Every actor’s greatest fear is being out of work, and the phone not ringing. So of course there will be actors out there who are envious Chris Evans snagged the role of Captain America, as well as the roles of the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four.
However, Evans now says he initially resisted the role of Captain America. Many times, in fact.
And on some level, you can’t blame him. These days to be in a superhero movie, you have to sign on for the sequels as well, and with Captain America being part of The Avengers, this meant Evans would potentially have to do nine planned movies!
“I said no a bunch,” Evans told GQ, “and every time I said no, I woke up the next morning so happy and content.”
According to the New York Times, the deal was reduced to six movies, and a better money deal, and Evans still said no, which probably made everyone want him more. I mean, who wants to sleep with a librian when you can have Playmate of the Year, right?
“I kept saying no; they kept coming back,” Evans continued. “And eventually I was like, ‘You know what? This is your biggest fear – this is exactly what you have to do.”
Finally, Evans did in fact sign on for a six picture deal, and Robert Downey Jr. was also pushing for Evans in The Avengers as well. With Captain America wrapping in December and set for a July 22 release, Evans is now filming The Avengers, co-starring with Samuel L. Jackson and Downey as Nick Fury and Iron Man respectively, and with geek icon Joss Whedon directing.
A lot of people don’t understand how much anxiety there is in performing, some say it’s the level of fear of having a gun pointed to your head, and Evans stated that he and Thor star Chris Hemsworth, who just became a star overnight himself, both talked about their anxiety issues together. (If Stan Lee’s reading this, it would make a great comic cover to have both Captain America and Thor on the couch with a Freudian doctor taking notes.)
Of course his six year deal will mean nothing if Captain America flops, and he told GQ, “The problem is, if the movie’s bad, that’s one set of problems. If the movie’s great, here come the sequels…”
But as Evans also told the Times, “It’s nice job security, but it doesn’t give a whole lot of freedom. That’s the compromise, and it’s worth it. These are good problems to be having. It’s not like, poor me, I’m working in the coal mines.”
