The Avengers - Chris Evans on set interview (video)

The Avengers' Chris Evans: Just Your Average Beer-Swilling, Babe-Loving Buddhist

THE 30-YEAR-OLD BUD LIGHT-CHUGGING, BEANTOWN-BRED STAR OF THE AVENGERS IS WIDELY PERCEIVED AS THE ULTIMATE GUY'S GUY. BUT BENEATH THE BRO PERSONA LIES A SERIOUS STUDENT OF BUDDHISM, AN UNREPENTANT SONG-AND-DANCE MAN, AND A GUY WHO TALKS TO HIS MOM ABOUT SEX. AND FARTS.

BY ADAM SACHS

"Should we just kill him and bury his body?" Chris Evans is stage whispering into the impassive blinking light of my digital recorder.

"Chris!" shouts his mother, her tone a familiar-to-anyone-with-a-mother mix of coddling and concern. "Don't say that! What if something happened?"

We're at Evans' apartment, an expansive but not overly tricked-out bachelor-pad-ish loft in a semi-industrial nowheresville part of Boston, hard by Chinatown, near an area sometimes called the Combat Zone. Evans has a fuzzy, floppy, slept-in-his-clothes aspect that'd be nearly unrecognizable if you knew him only by the upright, spit-polished bearing of the onscreen hero. His dog, East, a sweet and slobbery American bulldog, is spread out on a couch in front of the TV. The shelves of his fridge are neatly stacked with much of the world's supply of Bud Light in cans and little else.

On the counter sit a few buckets of muscle-making whey-protein powder that belong to Evans' roommate, Zach Jarvis, an old pal who sometimes tags along on set as a paid "assistant" and a personal trainer who bulked Evans up for his role as the super-ripped patriot in last summer's blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger. A giant clock on the exposed-brick wall says it's early evening, but Evans operates on his own sense of time. Between gigs, his schedule's all his, which usually translates into long stretches of alone time during the day and longer social nights for the 30-year-old.

"I could just make this . . . disappear," says Josh Peck, another old pal and occasional on-set assistant, in a deadpan mumble, poking at the voice recorder I'd left on the table while I was in the bathroom.

Evans' mom, Lisa, now speaks directly into the microphone: "Don't listen to them—I'm trying to get them not to say these things!"

But not saying things isn't in the Evans DNA. They're an infectiously gregarious clan. Irish-Italians, proud Bostoners, close-knit, and innately theatrical. "We all act, we sing," Evans says. "It was like the fucking von Trapps." Mom was a dancer and now runs a children's theater. First-born Carly directed the family puppet shows and studied theater at NYU. Younger brother Scott has parts on One Life to Live and Law & Order under his belt and lives in Los Angeles full-time—something Evans stopped doing several years back. Rounding out the circle are baby sister Shanna and a pair of "strays" the family brought into their Sudbury, Massachusetts, home: Josh, who went from mowing the lawn to moving in when his folks relocated during his senior year in high school; and Demery, who was Evans' roommate until recently.

"Our house was like a hotel," Evans says. "It was a loony-tunes household. If you got arrested in high school, everyone knew: 'Call Mrs. Evans, she'll bail you out.'"

Growing up, they had a special floor put in the basement where all the kids practiced tap-dancing. The party-ready rec room also had a Ping-Pong table and a separate entrance. This was the house kids in the neighborhood wanted to hang at, and this was the kind of family you wanted to be adopted by. Spend an afternoon listening to them dish old dirt and talk over each other and it's easy to see why. Now they're worried they've said too much, laid bare the tender soul of the actor behind the star-spangled superhero outfit, so there's talk of offing the interviewer. I can hear all this from the bathroom, which, of course, is the point of a good stage whisper.

To be sure, no one's said too much, and the more you're brought into the embrace of this boisterous, funny, shit-slinging, demonstrably loving extended family, the more likable and enviable the whole dynamic is.

Sample exchange from today's lunch of baked ziti at a family-style Italian restaurant:

Mom: When he was a kid, he asked me, 'Mom, will I ever think farting isn't funny?'

Chris: You're throwing me under the bus, Ma! Thank you.

Mom: Well, if a dog farts you still find it funny.

Then, back at the apartment, where Mrs. Evans tries to give me good-natured dirt on her son without freaking him out:

Mom: You always tell me when you think a girl is attractive. You'll call me up so excited. Is that okay to say?

Chris: Nothing wrong with that.

Mom: And can I say all the girls you've brought to the house have been very sweet and wonderful? Of course, those are the ones that make it to the house. It's been a long time, hasn't it?

Chris: Looooong time.

Mom: The last one at our house? Was it six years ago?

Chris: No names, Ma!

Mom: But she knocked it out of the park.

Chris: She got drunk and puked at Auntie Pam's house! And she puked on the way home and she puked at our place.

Mom: And that's when I fell in love with her. Because she was real.

We're operating under a no-names rule, so I'm not asking if it's Jessica Biel who made this memorable first impression. She and Evans were serious for a couple of years. But I don't want to picture lovely Jessica Biel getting sick at Auntie Pam's or in the car or, really, anywhere.

East the bulldog ambles over to the table, begging for food. "That dog is the love of his life," Mrs. Evans says. "Which tells me he'll be an unbelievable parent, but I don't want him to get married right now." She turns to Chris. "The way you are, I just don't think you're ready."

Some other things I learn about Evans from his mom: He hates going to the gym; he was so wound-up as a kid she'd let him stand during dinner, his legs shaking like caged greyhounds; he suffered weekly "Sunday-night meltdowns" over schoolwork and the angst of the sensitive middle-schooler; after she and his father split and he was making money from acting, he bought her the Sudbury family homestead rather than let her leave it.

