The chance to go out in front of the camera and play some sort of great hero is something quite a few people would love to do at some point in their life. However, there are a few actors out there who have already not brought one beloved comic book character to life with their performance but two, or in this case three. Of course I’m referring to Chris Evans who’s played the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Ramona Flowers’ evil ex number 2 Lucas Lee and now is putting a third notch on the comic book belt with Steve Rogers/Captain America.
You may have already seen a few reviews out there, stating what a wonderful job Evans has done playing the strong willed and noble-hearted Steve Rogers on the big screen. Once again, we were able to grab the opportunity to briefly talk to Chris Evans about how hesitant he was to first take on the role, how he played the scrawny version of Rogers, the work out and plenty more.
ShockYa: Joe Johnston talked about your reticence about taking this role, especially after taking some comic book roles, Johnny Storm, Lucas Lee, can you talk about why?
Chris Evans: It wasn’t about doing another comic book – maybe Marvel fans get rabid about certain things – and I was little nervous about doubling up, but I’ve been in a lot of comic book movies, but it’s been coincidence for the most part. It was two-fold, one was the commitment. It started out as a nine-picture deal, and it dropped down to six, but even six movies, that can be spread out over ten years – that’s a long time. The way my career’s gone so far, is you do movies one at a time, if one of them hits and your life gets out of control to the point you don’t want to manage it you can take a break, take a step back. With six movies, you can’t. If all the sudden my passions changed and I wanted to write or direct, just go live in the mountains, get married, have kids, lead a normal life, you can’t. You can’t. I guess I wasn’t 100% positive my endgame was to be a gigantic movie star and if you’re not positive toward what you’re working for, it’s hard to sign a potential ten year deal. And the second part was about the lifestyle change. I’ve managed to make movies over the last ten years that – for the most part – I like and have a good time making, but I can still go to a ballgame and I can still go to the grocery store and lead a normal life, and that’s a big thing for me, because you can’t turn it off. There’s a difference between dealing with it sometimes, dealing with it most of the time, and dealing with it all the time. I can handle sometimes, and I can even handle most of the time, all the time is different, and it’s something you can’t conceptualize until it happens. The problem with all the time is that once you’re there, you can’t turn it off. There’s no rewind.
ShockYa: It seems the biggest challenge is that you’re carrying this movie. Was it something else?
Chris Evans: I guess it is, without getting to existential about it.
ShockYa: How much fun was it to make the movie once you got past that?
Chris Evans: Let’s be real, no matter how long a list you can create of the negatives, the positives trump it, just smoke it. It’s easier to talk the negatives, because there’s so few of them. If you try to talk about the positives, I make movies, I talk to you guys, I put on a shield, and I get paid a lot of money to run around and play make believe. I’m not in a coal mine, I’m not flipping burgers. Life is great, every day you have to maintain a healthy perspective. Tackle the hurdles, but the fact is, this is great stuff.
ShockYa: There’s two sides to Steve Rogers, the wimp and the beefcake. Which was easier to get into? Did you idenitify more with the bullied kid or the hero?
Chris Evans: You’ve got to see pictures of me from birth to like eighteen. It’s a sight. It was a bumpy road for me growing up, I was a very skinny guy, and I did theater, I went to acting camp.
ShockYa: What was your workout regiment like?
Chris Evans: They flew a trainer out – I was doing a film in Boston – so I started there, and we did it about four months, about two hours a day. It was brutal. I usually like working out, you feel better when you go to the gym – walking in sucks, but walking you say “I’m glad I did that.” This was different, I would walk out and need to vomit. I’d think “I hate this trainer, I hate this movie, I want to go to sleep for a week.” It was just relentless – normally you do three sets, twelve reps, you feel a little burn and move on to a new muscle group. This guy, you do four workouts for chest, and you feel like your chest is on fire, you move over here, and say “what are we doing here?” and he’s like “We’re doing chest.” “We’ve done chest! Chest is done!” You’d do an hour of chest, six different workouts. The extent to which we would push things was grueling.
ShockYa: What is your favorite bad ass thing you did in the movie?
Chris Evans: I really liked the underwater stuff. I never filmed anything underwater, and we had to shoot in this giant tank. You have to do scuba, you go under water with this scuba thing, and then they pull it out, and then you film. They yell cut, but you’re under water for a long time. It was cool and different and I liked how that sequence turned out.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” arrives in theaters everywhere this Friday, July 22nd or tomorrow if you’re one of many people who are over in San Diego for Comic-Con.