The Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth photoshoot for USA Weekend

Photos by Timothy White, Stockland Martel, for USA WEEKEND

Source: USA Weekend

Hanging out with Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth

by Brian Truitt for USA Weekend

Hanging out with Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth at our exclusive duo superhero cover shoot in New York City, only one thought comes to mind: Man, I need to get to the gym.

But back to our superhero mash-up. Two of this summer's biggest guys (we mean that literally and figuratively) shared the love, just for USA WEEKEND's Summer Movie Preview. You may not know them yet — Evans burned up the big screen as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, and Hemsworth is an Aussie hunk in his first major starring movie role.

But you will soon, when the two actors duke it out at the box office for the season's hottest, or coolest, superhero: Hemsworth, 27, as the title thunder god of next month's Thor (May 6) and Evans, 29, star of Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22). Also sharing the credits: Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins in Thor and Tommy Lee Jones in Captain America.

And though we thought they were in the kind of shape that most mortal men envy, both Chrises were in the process of rebuilding into Marvel-ous, super-bod condition to film the reprise of their roles in the ultimate comic hero smackdown, the movie The Avengers. Meaning that unlike most celebrities at a photo shoot, who barely touch the elaborate spreads laid out for them, these guys couldn't get enough. They made several trips to the buffet table for presumably muscle-building chicken, fish and fruit.

Even more unusual about the occasion: the security guard. And he wasn't protecting our famed superheroes. He was guarding the comic characters' gear — Thor's hammer and Cap's shield — lest it be assaulted by the enemy (or overly eager fan).

Fortunately, we were able to get up close and personal with the stars themselves. After the shoot, we sat down for a man-to-man chat. Here are excerpts:

What went through your mind the first time you put on your colorful costumes? Hemsworth: Holy [expletive]. I walked onto set, and Anthony Hopkins and I were in our full get-up. We looked at each other and he said, “Well, there's no acting required here, is there?” It was like being a kid playing dress-up, but the costume's worth more than your house.

Evans: It's all still terrifying. It's a lot of responsibility and a little nerve-racking. As actors, you make movies for the audience — you really can't act without an audience, otherwise you'd be crazy. And this is such an important thing for the audience, you really want to make sure you get it right.

Who are your personal heroes? Evans: This sounds cliché, but it's so true: my parents. They've done everything right when it's really hard, and they've been very selfless. To me, there's something about a hero that should be selfless. It's a very tough thing to do, to put yourself last, and they've done that consistently.

Hemsworth: I grew up surfing, and I idolized Kelly Slater for years. As a young kid, I had a theater studies thing I had to do on a Sunday at school, which I wasn't happy about. That was my surfing day. [One Sunday,] my dad had come back from surfing, and he goes, “Guess who I surfed with today?” I was like, “Who?” “Kelly Slater.” I remember my eyes literally watering because this guy was a god to me. They couldn't have told me anything worse. That I missed that opportunity was heartbreaking.

Did you feel silly doing any of the superhero stunts? Hemsworth: Some of the wire gags and hanging upside down. I'm a pretty active person, but some of that stuff, I was like, “God, get me down from this thing.” It's hard work! It's like you're an actor one minute and an acrobat the next, spinning upside down backward for certain things and just wanting to throw up. But it all looks good once it's up there on the screen. We know you worked out hard, but did you enjoy getting out of shape, too?

Evans: As soon as we stopped shooting, I stopped going to the gym. Oh, my God, I never wanted to see another weight in my life! I completely just dove into a bowl of lazy for about two months. Hemsworth: It was really weird because you almost become addicted to it. Then all of a sudden the hand brake is pulled and you're allowed to relax. There's a part of you that doesn't really want to, because it's used to doing this, but you do need to rest.

How cool has your personal life been lately? Evans: Well, it's not not cool [laughs]. It's fun.

Chris Hemsworth, what did your new wife think of your physical transformation? Hemsworth: Some girls love more muscles, some girls less. She likes it if I'm sort of generally healthy. Physically for women, it's usually less of a concern than it is for men. We tend to be a bit more superficial.

What's your superhero workout tip for America? Evans: If you want to die, you're doing it right. I've always worked out my whole life. But I go to the gym and I'd leave feeling good. That's not a workout. You want to leave the gym contemplating killing yourself. If that's what you're thinking, then you're having a good workout.