Eventually his mom and Josh depart, and Evans and I go to work depleting his stash of Bud Light. It feels like we drink Bud Light and talk for days, because we basically do. I arrived early Friday evening; it's Saturday night now and it'll be sunup Sunday before I sleeplessly make my way to catch a train back to New York City. Somewhere in between we slip free of the gravitational pull of the bachelor pad and there's bottle service at a club and a long walk with entourage in tow back to Evans' apartment, where there is some earnest-yet-surreal group singing, piano playing, and chitchat. Evans is fun to talk to, partly because he's an open, self-mocking guy with an explosive laugh and no apparent need to sleep, and partly because when you cut just below the surface, it's clear he's not quite the dude's dude he sometimes plays onscreen and in TV appearances.

From a distance, Chris Evans the movie star seems a predictable, nearly inevitable piece of successful Hollywood packaging come to market. There's his major-release debut as the dorkily unaware jock Jake in the guilty pleasure Not Another Teen Movie (in one memorable scene, Evans has whipped cream on his chest and a banana up his ass). The female-friendly hunk appeal—his character in The Nanny Diaries is named simply Harvard Hottie—is balanced by a kind of casual-Friday, I'm-from-Boston regular-dudeness. Following the siren song of comic-book cash, he was the Human Torch in two Fantastic Four films. As with scrawny Steve Rogers, the Captain America suit beefed up his stature as a formidable screen presence, a bankable leading man, all of which leads us to The Avengers, this season's megabudget, megawatt ensemble in which he stars alongside Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Hemsworth.

It all feels inevitable—and yet it nearly didn't happen. Evans repeatedly turned down the Captain America role, fearing he'd be locked into what was originally a nine-picture deal. He was shooting Puncture, about a drug-addicted lawyer, at the time. Most actors doing small-budget legal dramas would jump at the chance to play the lead in a Marvel franchise, but Evans saw a decade of his life flash before his eyes.

What he remembers thinking is this: "What if the movie comes out and it's a success and I just reject all of this? What if I want to move to the fucking woods?"

By "the woods," he doesn't mean a quiet life away from the spotlight, some general metaphorical life escape route. He means the actual woods. "For a long time all I wanted for Christmas were books about outdoor survival," he says. "I was convinced that I was going to move to the woods. I camped a lot, I took classes. At 18, I told myself if I don't live in the woods by the time I'm 25, I have failed."

Evans has described his hesitation at signing on for Captain America. Usually he talks about the time commitment, the loss of what remained of his relative anonymity. On the junkets for the movie, he was open about needing therapy after the studio reduced the deal to six movies and he took the leap. What he doesn't usually mention is that he was racked with anxiety before the job came up.

"I get very nervous," Evans explains. "I shit the bed if I have to present something on stage or if I'm doing press. Because it's just you." He's been known to walk out of press conferences, to freeze up and go silent during the kind of relaxed-yet-high-stakes meetings an actor of his stature is expected to attend: "Do you know how badly I audition? Fifty percent of the time I have to walk out of the room. I'm naturally very pale, so I turn red and sweat. And I have to literally walk out. Sometimes mid-audition. You start having these conversations in your brain. 'Chris, don't do this. Chris, take it easy. You're just sitting in a room with a person saying some words, this isn't life. And you're letting this affect you? Shame on you.'"

Shades of "Sunday-night meltdowns." Luckily the nerves never follow him to the set. "You do your neuroses beforehand, so when they yell 'Action' you can be present," he says.

Okay, there was one on-set panic attack—while Evans was shooting Puncture. "We were getting ready to do a court scene in front of a bunch of people, and I don't know what happened," he says. "It's just your brain playing games with you. 'Hey, you know how we sometimes freak out? What if we did it right now?'"

One of the people who advised Evans to take the Captain America role was his eventual Avengers costar Robert Downey Jr. "I'd seen him around," Downey says. "We share an agent. I like to spend a lot of my free time talking to my agent about his other clients—I just had a feeling about him."

What he told Evans was: This puppy is going to be big, and when it is you're going to get to make the movies you want to make. "In the marathon obstacle course of a career," Downey says, "it's just good to have all the stats on paper for why you're not only a team player but also why it makes sense to support you in the projects you want to do—because you've made so much damned money for the studio."

There's also the fact that Evans had a chance to sign on for something likely to be a kind of watershed moment in the comic-book fascination of our time. "I do think The Avengers is the crescendo of this superhero phase in entertainment—except of course for Iron Man 3," Downey says. "It'll take a lot of innovation to keep it alive after this."

Captain America is the only person left who was truly close to Howard Stark, father of Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man), which meant that Evans' and Downey's story lines are closely linked, and in the course of doing a lot of scenes together, they got to be pals. Downey diagnoses his friend with what he terms "low-grade red-carpet anxiety disorder."

"He just hates the game-show aspect of doing PR," Downey says. "Obviously there's pressure for anyone in this transition he's in. But he will easily triple that pressure to make sure he's not being lazy. That's why I respect the guy. I wouldn't necessarily want to be in his skin. But his motives are pure. He just needs to drink some red-carpet chamomile."

"The majority of the world is empty space," Chris Evans says, watching me as if my brain might explode on hearing this news—or like he might have to fight me if I try to contradict him. We're back at his apartment after a cigarette run through the Combat Zone.

"Empty space!" he says again, slapping the table and sort of yelling. Then, in a slow, breathy whisper, he repeats: "Empty space, empty space. All that we see in the world, the life, the animals, plants, people, it's all empty space. That's amazing!" He slaps the table again. "You want another beer? Gotta be Bud Light. Get dirty—you're in Boston. Okay, organize your thoughts. I gotta take a piss . . ."

My thoughts are this: That this guy who is hugging his dog and talking to me about space and mortality and the trouble with Boston girls who believe crazy gossip about him—this is not the guy I expected to meet. I figured he'd be a meatball. Though, truthfully, I'd never called anyone a meatball until Evans turned me on to the put-down. As in: "My sister Shanna dates meatballs." And, more to the point: "When I do interviews, I'd rather just be the beer-drinking dude from Boston and not get into the complex shit, because I don't want every meatball saying, 'So hey, whaddyathink about Buddhism?'"

