Chris Evans has gained such a calling card recently playing First Avenger Steve Rogers/Captain America, that—amidst an “Avengers: Endgame” box office return in just a week of $473 million—it’s often hard to remember him as anything but the American flag wearing superhero. However, a cursory glance at his IMDb profile, which shows 52 acting credits to his name, show that there’s more to Evans than meets the eye.
Chris Evans has a familiar story that landed him in to showbiz. The son of a mother who worked in theatre and a dentist, Evans got his start in acting by performing in school productions and community theatre. According to IMDb, he landed some roles in television, most notably a CBS remake of “The Fugitive” and “Boston Public,” ultimately landing small roles in feature films such as “Not Another Teen Movie” and “Just Married.”
Evans first caught my attention in a 2005 film called “London;” not about a city, but a girl, played by Evans’ now ex-girlfriend Jessica Biel. After having first noticed Evans as the cock-sure of bravado Johnny Storm in Marvel’s (no, not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) “Fantastic Four” in 2005, “London” was a seeming misnomer for Evans. It’s only later that one realizes his penchant for playing off the cuff, thoughtful, and often deep roles apart and in-between his superhero romps.
Below we examine six of Evans’ performances that are our favorite apart from his turns as Captain America. We look forward to your thoughts in the comment section below.
1. “The Iceman” – ‘Mr. Freezy’ (2012)
“The Iceman” – the story of the notorious serial killer Richard Kuklinski, played to perfection by Michael Shannon, is an odd choice for Evans to appear in, but he shows he can pull off the act with ease. He plays a fellow hitman in the movie nicknamed ‘Mr. Freezy,’ who would first introduce Kuklinski to not only his trademark method of freezing victims to mask the time of death but also introducing him to killing via cyanide; a method that Kuklinski would later add to one of his go-to repertoires.
“The Iceman” is an unsung gem, featuring a chilling score, excellent ’70s and ’80s set pieces, and, regrettably, a domestic box office return of only $1.9 million. It won two awards, one, at Capri Hollywood for ‘Capri Breakout Director Award’ for Ariel Vromen and an Honors winner for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Acting’ at the Newport Beach Film Festival for Michael Shannon.
Watch a clip of Evans in “The Iceman” below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKXQQmMdiws
2. “Push” – ‘Nick Gant’ (2009)
Coming but a few years off of “Fantastic Four,” you can tell that Evans likes playing a hero as he takes on the role of Nick Gant in 2009’s “Push.” The film, which IMDb describes as “Two young Americans with special abilities must race to find a girl in Hong Kong before a shadowy government organization called Division does” gives you some idea of the Evans’ love of playing both heroic roles and those ensconced in sci-fi.
Said Evans in an interview for Cinema.com about “Push’s” script: “It was one of those scripts where I didn’t get bored once. It was a page turner and the second I finished it I wanted to read it again to a, make sure everything checked out and b, I understood all the parts I didn’t. But then you sit down with Paul (McGuigan, director) and he has such an interesting take on how he wanted it to look with the colour palette and his use of natural light and hand-held camera work. It just felt like it was a take on a genre I hadn’t seen before.”
Watch Gant harness his powers in the clip below:
3. “London” – ‘Syd’ (2005)
Earning a paltry $12,677 in the domestic Box Office, “London,” starring Chris Evans, Jessica Biel, and Jason Statham may be one of the true indies that Evans waffles back and forth between playing mega blockbusters and independent fare. Director Hunter Richards won a ‘Bronze Zenith’ at the Montréal World Film Festival for this movie; and, honestly it’s well deserved.
This is a film like Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” that takes place mostly in one room, and deals with the nitty/gritty of relationships. Not the high parts that we cherish as we remember the past, but the low parts – the fights, the arguments, the clash of personalities, and their morose, bleak, aftermath. Scenes between Syd and Statham’s Bateman make up the meat of this movie, but the film’s close, featuring a heart to heart between Syd and London (Biel), is the stuff that good movies are made of.
In 2013, I wrote about “London:” “The movie will make you think…however, after it’s over, you may want to walk outside and take a breath of fresh air. “London,” like the cigarette smoke and drugs that inhabit it, tends to hang in the air even after the closing credits.”
Watch a clip from “London” below:
4. “Gifted” – ‘Frank Adler’ (2017)
In director Marc Webb’s “Gifted,” we see Evans playing not a superhero or drug addled heartbroken man as in “London” or “Push,” but an ordinary father trying to raise a daughter who get brought into a custody battle when her birth mother realizes she’s “gifted.” The film won six awards and garnered another seven nominations. Among the wins included: an ‘Audience Award’ for Marc Webb at the Deauville Film Festival, a ‘Truly Moving Picture Award’ from Heartland Film, and three awards at the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for ‘Overlooked Film of the Year,’ and ‘Breakthrough Performance’ and ‘Best Performance of the Year,’ which both went to McKenna Grace.
In an interview with Collider, Evans remarks on his own childhood and playing Frank Adler in “Gifted:” “It made me reflect on what my childhood was like, more than anything else. My sister has kids and all of my friends have kids, so I know what it’s like to be a parent today. Maybe not intimately, but I have the broad strokes. Working on this film, it wasn’t necessarily about my awareness of what parental duties were like, but about what it was like being a kid, especially in an adult world. As a kid, I cried the first day of everything, you name it, whether it was school, camp, or whatever. I was very timid. So, more than anything else, what it brought to light was that my childhood was very timid. I was really nervous, as a kid. I had one friend until maybe 8th grade, and it would change, each year. I always had one friend, and if that friend was sick, I didn’t talk to anyone at school.”
Watch a heartbreaking clip from “Gifted” below:
5. “Cellular” – ‘Ryan’ (2004)
“Cellular” is a different speed for Evans, though he has remarked before that he can’t tell what he likes more – blockbusters or indie films. “Cellular,” which grossed $32 million domestically is a straight action/thriller, and a far cry from films like “London” or the touching “Gifted.” The storyline presented on IMDb is compelling enough: “A young man receives a call on his cellular phone from a woman who says she’s been kidnapped, and thinks she’s going to be killed soon, along with her husband and son who the kidnappers have gone after next. The catch? She doesn’t know where she is… and his cell phone battery might go dead soon”
“Cellular” didn’t win any awards, but was nominated for a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award for Kim Basinger at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, so it at least gained some traction in that department. The film, in addition to co-starring Basinger, starred such talent at Jason Statham and Jessica Biel, and featured a screenplay by Chris Morgan and a story by Larry Cohen.
Check out a sequence from the film below:
6. “Before We Go” – ‘Nick’ (2014)
“Before We Go” is an interesting selection for Chris Evans, if for no other reason then it stars the actor and is directed by him as well. It has that ‘one night that feels like a long weekend’ feel to it, has been judged as being a more indie version of Ethan Hawke’s “Before Sunrise,” but Evans manages to infuse enough of his own style into the film, which takes place in Manhattan, to make it feel personal, intimate, and honest. Solid throughout out, its ending is especially somber, and shows restraint and good filmmaking chops in Evans in his directorial debut.
The film co-stars Alice Eve (“Star Trek: Into Darkness”) and but a few other players as the film is about two people who accidentally meet and grow over one night in New York. Of “Before We Go” I wrote that Eve and Evans “invite us into a picture that is warm and pleasing; sad yet hopeful. It’s slow to start, but if you can wade through some early pacing issues, you’ll find a film worth watching.”
Watch the film’s trailer below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxJsGKn2kyA
Lead photo of Chris Evans from USAToday.com article “Captain America Chris Evans Reveals Why He’s Still Single”
