of people with a camera. You have a much more intimate hands-on approach to these. aspects and just feels maybe a little more protected. I mean, I've been a part of movies where you do your job and then there are so many steps, that's the nature of filmmaking. I mean, you see the final product and you say, wow, that's not like that. what I thought was going to be, like with the big movies, the smaller movies, it almost feels like you can guide them a little bit more because there's just less people involved, pain hustlers.

I play Pete Brenner, he's a drug rep, he's a representative of a mentality that's pretty pervasive in the field, which is like hey, I'm just doing my job, I'm just doing my job, it's not my fault, it's not me. Write the recipes, I'm not the one who kills people, I'm just going through this. from A to B, so it's kind of a twisted perspective that absolves anyone of responsibility for this epidemic. What attracted me specifically was Emily, you know her and I are friendly and have been looking for something to do together, very interested in joining up anyway. but the story ended up being very timely and important whenever you can work with a certain caliber of people on a project that is relevant and important and moves the needle socially.

Ways you get on board. I think there are different motivating factors. Creative appetites. Deviate from one thing. The next time you might just want something that's a comedy, something that's funny or familiar, or a horror thriller, but sometimes you know you can even stumble upon a topic that means something to you personally and then actively pursue a project that reflects that theme, it is a blessing and I am very satisfied creatively and, personally, I am satisfied to be able to do that from time to time.