Speaking to MTV earlier this year at Comic-con, Chris Evans revealed details regarding his preperation for the role of Captain America, his character’s relationship to co-star Sebastian Stan’s Bucky as well as the general tone of the movie.
In the ex-Human Torch’s conversation with MTV, the details of which were released as several separate stories since Comic-con, Evans spoke of his trepidation in taking the role,
It wasn’t an easy yes. I was nervous… I get nervous in things like this and Captain America just means a lot of this. I was in a really happy place in my life; kind of in a happy medium place in my career and Captain America just changes things and there’s no ‘off’ switch once you walk down that road… There was nothing wrong with the project… I love the people involved, the characters, the script, Hugo [Weaving]. There was nothing wrong there. It was just about the lifestyle change and whether or not I was willing to do it. But there’s no turning back now. I’m just trying to make all the negatives [into] positives and just enjoy the ride.
No stranger to superheroics, Evans will nevertheless be donning a body suit to help him fill out the costume. Unfamiliar with the character by his own admission, the actor was drawn by the iconic nature of the character,
Personally, when I was going through the comic books, the ones that were the most intriguing were the origin stories… I just kind of wanted to get as many different takes on how this guy started out, because that’s the story we’re telling. I just wanted to know who he was prior to this happening to him. I think if that character is someone that the audience can relate to, we win.
The Captain America origin story is not complete, of course, without Bucky Barnes, who appears alongside Steve Rogers consistently during their efforts in World War II. With Sebastian Stan signed for three films, it appears his role will be just as important in this film incarnation and its sequels,
Sebastian Stan is fantastic. He just started his first day at work. They make for a great relationship…So far, I think the plot line between Steve and Bucky has been fantastic… An origin story is so effective in trying to set up who these people were and the relationships they had prior to these extraordinary things happening to them…I think it could really sell the relationship between Steve and Bucky and Steve and Erskine. It’ll only pay off more in the end.
Regarding the film’s tone, it appears to be avoiding the goofy feel of Fantastic Four without invoking Dark Knight levels of seriousness and risk alienating the shield-wielding Captain in his own film,
As far as the look of it’s concerned, I definitely did ask [director Joe Johnston], ‘What kind of gloss are we going for? Is this going to have that Spider-Man, Fantastic Four shine?’ And he said it’s not going to be that glossy or that colorful, but it’s not going to be something as dark as something like ‘Batman…I think it’ll be a nice happy medium. I think the world of ‘Iron Man’ was done really well. It stayed grounded in reality but still stayed true to the fact that it’s a comic book movie, so it does have to have some life to it.
Speaking of goofy, isn’t it about time they did something with that unwieldy title, The First Avenger: Captain America?
