Chris Evans Addresses the Expectations of Playing Captain America

By now, it's a pretty safe bet that movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be received well [...]

By Adam Barnhardt

By now, it's a pretty safe bet that movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be received well by most critics and fans. Ten years ago, however, that wasn't always the case right as Marvel Studios started laying the groundwork for its shared universe of films. While no movies ended up as box office bombs, a few have certainly been much less popular than the others. Chatting about the finale to Defending Jacob, longtime MCU mainstay Chris Evans spoke to the dangers of actors having expectations for the property they're working on prior to a final product being complete.

"The concept of expectations is a little bit of a fallacy and a little bit of a slippery slope," Evans tells Variety. "I kind of got in those weeds 10 years ago when I signed up for Captain America and part of the last 10 years has been awakening to the fact it is a fallacy and the whole notion of things like momentum and perception...you can create those things if you want them, but it's really got nothing to do with the work."

The actor adds, "I've gotten a lot better over the years about compartmentalizing and, look...I'd be lying if I said you don't think of how it will be received, but I certainly don't want to let the tail wag the dog and cut your cloth on how you think it will be received. For the most part, during the shoot itself, very little thought spent on those types of things. Maybe afterward in a panicked retrospect, you say 'Oh my God, did I do enough? Are they going to hate this?' But while you're actually filming with all the combined factors I mentioned earlier, going to set every day was a lovely, lovely place to do what we do."

Evans has appeared as Steve Rogers/Captain America in nearly a dozen different properties from Marvel Studios and fortunately enough for him, all of the movies he's been in have been well-received. Earlier this month, the actor said the decision to take the role of Rogers was the best one he's ever made.

"And it really just kind of clicked and it really did start to make sense to me that way, so I said 'Yeah,'" Evans said. "I think that's why the whole first movie, my hair was on fire, you're so scared just like 'Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing this and please don't backfire, please don't blow up in my face. And not only did it not, but it was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake....To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition."

Evans can be seen in Avengers: Endgame, now streaming on Disney+.

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