Chris Evans Explains Why Getting To Be Captain America For Kids Is So Incredible

Chris Evans as Captain America in Avengers: Endgame

Chris Evans may have officially hung up his Captain America shield since his character found his happy ending with Peggy Carter in Avengers: Endgame, but the actor will always be Steve Rogers to the public. Evans will be greatly remembered as the Marvel superhero for the rest of his life, and thankfully, he has a positive mindset on the iconic role. In his words:

You know, it’s yeah a little bit [freak out]. But that’s so nice. I dunno about you but I grew up with Star Wars and I had certain characters that just meant the world to me. We live in a much different time now. When I was young, the celebrity was far away. And actors were only accessible through their work. Now, you have this other channel where you can offer more of who you are, which is a tricky tightrope to walk, but it is nice to be able to share a little bit extra. Especially playing a character I respect so much and trying to you know create this nexus between the work you do and the impact you may want to have on kids. It’s so nice when a kid looks up to you.

Chris Evans reflected on his famous role during a one-on-one video chat with Avengers co-star Paul Rudd for Variety while the two continue to self isolate in their homes. The Captain America actor continued to describe his perspective on having a role easily recognizable by kids with this:

What a strange thing, very undeserving in a way, you know? You’re just an actor. But it’s nice to kind of feel that the interaction can be more than, I dunno. I met Hulk Hogan when I was younger and it was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life. No disrespect to Hulk Hogan—but sometimes you meet people where you get your own identity tangled up with them in a way. You start to aspire to things and it’s motivating. I think the role itself kind of brings a lot of that to the table… It’s nice to interact with kids especially when they walk away feeling something that the character put in their head already.

The Knives Out actor has been associated as Captain America for nearly a full decade now, and must have had a variety of feelings about playing the character throughout his tenure. But one year after Avengers: Endgame, it’s clear Chris Evans is grateful to be part of the MCU and gets to see the smiles on kids' faces when he meets them every so often.

During the interview with Paul Rudd, Evans talked about how “intimidating” it was for him at first to take on a role that has so many “expectations” attached to it. As he’s opened up about before, he was afraid to lose his anonymity as an actor. His previous work on Fantastic Four may have contributed? Evans' mom actually helped talk him into saying “yes” the role at the time.

You can check out Chris Evans and Paul Rudd chat about their shows Defending Jacob and Living With Yourself and their experience with Marvel below:

Luckily for Chris Evans, he had one of the most perfectly executed character endings in a franchise in film history. His and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man were given well-thought out conclusions in Endgame amidst the conclusion to an epic arc told over a decade. The writers of the highest-grossing movie of all time think any attempts to revive Cap in another MCU film would put a damper in the ending they crafted.

There’s much more Marvel on the way without Chris Evans as the actor moves on with different roles, such as finally starring in a musical as Orin Scrivello in the Little Shop of Horrors remake. Paul Rudd, on the other hand, is gearing back up to play Scott Lang again in Ant-Man 3. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates on what’s next for the MCU.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.