The Captain America star has revealed how he really felt about playing the character. Photo / AP
The Captain America star has revealed how he really felt about playing the character. Photo / AP
The likes of Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Holland all shot to fame thanks to their iconic roles in the Marvel franchise - but not all the Avengers were so easy to cast.
While Hemsworth begged for another audition after initially being turned down for the role of Thor, Chris Evans originally said no to the iconic Captain America role.
Vanity Fair released an excerpt from the upcoming book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards which revealed Marvel “really wanted” Evans for the role - but he refused to audition.
Captain America, Tony Stark and Nick Fury.
Franchise boss Kevin Feige revealed they then “brought him in” to Marvel Studios, “showing him the artwork, showing him what was happening in this movie”, and offering him nine movies without an audition.
“He took a weekend to decide. That weekend was tough,” Feige recalled in the book.
But again, Evans said no, calling the offer “the epitome of temptation”.
“The ultimate job offer, on the biggest scale. I’m supposed to say no to this thing. It felt like the right thing to do. You see the pictures, and you see the costumes, and it’s cool. But I’d now woken up the day after saying no and felt good — twice,” he admitted.
Even Robert Downey Jr. called him up to try to convince him to say yes, while Marvel came back to Evans with a shorter, six-film deal.
Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers.
Evans remembered feeling that “maybe the thing you’re most scared of is actually the thing you should do”.
But he continued to experience anxiety while filming The First Avenger, admitting that he kept thinking, “This is it. I just signed my death warrant; my life’s over. I can’t believe I did this. This isn’t the career I wanted.”
When he eventually saw the film, he felt relieved, because he had feared getting stuck making “s***** movies”.
“I don’t want to make s***** movies and be contractually obligated to make garbage.”
Evans played Captain America, AKA Steve Rogers, from 2011 to 2019.
The former People’s Sexiest Man Alive previously told GQ that he’d considered the pros and cons of committing to the role.
“The pros were that I’d be able to take care of my family forever; the cons were that I would become deeply, deeply unhappy with fame and loss of control.”
But now when “life is unpredictable” for an actor, he added that he’s now more grateful for the role of Captain America than ever.
“I love playing that role,” he shared.
“I feel connected to it in a way that when you revisit a character so many times, you can’t help but try to absorb some of their traits and measure yourself against them.”
