To Cap It Off

AS CHRIS EVANS ’ CAPTAIN AMERICA FACES AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, WE REVIEW HIS PAST THROUGH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS FROM THE SET OF EACH OF HIS FILMS. THERE’S A LOT, BUT WE CAN DO THIS ALL DAY.

- Anthony Breznican

SEPTEMBER 2010, CHRIS EVANS WAS LITERALLY JUST GETTING ON his feet as Captain America.

We were on the set of the first movie, in a makeshift dressing room in the basement of an apartment building in Liverpool, England. The street outside was doubling for 1940s-era Brooklyn, and Evans was about to chase down a Hydra spy’s car in his bare feet, running so fast he loses control and crashes through a bridal shop.

Except, it’s not possible to do take after take of that shoeless pursuit down the pavement without shredding your soles. “You don’t want to do this without having your feet attached,” Evans said, cheerfully covering his sneakers with a pair of flesh-colored rubber stockings with sculpted toes.

With Avengers: Endgame suggesting a conclusion of Captain America’s journey—and with emotions at red-zone levels—it’s the perfect time to revisit all of Entertainment Weekly’s set visits to the Marvel movies that starred him, each with their quirks and insights. Evans found fresh facets of this hero’s heart to explore each time we spoke with him.

Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, arrived on screen in summer 2011—appropriately—as an anachronism. His earnest, sarcasm-free wholesomeness was a contrast to brutal superheroes with borderline morality, like Christian Bale’s Batman or Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, or the snarky and ironic ones, like Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, or…even Evans’ own wisecracking firebrand Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four films.

“My bread and butter have certainly been trying to crack a joke or be witty or sharp,” Evans said about his previous work while preparing for his “barefoot” scene. “This guy’s not that.”