Source: USA Weekend

Chris Evans on being the star-spangled superhero of ‘Captain America’

by Brian Truitt for USA Weekend

Our comic book superheroes are an all-American bunch, but a majority of them are played by actors not from around these parts. Green Lantern star Ryan Reynolds is from Canada, Christian Bale (aka Batman) and Henry Cavill (the new Superman) hail from Great Britain, and Aussies Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth play Wolverine and Thor on the big screen, respectively. Fittingly, the one guy who is American is the man wearing the red, white and blue togs of Captain America. In Captain America: The First Avenger (directed by Joe Johnston and coming out in theaters July 22), Chris Evans — a native of one of the original 13 colonies, Massachusetts — stars as Steve Rogers, a scrawny weakling who’s rejected by the U.S. military in the 1940s but then signs up to be a test subject for a top-secret super-soldier serum. Now supersized, Rogers becomes an American hero during World War II, taking on Hydra and their evil Nazi leader, the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). I ventured up to New York City for an exclusive cover shoot with Evans and Thor star Hemsworth, his on-screen pal in the upcoming superhero team-up The Avengers (co-starring the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson), for this weekend’s summer movie preview. I’ll have more from my interview with Hemsworth tomorrow and Monday, but read below for what Evans had to say about being Captain America and check him out in action in this trailer.

One of the striking things in the movie is you coming out of the military pod and looking crazy buff post-serum. How much training did you endure to get into that condition? Ugh, so much training. It was tough. I’ve always been in the gym and worked out and things like that, and I’ve had to get big for other films, but nothing like this. They flew a trainer over from London – I was in Boston working on a film, and we did three months prior to shooting. We were working out every day for just about two hours, sometimes twice a day, and it was just grueling. I’ve never trained like that in my life. I’m just getting back into it now and gearing back up and trying to get big again.

So, lots of eating? Lots of eating. That’s the hardest part. You’d think that would be the fun part, but sometimes you’re full. You just don’t want to eat. I have to. I’m a naturally skinny guy, so to try and get mass like that, it’s not easy. I have to make sure I’m taking in a lot of protein.

In the Marvel comics, Cap is a guy who went from the 1940s to modern times when he’s found encased in ice by the Avengers. Assuming part of that will be in The Avengers movie, your Cap will have to live in a world that’s very different from what he’s used to. Yeah, at least there’s some meat on the bone. You want to play a character that has conflict – that’s what makes a character appealing to an actor, getting to find an arc and a reason, something to chew on. And that’s a lot. If you woke up one day and it was 50, 60 years in the future and everyone you knew had passed away and the entire world around you is different — you don’t have a friend, you don’t know anybody, you don’t know anything — that’d be a lot to take in. It’s exciting as an actor to try and tackle that.

What’s this I hear about a “Captain America song”? There is a Captain America song, but I don’t sing it. Initially in the film, when he becomes Captain America, long story short the serum is destroyed and they can’t reproduce the experiment so I’m the only super soldier there is. The U.S. government won’t allow me to go to war because it’s too risky and they can’t afford to lose me, but they use me as a propaganda tool and they send me on a USO Tour. So there’s a whole Captain America song, and they try to make him a little bit of a celebrity to try and sell bonds. There is a Captain America song, and there was a week of shooting, and I had that song in my head. I couldn’t stop humming it! It was so annoying. But it’s a funny sequence actually.

They Benjamin Buttoned you a little bit and digitally made you a 98-pound weakling at the beginning of the movie. What was it like seeing that part after you’ve just gone and worked out hard for three months? Well, it wasn’t that foreign to me because that’s what I looked like for a big chunk of my life. [Laughs] When I saw it, I was like, “My family is gonna die.” This is what I looked like for all of all middle school. Up until maybe sophomore year, I was a pretty skinny kid for a long time. It looks pretty normal. It was a crazy process doing that stuff. They went back and forth on the type of technology they were going to use. Initially, they were just going to do body shrinking, and then they thought, “Well, maybe we can get another skinny actor and put Chris’ head on it,” and I really, really was against that. I said to Joe, “Look, I know we want this to look good and this effect to not be distracting from the film, but it has to be my performance. I don’t want to share this. Your body is a huge piece of the acting puzzle, and I don’t want to have somebody else’s body tell the story that I’m trying to tell.” So they did some tweaking and they did a bunch of tests and we went back to the initial plan to shrink my body. Anytime my body’s completely still, if I’m lying on that bed or if I’m sitting in a chair not moving, it was easier for them to put my head on a smaller body. But anytime there was movement or action or acting involved, Joe and I were pretty adamant about saying, “Look, you’ve got to shrink me down.” And they did. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’ve seen a couple different scenes of the shrunken stuff and it looks amazing.

And we’ve seen how the Red Skull looks now, too. Oh, that looks so badass. You’d be talking to Hugo on set and he’d be wearing that thing, and you kinda want to just touch it. It looked so good! It didn’t look fake — it looked like there is a man with a red skull standing next to me who is evil.

