‘Tarantino was right’: Chris Evans looks back on his role as Marvel’s Captain America

Away from the Hollywood spotlight in Los Angeles, Chris Evans gave a long and very interesting interview. GQ magazine. After returning to his native land of Massachusetts, the actor, apparently in full introspection, is turning aside a career that began more than twenty years ago. from his first appearance “bad movies” As he says, until Ghosted, which was released on Apple+ last April.

With a generous share of the role that finally catapulted him into the public eye: the role of Captain America in Marvel, which he was contractually obligated to play seven times and which he had seemingly turned down before. He changed his mind on his mother’s advice.

“I was very afraid to accept the role” He says that he is approaching 30 years of age. “I remember that in the late thirties I felt a real change in filming, in the promotion of films: a little more anxiety, doubts. In the end, you always ask yourself, do you really have to do it? I didn’t know anymore. If I was getting closer or further away from myself.. a small voice inside told me that this was more of a last resort than something was not healthy in this environment.

He weighs the pros and cons before accepting a role. “Pros: I could shelter my family forever; Cons: Fame and lack of control risked becoming deeply unhappy.”

Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, is full of compliments for Chris Evans: “We talk a lot Robert Downey Jr.Rightly so, as the founder of the studio we have here. But in many ways, Chris Evans was one of the pillars without which the house could never stand. He mumbled into the GQ reporter’s microphone.

“I love playing this role, I feel a connection with him”

“When you look at a role so often, you can’t help but measure yourself in terms of certain qualities of his personality that you have more or less unconsciously integrated” continues Evans. If superhero movies have fundamentally changed the face of Hollywood cinema and become the industry’s dominant—not to mention overwhelming—model, the actor seems to be giving himself very little credit for his Marvel adventure.

And even shares a comment made by Tarantino about the wave of Hollywood superheroes. “That’s what created the charm of these Marvel movies. You are never the center of it. including sometimes in their own films. Quentin Tarantino spoke about this recently. And I said to myself, he’s right. The character is a star. You’re there, but you’re not carrying the film on your shoulders.” Evans said.

For reference, in a November 2022 podcast called 2 Bears, 1 Cave, Tarantino discussed the disappearance of movie stars, blaming Marvel movies in particular and attacking its headliners.

“The result of the Marvelization of Hollywood is that you have all these actors who became famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars, are they? The star is Captain America. Or Thor. I’m not the first one to say, I think That it’s been said a billion times… but the characters in the franchise become the stars.” she said.

Evans’s analysis, and subsequently Tarantino’s, is characterized (logically…) by Feige, who adds in an interview: “I think that’s what he’s trying to convince himself of, as well as others in the Avengers, including Robert, and that may have helped him along the way. But in some cases, especially with Chris, it’s not quite the case.”