Entertainment Weekly’s First Look at Captain America

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’S EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK AT CAPTAIN AMERICA

Chris Evans a.k.a. Steve Rogers Reports For Duty

New York, N.Y. – Chris Evans is squirming. It’s a brisk October morning on the London set of Captain America: The First Avenger, and the 29-year-old actor is decked head to toe in the red, white, and blue threads of the titular Marvel Comics super-soldier, hanging from wires as a massive fan hammers him with wind. On “action,” Evans drops onto a black train car. At “cut,” the star hops up with a wince and wiggles his caboose. It seems the wire harness hidden in his trousers isn’t being kind to him. “There was a lot of business getting choked down there,” Evans later says with a smile, during a break in filming. His wirework appeared flawless, but a stumble on the first take has left him feeling self-conscious. “I almost fell off the train! That would have been a disaster,” says Evans. “Did everything else look good?”

He’s being a bit hard on himself, although Marvel Studios is surely grateful for Evans’ dedication to getting it right. Captain America—due July 22, about three months after the company’s other major 2011 release, Thor—isn’t just another new-model masked marvel from the superhero-movie factory that gave us Iron Man, X-Men, and Spider-Man. According to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, Captain America is “the last jewel in the Marvel crown that hasn’t gotten its own movie franchise.” The estimated $140 million action-adventure must also creatively pave the way for the company’s most ambitious opus yet: The Avengers, a team-up of Marvel’s various movie icons slated for 2012. To paraphrase The Avengers’ fabled motto: Corporate Synergy Assemble!

Playing Captain America may seem like a glorious mission for most actors. But Chris Evans initially wanted no part of the movie—and Marvel initially wanted no part of Chris Evans. The studio tested a number of actors for the role, reportedly including Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe), John Krasinski (The Office), and Ryan Phillippe (Crash). Feige says Evans wasn’t on the original wish list, mostly because he had already served a tour of duty in Marvel’s cinematic army as Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch, in Fox’s Fantastic Four movies. But as the studio began broadening its search, Evans emerged as a leading candidate. Feige credits the change of heart to the actor’s performances in several little seen dramas (including the 2007 sci-fi flick Sunshine) and a strong endorsement from Edgar Wright, who directed Evans in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He also met an essential requirement: “We wanted an American,” says Feige.

Yet Evans says he turned down the role at least three times. He worried that audiences wouldn’t accept him as another superhero. He worried that Marvel’s request for a nine-movie commitment—a Captain America trilogy, an Avengers trilogy, and appearances in three more Marvel movies to be named later—would leave little time for other things, He worried about what would happen to his career if the movie flopped. “I’ve made some spotty films in the past, and I didn’t want another one on this scale,” says Evans, who most recently appeared in two franchise nonstarters, The Losers and Push. At the same time, he worried about the cost of fame if the film succeeded. (“I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f—ed. If the movie hits, I’m f—ed!’ ”) Even after he succumbed to Feige’s repeated pleas to take a meeting at Marvel HQ—and even after leaving that meeting intrigued and moved by Captain America’s character arc and dazzled by Johnston’s plans and designs— Evans was wary, but he really didn’t know why. And then it hit him. “I was just scared,” he says. “I realized my whole decision-making process was fear-based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear. And so one weekend, I just said, ‘F—it. Let’s do it.’ ” (It helped that Marvel agreed to settle on a six-picture deal.) Feige says he was actually impressed by Evans’ reluctance; he believed it reflected a maturity befitting Steve Rogers. Adds Johnston, “He has really brought a whole different level to the character that I didn’t know existed—more real, more complicated, more vulnerable.”

Evans began prepping for the role by doing what anyone would do in his situation: He went online and read what the fans thought of his casting. The takeaway: He needed bigger muscles. So he worked with a personal trainer to pump his biceps and tone his abs, all of which are on full display during the Project: Rebirth sequence. (In order to show Steve Rogers as a scrawny runt, Johnston plans to use a combination of clever camera angles, costume trickery, and special effects that will digitally reduce Evans’ body or even put his face on a skinny actor.)

The meatiest issue facing Captain America is the politics. Marvel began the project keenly aware that a movie about a star-spangled super soldier named Captain America could be a tough sell to a politically divided nation and international audiences with a dim view of America’s current role in world affairs. Indeed, Feige indicates that Captain America: The First Avenger may be released in some foreign territories as just The First Avenger. Still, says Johnston, “I never wanted to make this movie into something of a flag-waver. We were very careful about that when we were developing the screenplay.” Marvel initially wanted a movie that toggled between past and present, but ultimately opted to set the story exclusively during WWII because the back-and-forth approach didn’t work for an origin story— and because WWII has exactly zero moral ambiguity. Johnston says he also wanted a movie “about international cooperation.” To that end, the film makes Captain America the leader of a team of elite soldiers from various countries, known in the comic books as the Howling Commandos. “It’s not about running from [political interpretations] or being afraid of saying anything, but just staying true to what the story has always been,” says Broussard. “I welcome whatever kind of healthy debate comes from it.”

Even more welcome for Marvel would be a movie that leaves audiences wanting to sign up immediately for The Avengers, which should be well into production under writer-director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) by the time Captain America opens in July. Joining Evans in the cast will be Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye). Captain America: The First Avenger will set up the film’s premise—and bring Captain America into the present—with a prologue and epilogue that work the frozen-in-ice angle that Marvel used to revive the Captain America comic-book franchise in 1964. For all his early apprehensions, Evans now has no regrets about committing to a role that could dominate his Hollywood life until his 40th birthday. “When I first put on the suit, I was absolutely terrified. But once I started working, I could just see this was going to be a good experience. Then I started going, ‘Wow. This is really cool,’ ” he says. “I can’t believe I was almost too chicken to play Captain America.”

(Cover Story Package, Page 32)

Link to full story on EW.com: http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/10/28/captain-america-chris-evans-2/