Interview with Captain America’s Chris Evans about The Winter Soldier

 

On April 4, 2014 the highly anticipated Marvel film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, makes it way into theaters across the country.

I had the fabulous opportunity to screen the film a few weeks ago. I’ll be sharing my review at the end of the week (April 4th – the film’s release date). If I had to sum it up in one word it would be AWESOME!

A few weeks ago the blogger group I was with had the opportunity to interview the cast of the film – Chris Evans (“Captain America”), Scarlett Johansson (“Black Widow”) and the always funny Anthony Mackie (“Falcon”).

I will have to admit that I was swooning over Chris. He is certainly nice to look at. 🙂 He’s also really funny and a ball of energy.

Here are some highlights from the interview.

Q: What qualities in Captain America do you find in yourself?  

Chris: Aww.  How do you answer that question?  He’s such a good guy… What do I find in myself? I think he’s always trying to do better.  You know, I don’t think I’m as good of a man as he is, but I think as good of a man as he is, he’s always trying to improve, so I think the one thing I am working towards on a daily basis is just trying to find ways to evolve.

Q: Do you find that that character has good qualities, and plays like a role model?

Chris: Oh, completely.  Yeah.  When I took the role, there’s a kid that I grew up with. This kid named is Charlie. You can all write this down.  Charlie Morris. He’ll love this. But he won’t. He’ll hate this, because he’s Captain America.  He’s like, the best kid I know. He was an Eagle scout. And being an Eagle scout is not easy.  You’ve got to really do it for a long time. But he’s just such a good man, and he genuinely puts himself last. He lives by a code. When nobody’s looking, he’s the man that he wants to be, and that’s impressive.

When I took the role, I told Charlie, “Listen.  I’m modeling this after you.” And it’s such a great character to aspire to be. It’s such a great character. If you’ve got to go to set every day and try and tweak your brain into a certain state of mind, that’s a pretty good place to be.

Q: What was it like, seeing yourself as Captain America for the first time?

Chris: For the first time? Terrifying. Because I think the first time I saw it, it was back when I was still pretty, um…insecure, and a little apprehensive about taking the role.  So, it was a real dichotomy.  There was a simultaneous joy, but at the same time, a deep fear.  But that’s eroded over time, and now it’s very familiar, and it feels very comfortable, and I’ll just spit on the table for a second. It feels great now, and damn, if I had said no, I would have been the biggest fool on the planet.

Q: Who would win in a fight between Batman and Captain America?

Chris: Oh.  You’ve got to go with Captain America.  Come on. I thought you were going to say Captain America and the Human Torch (the character he played in Fantastic Four).  That’s a tougher question. Batman? What does he have? Toys?  Don’t write that. It’s going to be Captain America.

Q: If you had a 2^nd choice for a superhero to play, who would you choose?

Chris: You know, I’ll say it – I miss Johnny Storm. I liked the Human Torch. He was a fun guy to play.

I would say someone like Iron Man, but no one can touch Robert Downey Jr. It’s fun to play someone with life. It’s fun to play someone who enjoys embracing their abilities, and Johnny Storm was a lot of fun to play. And that costume was comfy.was like a wetsuit. It was perfect.

Q: How many different shields did you have to use during the filming of this, and did you take any home?

Chris: Yeah, they gave me one.  There’s probably like four or five different shields. There’s the one shield that’s heavy and ridiculous. That’s just for show. And then every now and then, if you have to hit somebody, you get this kind of fiberglass shield. And if you have to throw it, you get a foam shield. There’s a bunch of different shields, but they did send me one. It’s sitting in my house. It usually comes out after everyone’s had a few drinks. Photo shoots happen.

Q: What was your most memorable moment during filming? 

Chris: When I saw Robert Redford walk in the door. Everyone was nervous that day. Everybody was scared. There was a whole buzz on the whole set. But it’s Robert Redford. You know. I grew up watching this guy. He is a living legend. So it was intimidating. It was exciting. It was rewarding. It was surreal. So, for me, just sharing the screen with him, I mean, c’mon. That’s it?  All right!

Q: With the fighting styles, what was your preparation like with the martial arts? Are you comfortable with it?

Chris: Comfortable now. In the beginning it’s a tricky process, and it’s tough realizing that certain things, you’re not good at right away.  You just want to be like, “I can do that,” and then you’re awful and you’re like, “I guess I can’t do that.”  One of the things that I had in between the first Captain America and the first Avengers, I had played the Captain America video game. I don’t know if anyone’s played the video game. I’m not really a video game guy.  Someone handed me the controller, and I was playing, and the way Cap moves in the video game, there’s a fluidity and it’s very acrobatic. It’s very aerial.  He uses his environment, and it’s almost this beautiful, smooth dance, and when I first met with LaRusso, I said, “Have you played the video game?”  And truthfully, I swear to God, they said “You know what?  We referenced the video game, too.”  I said, “Good, good, we’re on the same page.  But that means we need to incorporate a little bit more of an acrobatic approach to fighting.” So they put me in gymnastic classes, which is something I always wanted to do, kind of, anyway.  [LAUGHS] I mean, I wanted to go play on like, the balance beam, but they were like, “No”. 

It was more like it was tumbling, essentially. Parkour-style gymnastic stuff. Flipping, and spinning, and just kind of getting a sense of your body in the air. So we did about two months of that. We did two months, a few hours, each day, and it was invaluable. It really lends itself to a lot of those fight scenes.

Q: What is next for Captain America?

Chris: Meaning within the structure of the films? Well, that’s going to be tough to say. Marvel is so hush-hush about everything. People ask about the Avengers 2 scripts, and you want to try and give them something, but it’s so dangerous, because you give one sentence, and that sentence is blown out of proportion. I can’t. I can’t touch it. It’s too dangerous. Yeah, Avengers 2. Basically, what happens in Avengers 2.  Can’t go there.

Q: How is it, working with Anthony (Mackie – he plays “Falcon” in the film)?

Chris: Did anyone see the press conference? I mean, he’s fantastic. Is he going to come in here at some point? Oh, I want to be in the audience! He’s great. Him and I, we’re very similar people, and this is my third movie with Mackie, you know? We’ve done, outside of the Marvel Universe, we’ve done a couple of things together, and the first time I met him wasn’t even on a film set. We met out one night, and just you know, kind of got along, right away. He just has this innate energy.

Movies can be extremely tedious and tiresome, and I have never seen him drag on a film set. He comes to set, and immediately has an energy, and everybody is smiling and laughing. And, you know, certain days when he’s not there, you’re like, “Why?  Why is this day awful? Mackie is not here!  Where’s Mackie?” He’s just, he’s a ball of energy, and you know, he’s just a very optimistic person, and it’s infectious.

It was a great interview. As I mentioned Chris was a lot of fun and full of energy. He had us laughing too.

Later this week I’ll be sharing our interview with Scarlett Johansson, Producer Kevin Feige, Sabastian Stan and Anthony Mackie. I’ll also be sharing my review of the film. Please keep a look out for these posts.

You can check out what the other bloggers on the trip have to say by searching for the hashtag #CaptainAmericaEvent on the social media sites.

What do you think about Captain America: The Winter Solider? Will you be going to see it when it hits theaters?

Here is the film’s trailer for your enjoyment.

 

Kimberly

*I attended the press junket. My travel expenses were covered. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own unless otherwise noted.