At 17, Evans came across a copy of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and began his spiritual questing. It's a path of study and struggle that, he says, defines his true purpose in life. "I love acting. It's my playground, it lets me explore. But my happiness in this world, my level of peace, is never going to be dictated by acting," he says. "My goal in life is to detach from the egoic mind. Do you know anything about Eastern philosophy?"

I sip some Bud Light and shake my head sheepishly. "They talk about the egoic mind, the part of you that's self-aware, the watcher, the person you think is driving this machine," he says. "And that separation from self and mind is the root of suffering. There are ways of retraining the way you think. This isn't really supported in Western society, which is focused on 'Go get it, earn it, win it, marry it.'"

Scarlett Johansson says that one of the things she appreciates about Evans is how he steers clear of industry chat when they see each other. "Basically every actor," she says, "including myself, when we finish a job we're like, 'Well, that's it for me. Had a good run. Put me out to pasture.' But Chris doesn't strike me as someone who frets about the next job." The two met on the set of The Perfect Score when they were teenagers and have stayed close; The Avengers is their third movie together. "He has this obviously masculine presence—a dude's dude—and we're used to seeing him play heroic characters," Johansson says, "but he's also surprisingly sensitive. He has close female friends, and you can talk to him about anything. Plus there's that secret song-and-dance, jazz-hands side of Chris. I feel like he grew up with the Partridge Family. He'd be just as happy doing Guys and Dolls as he would Captain America 2."

East needs to do his business, so Evans and I take him up to the roof deck. Evans bought this apartment in 2010 when living in L.A. full-time no longer appealed to him. He came back to stay close to his extended family and the intimate circle of Boston pals he's maintained since high school. The move also seems like a pretty clear keep-it-real hedge against the manic ego-stroking distractions of Hollywood.

"I think my daytime person is different than my nighttime person," Evans says. "With my high-school buddies, we drink beer and talk sports and it's great. The kids in my Buddhism class in L.A., they're wildly intelligent, and I love being around them, but they're not talking about the Celtics. And that's part of me. It's a strange dichotomy. I don't mind being a certain way with some people and having this other piece of me that's just for me."

I asked Downey about Evans' outward regular-Joe persona. "It's complete horseshit," Downey says. "There's an inherent street-smart intelligence there. I don't think he tries to hide it. But he's much more evolved and much more culturally aware than he lets on."

Perhaps the meatball and the meditation can coexist. We argue about our egoic brains and the tao of Boston girls. "I love wet hair and sweatpants," he says in their defense. "I like sneakers and ponytails. I like girls who aren't so la-di-da. L.A. is so la-di-da. I like Boston girls who shit on me. Not literally. Girls who give me a hard time, bust my chops a little."

The chief buster of Evans' chops is, of course, Evans himself. "The problem is, the brain I'm using to dissect this world is a brain formed by it," he says. "We're born into confusion, and we get the blessing of letting go of it." Then he adds: "I think this shit by day. And then night comes and it's like, 'Fuck it, let's drink.'"

And so we do. It's getting late. Again. We should have eaten dinner, but Evans sometimes forgets to eat: "If I could just take a pill to make me full forever, I wouldn't think twice."

We talk about his dog and camping with his dog and why he loves being alone more than almost anything except maybe not being alone. "I swear to God, if you saw me when I am by myself in the woods, I'm a lunatic," he says. "I sing, I dance. I do crazy shit."

Evans' unflagging, all-encompassing enthusiasm is impressive, itself a kind of social intelligence. "If you want to have a good conversation with him, don't talk about the fact that he's famous" was the advice I got from Mark Kassen, who codirected Puncture. "He's a blast, a guy who can hang. For quite a long time. Many hours in a row."

I've stopped looking at the clock. We've stopped talking philosophy and moved into more emotional territory. He asks questions about my 9-month-old son, and then Captain America gets teary when I talk about the wonder of his birth. "I weep at everything," he says. "I emote. I love things so much—I just never want to dilute that."

He talks about how close he feels to his family, how open they all are with each other. About everything. All the time. "The first time I had sex," he says, "I raced home and was like, 'Mom, I just had sex! Where's the clit?'"

Wait, I ask—did she ever tell you?

"Still don't know where it is, man," he says, then breaks into a smile composed of equal parts shit-eating grin and inner peace. "I just don't know. Make some movies, you don't have to know…"

Source: http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/cover-stars/201205/chris-evans-avengers?currentPage=1

Chris Evans for Details (video)

God, how I've missed this guy. It's good to be back :) If you would like to see some screencaps
of this video, because it's very HQ, I might make some for you....

Chris Evans smells like...Gucci (video)

Deconstruction of a Scent: The Chris Evans Q&A

In the commercial for Gucci Guilty Intense, Gucci's new fragrance, Chris Evans—he of Captain America: The First Avenger and muscular chest fame—walks into a bar, eyes super babe Evan Rachel Wood, and the two get it on approximately one second later. These things happen, apparently, when you are really, really, ridiculously good-looking and doused in the aphrodisiac that is Gucci Guilty Intense. The Frank Miller-directed clip brings to mind our July 2011 cover story on Chris Evans, who had a similar effect on our writer, Edith Zimmerman. In the piece, she goes on a pseudo-date with the actor, and—after a few drinks and flirtations—ends up wasted at his house, only to escape in the middle of the night and hitchhike back home with a "possibly Asian transsexual." True story.

Throughout the profile, Zimmerman attempts to uncover the "real Chris," but gets thrown off when he says things like, "I always say that the times in my life when I've been happiest are the times when I've seen, like, a sunset." To paraphrase her reaction: Like, really dude? Read the piece, and you'll see that it's difficult to tell if he's being sincere or just putting on an act. We recently met up with Evans again, this time to discuss his Gucci ad campaign, and the earnest quotes abounded. (Evans on acting: "You say, 'You are the painter, I'll be your paint.'") During our chat in the penthouse of NYC's Thompson Hotel, we covered the art of acting sexy, the uncoolness of Captain America, and—for old time's sake—the "real" Chris.

