Chris Evans said in a new GQ profile that he agrees to an extent with Quentin Tarantino’s recent claim that Marvel killed the movie star. The filmmaker said last year that people go to see a Marvel movie because “Captain America is the star or Thor is the star,” and not because they want to see Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth. Evans somewhat agrees.
“That was the beauty of working on Marvel films. You never really had to be front and center,” Evans said. “Even in your own films sometimes. Quentin Tarantino said it 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.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige disagrees, telling GQ, “I think it’s something [Chris] was telling himself, and I think it’s something many of the Avengers, including Robert, would tell themselves, which actually was very helpful to the process. But in certain cases, including Chris’, it’s not entirely true.”
Evans originated the role of Steve Rogers/Captain America in 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and he went to either lead or appear in 11 marvel movies over nine years. He exited the franchise in 2019 with the release of “Avengers: Endgame.” He’s said in the years since that he’d never rule out a Marvel return, which he reiterated to GQ.
“I’ll never say never, just because it was such a wonderful experience,” Evans said about playing Captain America again. “But I’m also very precious with it. It’s something that I am very proud of. And like I said, sometimes I can’t believe it even happened. And I wouldn’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 wasn’t connected to that original thing. So, no time soon.”
“And ultimately I really hope to just maybe act a little bit less in my life,” he added. “I have a lot of other interests. Look, by no means have I climbed any sort of a mountain in this field. I have no Oscars and I’m not lumped with other names that are at the top of the mountain in any way. But I also feel very satisfied.”
Acting less is becoming a new motivation for Evans. “Now it’s really about, well: What time of year are we filming?” he said when talking about tackling new roles. “Am I gonna miss autumn? You know, I don’t want to miss autumn. I only have so many of them. I could just make furniture for nobody and be happy,”
“I don’t want to — I’ve got to frame this the right way,” he continued. “I was going to say, I don’t want to waste too much time in this industry, but that doesn’t really feel… That doesn’t sound correct. I don’t want to occupy too much space in an industry that I’ve already poured 20 years into… Sometimes I wonder if I’m lacking some sort of — like, I think I’m a very driven person. I have a lot of energy. I wake up early, I get a lot done in a day, but it’s not always focused on acting. Sometimes reading a script is the last thing I want to do.”
Evans said he’s lucky that 11 years of Marvel movies has given him the opportunity to act less and still be financially secure.
“If I wanted to stop everything now, I could,” Evans said. “Which is incredible. And that’s a blessing beyond words. Specifically, because life is unpredictable and anything can happen… I’m a bit of an overplanner. I try to set things up so that any sort of future curveball that happens, I’ve planned for it. And that’s ostensibly exactly what Marvel’s provided. And part of that relaxing is just, uh, putting my brain down, putting my anxiety down. And the analysis, the kind of planning for tomorrow. I don’t have to do that as much anymore, and I can just be present.”
Evans next stars opposite Emily Blunt in “Pain Hustlers,” streaming Oct. 20 on Netflix.
