Courtesy Everett Collection
Chris Evans shares his thoughts on his Captain America character, his initial reluctance to take on the role, and why he’s not ready to return to the MCU anytime soon.
In an interview with GQ in the October issue, Evans says he somewhat agrees with Quentin Tarantino’s comments last year that Marvel characters are the stars and not the actor who portrays them. “Part of the Marvel formation of Hollywood is that you have all these actors who have become famous and play these characters, but they are not movie stars. Captain America is the star,” Tarantino said in a November 2022 interview with Mediaite, and Evans agrees.
“That was the beauty of working on Marvel movies. You never really had to be front and center,” Evans said. “Even sometimes in your own movies. Quentin Tarantino said that recently and I was like, you know, he’s right. The character is the star. You’re there, but you don’t feel the burden of it.”
He also revealed his reluctance to take on the role at first. “I was really scared to take the role at first,” he says. At the time, he was almost 30. “I remember in my late 20s I had a real shift in how I felt on set, how I felt about promoting films: a little more anxiety, a little more uncertainty. You always end up asking: Is this what I’m supposed to do?”
Evans left Los Angeles when he finished 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the seventh of seven films during which he was contractually obligated to portray Captain America. He hasn’t ruled out returning for another Marvel film, but says it probably won’t happen anytime soon.
“I never want to say never, just because it was such a wonderful experience,” Evans said. But I’m also very precious about it. It’s something I’m very proud of. And like I said, sometimes I can’t believe it even happened. And I didn’t want the black eye if it felt like a cash grab, or if it didn’t live up to expectations, or if it just felt like it didn’t connect to the original thing. So there will soon be no time.”
He also admits that he’s ready to “just maybe act a little bit less in my life. I have a lot of other interests. Look, I haven’t climbed any mountains in this field by any means. I don’t have an Academy Award, and I’m not mixed with other names that are on top of the mountain in any way. But I also feel very satisfied.”