GQ: In the ad for Gucci Guilty—all in the span of about a minute—you walk into a bar, spot Evan Rachel Wood's character, and then, bam, baby-making.
Evans: [laughs]

GQ: So, making out with Evan Rachel Wood. Was that good?
Evans: Yeah. It's great, because Evan is great. You know what I mean? It's obviously one of those shoots where you're rolling around with your clothes off, and it could be an...awkward situation. Luckily, I met Evan and [snaps fingers] we hit it off right away. She's young, but incredibly mature and put-together. You got to check your ego at the door at these things, because there's a science to it. It's hard, but take a look: [points to the Gucci ad] You have to position your arm right, you have to hold poses...it can be tricky. But you've got all these great people involved, the best of the best, and you want to make sure you bring the same level of professionalism to the table. And with someone other than Evan, it could've been stiff, awkward, or uncomfortable. Luckily, Evan is a pro.

GQ: What is actor make-out strategy, anyway?
Evans: Well, ideally when you're doing that in film, hopefully you can surrender to the moment, and it'll be believable. Again, when you have someone that's comfortable with themselves and willing to let go, it's going to work.

GQ: I watched a clip of you talking about scent memory on the set of the shoot, but you never elaborated on the memories. What are they?
Evans: It could fall under a lot of different labels. My experience with scent memory is rooted in my childhood. A woman could walk down the street and she'll smell like my mother. Another is chlorine [snaps fingers] and I'll remember a buddy's house I went to. I love things like that; I love the connection that scents have to your memory, stronger than even the memories themselves. It's amazing how that can [snaps fingers] take you somewhere. What Gucci Guilty is going for is a memory of something sexual and provocative and intimate. Charged. I don't know if I've had...I was going to say I don't have enough experience to have memories that are...well, that's not true. Um, I like the fact that the campaign went with a theme as opposed to two people rolling around on a beach or something. It was a mini-story, a short film.

GQ: Why do you think "guilt" is associated with the cologne?
Evans: Well, I think it's something relatable. Everyone has a little bit of a guilty side to them. And I think that's what the cologne is trying to evoke.

GQ: The ad's a very accelerated experience—the characters just jump into things, so maybe that's where the guilt would come from, but I don't know if the characters necessarily feel guilty...
Evans: Well, guilty can be fun. Guilty doesn't have to be the worse thing in the world.

GQ: This is true. Is it all right if I ask about your GQ profile?
Evans: What was the GQ profile?
Publicist: The cover.
Evans: Oh, the cover!

GQ: So, obviously a profile is a very complex thing, and in our July cover story, our writer Edith Zimmerman wasn't completely sure what to make of you. If I were to ask you, point blank, what is the "real you," what would you say?
Evans: Well, depends on what the question is...if a profile takes a couple of days, you can't fit a microcosm in 10 words or less, you know, "The real me is..." In those interviews where someone is doing a profile, I think the goal is to go in there as honest as possible and wear your emotions on your sleeve. You might not be able to cover all aspects that constitute what a person is, but I think your character will shine through. Edith was a very cool person, smart girl, she was my age, we had very similar experiences in life, so I just tried to be myself. And I'm a pretty self-deprecating guy—I try not to take myself too seriously. And I have no problem saying that. And, especially in interviews, I think people find that strange, because I think some actors enjoy being interviewed and enjoy hearing themselves speak. I have no problem saying that what we're doing is kind of silly, isn't it? What we're doing? [looks around the room] I feel kind of foolish right now. It's okay to laugh and make light of it. We can still have an in-depth discussion that's of intellectual substance, but you know, you got to poke fun at yourself, and I think Edith got that. And I think she wrote in her article that she wasn't quite sure who I was because I don't think she's used to actors that have no problem saying they're so stupid.

GQ: When you do interviews, how much would you say is you versus "you?"
Evans: I say a healthy 90-10. I obviously might swear a little more in real life, you know what I'm saying? There's still a little professionalism—you can't say whatever you want to say. But I have no reason to lie; I have no reason to say anything I don't believe, especially for something like this [points to Gucci ad] If the product or the film is something you're proud of, it makes it a lot easier, because I've got nothing to hide. I can tell you anything, and it's not only going to be the truth, but it's also going to serve the purpose of the product. Because, I mean, look at this. [points to Gucci ad] I'm honored to be a part of it.

GQ: Right, you said it's a science. What is the "sexy strategy" then?
Evans: I was trained in acting, so doing things like this, it calls for elements of that. But when you're working with great people, like [director] Frank Miller, people who are obviously the best at what they do, you surrender to them. You say, "You are the painter, I'll be your paint, I'm going to trust you." When my agents called and said I got the Gucci thing, I said, "Wow, I can really just let go. If they tell me to do something, I can have faith that it's going to be the right thing to do." And, you know, proof is in the pudding.

GQ: Moving on to your upcoming films, you're playing the mentor of Michael Shannon's hitman character in Iceman, but you're actually the younger guy.
Evans: Well, it's just a matter of who has more experience in the hitman game. It's not necessarily about the fact that I'm older, crotchety or wise, because [my character has been] doing this a while. They say "mentor" a lot, but it's really not that...I just expose him to a few different...methods.

GQ: Of freezing people.
Evans: Yeah, exactly.

GQ: And in The Avengers film, Captain America gets paired with a team of other superheroes. Why is Captain America the coolest?
Evans: I don't think he's the coolest guy—he's far from it. He's a straight- shooter. He's probably pretty boring as far as a character goes, but I feel like he grounds things. When you have these giant personalities and egos, there needs to be someone who brings them back down and reminds that this is a team, not the individual show.

