EW visited the set of every movie as Chris Evans brought Steve Rogers to life.
With Avengers: Endgame approaching, it’s time to look back.
Chris Evanswas literally just getting on his feet as Captain America.
Chris Evans in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’.Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios
Each time, Evans found fresh elements of Steve Rogers' heart and soul to explore.
The character arrived on screen in summer 2011, appropriately, as an anachronism.
“This guy’s not that.
“His depth of moral character, his honesty, his integrity, his bravery.
He’s just a good person.
He doesn’t do it for praise.
He doesn’t do it for some key in of karmic repercussion.
He just does it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Even the actor’s friends didn’t get it when he tried to explain Cap.
Marvel Studios
“We started talking about the script and she made some comment about joking.
I said, ‘Look, he’s not a jokester.
I’m not cracking jokes in this movie.’
She’s like, ‘So, he’sboring?’
I was like, ‘No!
God, no.'”
Evans shook his head.
“If it comes out boring, I’ve really missed the mark,” he said.
“He’s not boring.
Except for the feet.
Those wereatrociously fake(not that anyone could tell when he was running).
What the actor tried to build within Steve Rogers thatwas real.
“I’m kind of basing him off a buddy of mine,” he said.
“I have a friend who’s just… he has this great moral code.
He’s an Eagle Scout.
“One who did it waaaay too long,” Evans said with a laugh.
He’s literally a Boy Scout.
He’s incredibly resourceful, and obviously he can build a fire.
If you’re going to get lost with anyone, get lost with Charlie.
He doesn’t even like telling little white lies.
You know what I mean?
He just feels better.”
So… why was Evans friends with someone likethat?
“I don’t know, man!
“It’s so funny.
This is my friend into my adulthood.
This is a friend where I’m just proud Iknowhim.
I’m glad that he exists.”
The Avengers May 2011
It was the epic first team-up of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Production codename: Group Hug.
Here’s how EW began the interview:I don’t want to spoil things, but can you…
Here’s how Evans replied: “Iron Man dies.”
His alter ego Steve Rogers wasn’t in a joking mood.
Everybody you cared about,” Evans said.
He’s just lonely.
Who does he have in the world?
Evans admitted that even he was worried about Steve when he first read director Joss Whedon’s script.
He wanted that wholesomeness from the previous film to endure.
“Certainly moping and pouting and feeling sorry for yourself is not a Captain America trait.”
Still, there were some real-world worries.
“It’s tricky to venture to think about that right now,” Evans said.
It could be good, could be disastrous.
We’ll just wait and see.”
In the meantime, Evans was making some meaningful new connections along with his character.
At the start of that movie, most of the Avengers were strangers to him.
“I knew Scarlett,” Evans said.
“Scarlett and I have worked together a few times now, I think this is our third film.
Hemsworth I had met as a result of this.
I didn’t know any of those guys.
We’re all kind of new buddies, but it’s been great.”
“Yeah, what a dick!”
Evans said, punctuated by a loud laugh.
Evans said it loud enough for him to hear, but he didn’t even notice.)
“No, Ilovehim, man.
He’s something else,” Evans said.
He’s got such an active imagination.
It’s what makes him a great actor, I’m sure.
He’s just a good guy, a lot of positive energy coming off of him.”
Filming in New Mexico improved the bond among the cast.
“No one knows anybody, no one has any prior obligations out here.”
Is it important to build that camaraderie?
“This isn’t just an individual movie; this comes withstringsattached.”
“If it does well we could be doing abunchmore of these.”
Captain America: The Winter Soldier August 2013
Cap was drenched.
He was sweating through his red, white, and blue armor.
On this day, it was about thephysicalpunishment of playing the character.
“Oh my God!
“You just get hurt.
I mean this thing…?”
He tugged on the suit.
All the wardrobe department could do is douse it in anti-bacterial disinfectant.
Otherwise, the physical demands of the action sequences make force your body to nourish itself on muscle.
You start to wither.
“Three months leading in, you get this training regimen,” Evans said.
