Vanity Fair has published an excellent new piece from Joanna Robinson simply titled “An Extended Conversation with Kevin Feige.” Robinson got to sit down and interview Kevin Feige as part of Vanity Fair’s Marvel photo shoot that celebrated Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary. Feige opens up about his early years and career up to this point, as well as some fun behind the scenes stuff from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What caught my attention was when conversation turned to Chris Evans. Feige talked about how difficult it was to cast Captain America, and how they became desperate. Evans was overlooked because he was known for playing Johnny Storm in the “Fantastic Four” films, but Marvel Studios ultimately turned to him.
Casting Captain America was super hard. I started to think, “Are we not going to be able to find Captain America, and if we can’t, what are we going to do with Avengers? Is the whole thing going to fall apart?” And, then, finally opening ourselves up to Chris Evans, who we had initially sort of just looked past because he was Johnny Storm in a Fantastic Four franchise. Then, bringing him in and showing him the artwork, showing him what was happening in this movie, and he took a weekend to decide.
Evans was offered a daunting nine-picture deal and was reluctant to accept Marvel’s offer. That is a commitment, and it probably didn’t help he was coming off those meh “Fantastic Four” movies, but Evans realized it was his patriotic duty to accept the role. Now, Evans thinks playing Captain America was the best decision he ever made.
He’s a reluctant star, but I think he’s become—and I’ve said this to him—for as amazing as all of our actors are at embodying these characters, every single one of them, he’s one that reminds me, alongside Christopher Reeve, as just like “these are the characters.”
Kevin Feige thinks Chris Evans as Captain America is comparable to Christopher Reeve as Superman. That’s high praise, especially coming from Feige, and he’s absolutely right. Chris has put so much of his heart and soul into playing Cap, that it’s hard to tell them apart.
In fact, during the making of the films, people call Evans “Cap.” No one calls Hemsworth “Thor” or Jeremy Renner “Hawkeye.” But people do see Cap when talking to Evans.
I think he’s a great actor, and I think he can do whatever he wants to do, but even when you look at his Twitter account and taking a stand on things, it’s like, “Is he becoming Captain America?” Which I think is great. People forget that we started filming Avengers before either Thor or Captain America were released. What if people hated Thor? What if people thought Loki was ridiculous? What if people didn’t buy this super soldier frozen in ice? We were in the first quarter of production on a giant movie at that time, and we weren’t going to stop. It was sort of all in at that point.
As someone that loves and respects the work Chris Evans has done as Cap, I enjoyed those little tidbits of information and thought you all would too. Make sure to read the full piece on Vanity Fair for more!