GQ: How attached are you to that character?
Evans: The first time I read the script before I took the job, there was a little hesitation, because as an actor you want to sink your teeth into something raw and grittier. The truth is, I've grown to really fall in love with the character. I have a friend in Bosnia that I based the character off of, who is very down-the-middle, very straight-laced, but the best guy you'll know. And when you really live in that headspace all day for months at a time, you can't help but take some of that home with you. This sounds silly, but you like the way you feel about yourself. You like the way you look at things when you really are doing things for the right reasons. No ego, completely selfless. It's a great way to be. I've really grown into the guy.

Source: http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/2012/01/deconstruction-of-a-scent-the-chris-evans-qa-2.html

Is Captain America Star Chris Evans the Luckiest Man Alive?



The face of Gucci Guilty Intense discusses his sexy video shoot with Evan Rachel Wood, his plans for the holidays, and how he gets in shape for all those comic-book movies.

Interview by Jason Chen

We recently got the chance to sit down with Chris Evans—the star of Captain America and the face of Gucci's Guilty Intense fragrance—to learn a little bit about what it's like to represent a fragrance campaign and, um, Captain America. Turns out it's not all that different from our lives—the guy still chills at home and picks up his little sister. Read on for more.

DETAILS: So let's start off with the campaign video. Sexy stuff. How was working with Evan Rachel Wood?
Chris Evans: She's awesome. We actually instantly got along because she's very much my type of girl: Very laid-back, likes to go out and have a good time. And this was a shoot where you have to check your ego at the door because you're rolling around with your clothes off and it's intimate, and Evan and I got along right away.

DETAILS: So obviously you're a fan of the fragrance. How do you like to put it on? You ask 10 guys and you'll get 10 different answers.
Chris Evans: I actually don't put any directly on my skin like I know a lot of guys do. I like to do a couple spritzes and the walk through. You don't want to overdo it. You don't want to be the guy that people smell and are like, "Come on, bro."

DETAILS: What's the rest of your grooming routine like?
Chris Evans: I'm a pretty low-maintenance guy. If I had my way, I would keep my head shaved year round so I wouldn't have to worry about hair. I also like having a beard. I really try to spend as little time as possible on grooming. I think if you have a good moisturizer and a solid razor to clean up the beard, you're golden.

DETAILS: What about your diet and workout routine? You had to get ripped to play Captain America both in that movie and in The Avengers.
Chris Evans: Well, as of late there really hasn't been one. I decided to take a bit of a break! We finished The Avengers back in September, and coming from Captain America right into The Avengers, essentially I felt like I'd been working out for over a year straight. So I've taken a bit of a break. But when I am working out, diet doesn't really come into it. I have a pretty fast metabolism, so I don't really have to worry about getting pudgy. What I try to do when I'm working out is taking in a lot of heavy protein—clean chicken, clean meats.

DETAILS: And your workout?
Chris Evans: My workout routine isn't too fancy either. I don't have some cool P90X thing that I do. I just pick up heavy stuff and put it back down. It's really simple stuff. It's like the stuff I learned in high school.

DETAILS: Well, it's obviously working! Since it's the end of the year, let's talk about some of the cool things that you loved this year. What's your favorite movie of 2011? Besides your own, of course.
Chris Evans: I have trouble with this because I'll say movies that are, like, four years old! I really liked The Fighter. Was that this year or last year? I don't see movies! I watch movies that were, like, from years ago. I heard Warrior was great. I didn't see it, but I read the script and I actually wanted the job.

DETAILS: Okay, well, how about the music album you're listening to? It doesn't even have to be from this year.
Chris Evans: Do people still buy albums? It's so heartbreaking. I remember going to Strawberries and Tower Records and buying an album and listening from beginning to end and going through the book, but who does that anymore? Although someone just gave me the XX with Notorious album.

DETAILS: I know that—it's great!
Chris Evans: Oh my goodness, I'm killing it. It's not great, because I'm going to hate it in a month since it's the only thing I'm listening to.

DETAILS: What are your holiday plans this year?
Chris Evans: I'm from Boston, so I've actually been there since September. I try to take at least a month off, and this year I got lucky and got a couple. So I've been in Boston and will be there till January.

DETAILS: What are your favorite things to do in Boston?
Chris Evans: Nothing. That's the best part. When you go to Boston, that's an indication that you're not working. If you're not working, that means sleeping late, hanging with the family. My whole family's there, so I go back to the house that I grew up in and do stuff that I did 15 years ago. I'll run errands with my mother and pick my sister up from school.

DETAILS: It's funny, you don't have a trace of any Boston accent.
Chris Evans: Get a few drinks in me and it'll come out.

DETAILS: Do you have any new year's resolutions?
Chris Evans: It's been, like, the same new year's resolution for, like, a decade, but I really think I'm going to do it this year. I always say I should do more yoga. Or do yoga—more would mean I do some. I've done none. But I always want to do yoga because I'm getting old. Nerves are getting pinched every other day, and I really just gotta get more limber.

DETAILS: Do you have a special kind you want to get into?
Chris Evans: I actually did Bikram—

DETAILS: We did a story on Bikram Choudhury! All about the cult surrounding him and such.
Chris Evans: I have some friends in L.A. who trained with him, and I've heard . . . not the best things! But I've done his yoga, and I almost passed out. I don't think that's the one for me. I'll just do the standard yoga. Just watch, though, we'll do this interview again next year, and I'll be like, "I really want to get into yoga! Didn't happen in 2012, but 2013 is the year."

Source: www.Details.com

 

The World According to Chris

by Emily Hebert
on December 15, 2011

Last night at the Thompson Lower East Side Hotel, Chris Evans held court as Gucci’s reigning fragrance king (the brand’s creative director, Frida Giannini, has called him“smoldering”). On the agenda: discussing his latest Gucci Guilty campaign, Gucci Guilty Intense. Unlike the original Gucci Guilty cologne, the Intense version has pumped up notes of amber and leather, making for a more sensual fragrance—and, of course, a steamier print ad and TV commercial (Evans and leading lady Evan Rachel Wood are thisclose).
Evans appears to be taking his sex symbol status in stride. “The character is a little bit cooler than I think I am—he’s a cowboy and drifter,” says Evans of the role he plays for Gucci. “But that’s what makes it exciting. It wasn’t just me frolicking around in the sand. When I met with [director] Frank Miller, we talked about backstory and character. Instead of being a model or prop, I was able to play upon the stuff I’m trained in, which I liked.” What else does Evan like?

