Chris Evans Discusses Captain America's "Darker" Role in The Avengers
Posted 09.18.11 by Ryan
This summer, Chris Evans impressed critics and audiences alike with his portrayal of patriotic comic book hero Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger. With most of the movie showing that what made Cap a hero, besides an injection of Super Solider serum, was the sacrificial nature of his character, next the installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, next year's adaptation of The Avengers, will show the World War II-era Captain leading a team of superheroes in the present. The "fish-out-of-water" scenario will certainly be an adjustment for the character, and, as Evans told The Huffington Post.
He's in modern day, he has troubles. He actually gets to have things that he might have be able to shoulder, you know what I mean? He can't just put it on his back. He's a fish out of water. Everyone knows he's dead, and he's in a foreign time, and The Avengers, he gets to be a little bit darker, which is nice.
As for the balance of The Avengers with its comic book source material, Evans says that writer-director Joss Whedon has "struck a really good balance."
There's obviously action, you've got all these super heroes, there's gonna be constant battle, I think every ten pages, there's going to be some sort of action, but you can have all the action in the world, if you don't have some substance, you got nothing. I don't want to s**t talk other movies, I know a lot of other movies like that where it's all action and no heart. It's not easy trying to bring all those characters together and find a story, but the best thing about Joss is that Joss is a fan, Joss is a comic book guy. It feels so nice working with a guy that is well, the people I am trying to please is Joss. Joss is one of those dudes. And if Joss is happy with the dialog, if Joss is happy with the wardrobe, if Joss is happy, then I'm happy. Because he's Comic-Con, he's one of these dudes who would be in the audience geeking out, so if he's happy, I'm happy.
Evans admitted that most of his scenes in The Avenger are with the actor that helped kick-start the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the first place: Robert Downey Jr.
I think most of my stuff is with Downey. He's just so good, man. Again, I didn't know what to expect about him, either. And he just — I'm so f**king lucky. He was so cool. I'm not that great with press sometimes, and he was so like a mentor. He's so willing to give advice and he doesn't feel like, you'll do a take and he gives you a little thumbs up and he just makes your day. You're like, Downey just gave me a thumbs up! That just made my life. I'm like skipping to my trailer, and this guy had no idea the impact he just had. He's just such a nice guy and he was the first dude — I've made a lot of movies with a lot of big actors — the first guy I'd ever been on set, and he comes on set, and it was the first time I was ever like, "Wow, that's a f**king movie star. That is a f**king movie star."
Evans has been playing the character of Captain America for a while now, telling Collider that after he finished First Avenger "in December," he almost immediately started work on The Avengers. "We had about a month off, and then we had to do about a month of re-shoots for Cap," said Evans. "And then, we went right into The Avengers."
As for when he will have to don the stars and stripes again for Cap in Captain America 2? "[Don't know] yet," Evans admitted. "There’s no official word."
With principal photography on The Avengers now wrapped, looks like Evans can take a break from Steve Rogers for a while.
Next Showing: The Avengers opens May 4