“You try and get as big as you possibly can.
Then they save the big,bigaction sequences for the last month or so.
“I wondered if people think I’m too skinny right now?”
AsThe Winter Soldierstarts, Cap has become a S.H.I.E.L.D.
the Falcon (Anthony Mackie).
He missed that dance at the Stork Club, and there’s seemingly no going back.
“I made a complete fool of myself,” he said.
There’s literally video of me going, ‘Who’s Ultron?'”
The actor ran a hand over his face.
“I kind of gave Marvel a little bit of grief.
I said, ‘Look, guys.
Avengers: Age of Ultron May 2014
Who’sUltron?
Ultron (played by James Spader) sees only ugliness in humanity.
He’s basically the opposite of Cap.
In this film, Steve Rogers finally finds his comfort zone.
“In a weird way, the Avengers have become home for him.”
Most soldiers eventually crave an escape from the fight, a homecoming.
Cap almost doesn’t.
“Oddly enough,” Evans said, “that’s all he knows.”
And he means… that’sallhe knows.
“He’s probably a virgin.
I don’t know when it would’ve happened!”
Well, he was on that USO tour in the firstCaptain America.
That’s true,” Evans agreed.
“Maybe one of those [dancing] girls blew his mind.
[Laughs] He’s probably just a good guy.
He was probably holding out for Peggy Carter and he’s a little more old-fashioned in that sense….
He’s a very human guy.
That’s why I like him.”
The actor also expressed some frustration.
He wanted to muddy Steve’s clear conscience.
“Cap puts what he wants last,” Evans said.
“For so long, he just refuses to bleed on people.
That’s why it’s kind of exciting to look forward toCap 3.
I think we really scratched the surface on something great.”
Captain America: Civil War July 2015
This movie did it to Steve Rogers again.
Just as he found a place to belong, it was taken from him.
I don’t think [Steve] has ever been so uncertain with what right and wrong is.”
Obviously, Evans was Team Cap all the way.
and fighting for the country, and then he realized S.H.I.E.L.D.
“But Bucky’s a different situation.
He obviously couldn’t make these choices.”
Friendships matter to Cap, and to Evans.
The whole point ofCivil Warwas to test the audience’s loyalty, pitting two heroes against each other.
The change now is: Cap isn’t marching anymore.
He’s not following orders.
He’s following his own compass.
“Steve has always been of the people, for the people,” Evans said.
Rogers believes so strongly that he’s right that he throws away everything else.
The story ends with him no longer a hero, but a fugitive.
It would take something major to bring the Avengers back together again.
This is not the occasion for good guys to fight among themselves.
A much bigger threat looms.
One bright spot is Cap gets to hang with Thor again.
The two Chrises Evans and Hemsworth were shooting their reunion on the fields of Wakanda when EW visited.
The two actors were workshopping their exchange amid the ferocious alien army of Thanos.
“I’ll be like, ‘Short hair now?
Good choice,'” Evans said, while miming a right hook against an invisible Outrider creature.
“And I’ll go, ‘Yours, too.
Very rugged,'” Hemsworth says.
Both he and Johansson admitted they didn’t even see a whole script.
“I was like, I don’t want to see pages!
I just want to see the whole thing,” she said.
Evans explained, “We had to fight to get an actual paper script.
There were giving us either pages or bits on an iPad.
It’s been tricky.”
Also, the aggressive plot meant there wasn’t much time for backstory or new personal exploration.
Still, Evans was trying to find unexplored dimensions for the character.
“I think Steve is a little newly calloused in the ways of the world,” Evans said.
“Steve’s a bit more hardened now because he’s seen more, he’s learned more.”
But there was never any question: Steve Rogers would put aside the grudges and return to battle.
I think what’s left is the only thing you might trust: friendship."
Throughout his stories, Captain America has always fought for the people he cares about.
Avengers: Endgamewill show us if that fight can ever bring him peace.
This article appears in Entertainment Weekly’s newAvengers: Endgameissue, on stands Friday.