1. Evan Rachel Wood. “There was instant chemistry. She’s young—she’s only 24—but she’s very mature, smart, and professional. When I was that age, I was picking my nose! We had to be very scantily clad and comfortable together, and if Evan had been any less than who she is, I think those scenes would’ve been harder.”

2. Gucci suits. “Back when I was 19 or 20 I was at my first press junket. It was for a critically acclaimed film called Not Another Teen Movie. It was the worst movie ever, but I had to go to an event for it and needed a suit. I didn’t have much money, but I splurged and treated myself to a Gucci suit. And I think if you go back and look at my professional career from 1999 to 2003, you’ll see that I wore the same Gucci suit! I wore it at least 30 times. It was the one nice thing I owned, and happened to be Gucci. Oh, the irony.”

3. Ponytails. “I really like when women wear ponytails. Is that weird? I especially like high ponytails. I love women who can live in sweatpants and sneakers. I don’t think women believe that, but I mean that completely wholeheartedly.”

4. Playboy magazine (or not). “I’m Irish Catholic, so I think I’m always a little guilty. But the first time I saw a Playboy magazine in third grade, I told my mother. I felt horrible. I’d been at my friend Tom’s house when I saw it, and I was silent the whole car ride home. When we got home, I said, ‘Ma, I have to tell you something—I looked at a naked lady.’ She said it was okay and that it wasn’t a problem. But I wasn’t allowed back at Tom’s house!

5. Boston. “I’m never going to be one of those guys that dumps on L.A. I like L.A.—I met a lot of great people there. It’s like a department store—it has everything, and it’s massive. If you can cut a life out according to your own personal cloth, it can be fantastic. But for me, Boston is just home. It’s where I’m from, and it’s where my family and friends are. From the time I started acting in ’99, I always said that if I ever can do what I do from Boston, I will. So that’s what I’m doing.”

6. Jeggings. “Should I know what jeggings are? I don’t know what they are. Oh, wait—they’re jeans with stretch to them, right? I wore a pair of jeans not too long ago that had a little bit of stretch to them, and they were great! Besides a good pair of jeans, I also like belts—a solid belt makes a statement. I’m not a fashion guru, but I’m learning!”

http://fashion.elle.com/beauty/2011/12/15/the-world-according-to-chris/

Flashback - Chris Evans in Redbookmag

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Chris Evans on The Avengers (video)

Chris Evans at Tavis Smiley

Watch the full episode. See more Tavis Smiley.

Chris Evans talks about What's Your Number? & The Avengers (video)

Chris Evans in Backstage

Click to enlarge and see the full interview below.

Chris Evans Takes On a New Fight in 'Puncture'

By Jessica Gardner

all photos by Jamie Painter Young

Five minutes with Chris Evans and you feel like you've known him your whole life. Considering his charming smile, lingering Boston accent (complete with the occasional curse word), and high-fives—and even a call to Mom to check a fact—it's easy to forget you're chatting with Captain America and not just an old friend from high school.

Asked if he ever read Back Stage, he responds, "I got my first acting gig through Back Stage in New York. It was a short film called 'The Paper Boy.' My first real audition outside of, like, community theater, and I ended up getting it. I was walking to work one morning when I got the phone call from the writer-director, whose name was Eric Ogden. I remember walking down the street with my hand in the air [pumps his fist]. We filmed in upstate New York for two weeks. I still have a copy of it. My first job on a film ever."

Community theater was a big part of life in the Evans household while he was growing up. Evans, his two sisters, and his brother, Scott (whom you might remember as Officer Oliver Fish from "One Life to Live"), grew up acting at a community children's theater called the Concord Youth Theatre. "Each of us must have done at least 15 to 20 shows there," Evans says. Their family was so connected to the theater that when Chris was around 18, his mother, Lisa, took over as artistic director, and she's been working there ever since.

Seeing his elder sister, Carly, onstage inspired Evans to be an actor. "Her play would end, and she'd get flowers and candy, and it just seemed like such a good time. She was having a ball and hanging out with her acting friends—it just looked awesome," he remembers. "I was like, 'I'll give this a shot.' " He started doing plays at the theater and going to acting camp in the summer. "I fell in love with that, too. I started doing plays year-round. I was always onstage."

In his junior year of high school, Evans started thinking he might want to pursue acting professionally. He convinced his parents to let him move to New York City for the summer and take classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He also wrote casting offices and secured a summer internship with Bonnie Finnegan, who was casting "Spin City" at the time. "We got to go to the tapings every Friday for the show with Michael J. Fox, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world," he says. At the end of the summer, his plan was to ask the two or three agents he was the most friendly with if he could read for them. "I was like, 'I know you know me as Chris from Bonnie's office, but I'm an actor—can you give me five minutes?' " One of the agencies was willing to let him read, so he did. The agency was interested in signing him, but it was the end of summer, and he had to go home to start senior year. "They said to me, 'You've got to get back [to New York] as soon as possible. Pilot season's in January.' So I went back and doubled up my classes and graduated early, in January. Went back to New York, got my agent, got the same internship with Bonnie, and I even got the same apartment."

Down the hall from Finnegan's office was casting director Marcia DeBonis, who one day asked Evans to come in and read for a pilot she was working on called "Get Real." Evans went in and nailed the audition, so the network sent him out to Los Angeles to test for it. "The first person I met in Los Angeles was Anne Hathaway," he remembers. "She was testing for it, too. We were both kids—she wasn't 'Anne Hathaway' then. I was 17, and she was pretty young, too." Because Evans was the only person there reading for his role, he was convinced he would get it. "I was like, 'I got this in the bag,' " he says. "But I didn't get the show. [Hathaway] did, but I didn't. It was so crushing to be that close that soon. My dad was out there with me, and I was so excited and then just so devastated. But then Warner Bros. said, 'Stick around—there's a couple of other shows you might be right for. We'll put you up for the week.' So I stuck around and auditioned, and I ended up getting a different pilot called 'Opposite Sex.' " The Fox show (which also starred Milo Ventimiglia) lasted only one season, but it was Evans' first break, and he stayed in Los Angeles. By age 20, he landed his first leading film role in the comedy spoof "Not Another Teen Movie" and hasn't stopped since.

Gone Audition Gone

"I'm pretty shitty at auditioning," Evans admits. "Auditioning is such a strange thing. It's like the opposite of acting. It's a strange environment. To act well, you need to be extremely comfortable. You need to be extremely in your skin. Even if you have to play someone nervous, you have to be neutral and let it come to you and listen. I get so nervous in auditions. My heart just pounds."

Evans thinks plenty of amazing actors aren't working because they can't audition well. "It's like those races in the Olympics," he says. "You could race 100 times, and the same guy's not going to win every time—it's just who's going to win that day. Everyone here is fast. Everyone here can run well. But who's going to run well today? I used to sit at these auditions and look around, and I know all these actors. I've seen them. Everyone here can act. No one here is a bad actor. But it's just a matter of who's going to act well in the next five minutes. If you're not going to, someone else is. I'm sure I've gotten parts where I wasn't the best man for the job; I just happened to have a really good audition that day. And the guy who was the right man for the job had a bad one. It's that type of uncertainty that makes acting such a crapshoot."

The audition-gone-wrong story he recalls as being worst was meeting with Ben Affleck for "Gone Baby Gone." "I don't get starstruck," says Evans. "I'm fine. Especially Ben—he's a Boston guy, I should be fine. I walked in and I'm walking down the halls looking for this room, and as I passed a room I heard 'There he is.' In my head I was like, 'That's Ben.' I turned around and it was, and for some reason I instantly was nervous. I went in and shook his hand, and the first thing I said was 'Hey, how ya doing—am I gonna be okay where I parked?' And he said, 'Where'd you park?' And I said, 'At one of the meters.' And he said, 'Did you put money in it?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'I think you'll be all right.' From that moment, I just wanted to get the f*** out of the room. I just wanted to be anywhere but there. I sat down with my heart beating out of my chest; I was so mortified that I started this meeting off that way. I started giving him one-word answers. They put me in a rocking chair, so I'm just rocking and twisting, just nervous. 'So, what was your last movie like?' 'Good.' 'What was it like to work with Danny Boyle?' 'Good.' I just wanted to get out of there. It was horrible, a complete disaster. So obviously, I did not get that job."

Character Choices

In Evans' upcoming film "Puncture," a law drama based on a true story, he portrays Mike Weiss, lawyer and drug addict. This was Evans' first experience playing a role based on a real person. He spoke to the deceased Weiss' brother, father, college friends, and colleagues and even read the transcript of what was said at Weiss' funeral. "The problem is, I could tell you 100 stories about someone, but is that going to make you able to embody their speech pattern and posture and nuances?" he says. "It's not like I'm playing JFK, where you can watch videos and get cadence and inflection." Evans decided his best option was to tell Weiss' family and friends he would have to have some artistic license. He told everyone he would do his best, "but don't expect to see the Mike you know."

Evans worked hard not to second-guess his character choices or worry about what Weiss' family and friends might think. "If you start second-guessing yourself, you're f***ed," he says. "The family and the friends couldn't have been more accommodating, but it was still pretty nerve-racking."

He admits to being similarly nerve-racked when bringing beloved comic book characters Steve Rogers/Captain America and Johnny Storm/Human Torch to the screen. "Most times you make a film and you say, 'I hope it does well.' [With 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and 'Fantastic Four'] I knew people were going to go see them. There would be a response, positive or negative. There's this phenomenal built-in audience. There's going to be a huge opening weekend; there's going to be a shit ton of merchandise. That's intimidating."

Evans realized the best way to approach playing a superhero was to try to get in the same headspace as all the fans. "To me, the fans are the most important—if they're not happy, you didn't do your job. So let's try and essentially become a fan. Try and understand what they understand. To see what they're expecting." For "Captain America: The First Avenger," Evans says he and director Joe Johnston read many comic books before coming together to create the film version of the Steve Rogers character.

"Steve Rogers is a tricky character to play because he doesn't have too much conflict," says Evans. "He's such a selfless person. There's very little that can rattle him. If [your character] doesn't have conflict, it's easy to become boring. It's nice [that in the upcoming film 'The Avengers'] he struggles a little bit. He struggles with being a fish out of water. He's from the '40s; he's from a different mentality. Today the world is text messaging and impersonal and selfishness, and in the '40s there was much more of a human connection and camaraderie among the country. It's an old-fashioned way of thinking. So I think he's struggling with trying to find his place in modern day."

The Evans Method

Although he studied for a summer at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Evans says he isn't sure that Strasberg is his "cup of tea." He believes that acting is an ever-evolving thing, and if you get stuck in one method or approach, you might get stagnant. He says Keanu Reeves, his co-star in "Street Kings," helped him put his method into words. He asked Reeves what his approach to acting was, and Reeves answered, "It's constantly changing." "I was like, 'That's a good answer,' " Evans says. "It's like art. You want to constantly change your style and find new things to spark your creativity and keep you excited about it."

Evans is a fan of asking his fellow actors for their thoughts on acting. His friend Jonathan Tucker gave him his favorite advice: "Don't forget that the audience doesn't know what's coming next. It's very easy to forget when you're acting and you do the scene over and over again. Don't forget this is brand-new for the audience. You can push them in any direction because they don't know what's coming."

A favorite acting exercise of Evans', that he recommends all actors do, is to buy scripts of good films, work on a character's scene or monologue until you feel you've nailed the role, and then watch the movie to see how the actor did it. "It's like training with Michael Jordan in basketball," he says. "Go train with De Niro. Make your choices, and then watch Bob show you how to do it right. It's a real eye opener. The thing you'll learn is to not follow the words so closely. The words are not always the indication of the character. A lot of time, actors look at the words as clues as to who the character is and how the line should be said. But it's not always a direct link. If [casting directors] are going to audition 100 people for a role, the majority of the actors are going to use the words as indicators. Be different. Go another route. Take the dance somewhere unique. If nothing else, you'll stick in their mind."

Outtakes

- Raised in Sudbury, Mass.
- Other films include "Cellular," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," and "The Losers"
- In the final stages of auditions for "Not Another Teen Movie," the director brought Evans and co-star Chyler Leigh to Jennifer Coolidge's house to workshop their scenes: "[Coolidge] was so clever, funny, smart, and awesome. I felt so lucky."
- On returning to the theater: "The stage, in my opinion, has the best actors. I'd love to get back to the stage, but it's a big commitment. You've got to find something you really want to do everyday for months and months. It's tricky."
- Also starring opposite Anna Faris in the comedy "What's Your Number?," opening Sept. 30.

 Source: Backstage magazine

Chris Evans interview about Puncture

Interview with Anna Faris & Chris Evans (video)

Interview with Anna Faris & Chris Evans (video)

Chris Evans on Puncture, Captain America and more

Chris Evans on Puncture, Captain America, and Why He Knows So Little About Geek Culture

Chris Evans goes from all-American superhero to junkie crusader in this week's Puncture, a dark indie film about the late Mike Weiss, a lawyer who, despite being addicted to drugs — or perhaps because of it — took on the health-care and pharmaceutical industries to champion the “safety point syringe.” Weiss (played by Evans) thought he was out to save hospital workers from HIV/AIDS and other infections caused by accidental needle sticks, only to discover through his work that needle reuse was behind a large percentage of HIV/AIDS cases worldwide. Is Evans secretly on a mission to save the world himself — even if it’s just from bad movies? Vulture chatted with the actor about his savior complex, shooting Captain America in New York City, and why he knows so little about geek culture.

You're playing a savior character who's also deeply flawed: He goes on drug binges and has “sex therapy” consultations with prostitutes. Actually, this might be your most sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll part to date, only without the rock and roll.
That’s part of the thrill of playing this character. You’ve got the fun lawyer scenes, where he’s got the gift of gab, but he’s also really dark and has these horrible addictions. He’s certainly an antihero. The more I talked to his [real-life] brother, his father, his co-workers, roommates, everybody, it seems that everybody loved him, and everybody hated him. Anytime you meet somebody who’s really brilliant, there’s an innate selfishness that goes along with it, because they’re so alone, and that isolation is damaging when it comes to trying to maintain relationships. Especially if you’re a drug addict, even a functioning drug addict.

Did you know anything about the safety needle issue before you signed on for this movie? And do you think the film is going to make a difference?
God, no; I knew nothing about it. And I’m still a little vague. It’s constantly changing. The safety needle is now in certain hospitals, but hopefully this movie will raise awareness. I don’t know any form of art or entertainment that can affect people the way movies can. I know it sounds ridiculous, but they can change your world. They can change your views. But by no means should my mission, to make movies, be compared to his. He was trying to save people’s lives.

And he’s very different from your other man-with-a-mission, who we saw rampaging through the city last week.
The Cap! Yeah, different guy. Very different guy. [Laughs.]

What was it like shooting in New York? And how does the destruction of the city in this movie compare with all the times that New York has been destroyed in other movies?
Mmmm. Where is it on the scale? I can’t give too much away. Captain America dies. No, I’m joking. [Laughs.] Yeah, it was cool shooting in the city. It was tricky, though. It was chaos. A little wild. A little awkward. You’re in your suit, and there’s a shit ton of people out there watching. It’s like some form of street theater. So you got to stay focused and get your mind right, because it’s easy to get distracted. But it’s nice to see the support.

With Puncture, there’s no sequel — he can’t come back. With Captain America, you’ve got six pictures, what with the solo sequels and the planned Avengers series.
And that’s partly why I was hesitant to sign on at first, because it’s ten years if you do all six pictures. Can you make a decision for the next ten years of your life? But the best thing about a franchise is when you wrap each film up, you can watch it and say, “What did we do well? What can we do better? Where can we take this guy?”

Prior to this, you did two Fantastic Four movies, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Are you a closet comic book geek?
Actually, no! I don’t know what it is, but it’s purely coincidental. I mean, I’ve read a lot of them now — a lot of Fantastic Four and Captain America — but it’s not really my thing. I know, I know [winces]. But I appreciate it, and I almost wish I had read them as a kid. I spent my youth watching Bugs Bunny or some dumb bullshit, and this stuff is incredible. The more I read them, the more I’m like, God, there’s really complex story lines, and intelligent dialogue, and beautiful artwork.

What do you geek out about, then? Anything you obsess over?
What do I geek out about? What am I? Hmmm. I love movies. I watch movies. I like big, sweeping epics, like Ed Zwick stuff: The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, Blood Diamond, Glory. Movies that feel like they’re Braveheart, like they cover time and emotional journeys. Period films. Movies with grand scores and beautiful cinematography. Epic films.

Like What’s Your Number?
Bingo! [Laughs.] Right up my alley, that one is. But I like epic movies. There just aren’t a lot of them out there. If there were, I’d try to make them. Movies are a strange thing. Movies like Puncture don’t get made that often. I’m shocked it got made, you know? It seems like the studios are either making giant blockbusters, or really super-small indies. And the mid-level films I grew up on, like Back to the Future and all those John Hughes movies, the studios aren’t doing. It’s hard to get them on their feet.

Source: www.nymag.com