Did having two Fantastic Four movies under your belt help in knowing at least the fervent, comics-loving fanboys you’d have to deal with? Sure. It’s great to get an experience of the press tour and the craziness and the workload after filming. Filming is one thing, but all movies are relatively similar. The work comes in the form of press. You go all over the world and you don’t sleep and it’s just answering a lot of the same questions thousands of times and trying to promote this thing you’ve worked on so hard. But the good thing about Fantastic Four is everyone wanted to talk to Jessica [Alba]. No one wanted to talk to me! [Laugh] It was great! I got to sit in the background and be there, but not have to really carry the load. This is obviously different. It’s nice to have had a little taste but yeah, it’s gonna be nothing close to this.

Do you enjoy that extra responsibility? No! My God, I hate it! [Laughs] I almost didn’t do this movie because I hate that so much. It’s just not for me. I don’t know, it’s a strange thing to talk about yourself. You have to look at it as a job, you have to look at it as work. If all of a sudden you stop – at least if I stop — in the middle of an interview and look at myself, I become very uncomfortable, very nervous. It just feels strange. I feel false, it doesn’t feel right. This movie is a lot of that – it’s gonna be a lot of press. I have a little bit of an anxiety issue. I wasn’t making whatever movie I wanted to make – you still have to struggle — but I was very happy, very content, with what I was doing. I’d make a movie every now and then and I’ve made a good living and I got to do what I loved and I managed to stay out of the public eye, and I was very happy. This was one of those things where it was like, “Alright, if you do this, there’s really no off switch. There’s no rewind. You’ve got to make sure you’re ready and that you really, really want this.” A lot of times, people only see the good part and they forget how tricky it can be. For some reason, I only saw the bad. [Laughs] When I first got offered the movie, I just only saw the negatives and ran from it.

What changed your mind? The fact that I was scared. I said to someone close to me, “I was offered this movie and I think I’m going to say no.” And she said, “No, you’re not. You’re going to do this movie.” I said, “Why?” And she said, “Because you can’t live your life based on fear.” That’s a really good point: I think I’d end up having more regret if I didn’t do it because I was scared than if I did it, and whatever comes, comes. At least I wasn’t a coward.

So what happened in sophomore year that beefed you up? Did you get into sports? I did play sports, yeah. I think I just started caring a lot about girls and saying, “Alright, maybe I should try and work out, I guess.” I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. And I had a lot of buddies who played sports and everyone was always in the gym. So around 14, 15, I started working out a little bit. There was a summer when I was going into my senior year of high school, I lived in New York City and I interned at a casting office – that’s how I kind of jammed my foot in the door. But that summer, I had no friends, I was 17, I couldn’t go to a bar, I lived in a s***hole in Brooklyn, so I’d go to work and then I’d come home and sit in my room all night. I just did the prison workout — pushups, pull-ups, little dips on my chair — for the whole summer. At the end of that summer, I think that was when my body changed a little bit.

Between The Avengers and the Captain America sequel in the works, have you figured out what else you’ll be doing not involving a costume or a shield? I have a movie [Puncture] that’s coming and will go to the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a little indie. It’s nice to get independent films in there. It’s a completely different feel. Sometimes in movies like [Captain America], there’s a lot of money involved, and as a result, everyone is paid a lot of money to make everything look perfect. You’ve seen these movies – it’s art, it’s gorgeous. But as a result, it’s very tedious. Some days, you really sit around, and you go home and you’re like, “Man, I spent maybe 60 percent of my day sitting on my ass.” A little indie movie, you go go go. You’ll burn through seven or eight pages in a day. On a film like Captain America, you might get a page. With the indies, you come home and you really feel like, “I made a movie today. I went to work and I worked and I was an actor for a living and I was told I had to be ready all day. There was no rest. I had to be there.” You really feel like you got your hands dirty. Sometimes this just feels a little slow, so it’s nice to get back to some indies.

With Cap, you are in the spotlight and the star. In The Avengers, there are at least seven A-listers involved. Do you feel a little more comfortable with that situation? Oh, I can’t wait. [Laughs] I’m hoping they only want to talk to Robert and Scarlett. Please! That’s all I was thinking about with The Avengers: Just get through Captain America and then I can disappear into the background come press time. The movie’s one thing – obviously you want to act and it’s fun to make a film and play a role, but come press and interviews, I have no problem being way in the back seat and trying to let everyone else take the heat.

Source: USA Weekend

Second preview of Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth for USA weekend

Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth on the cover of USA Weekend

Captain America’ star Chris Evans on submarine sequences and his uncomfy costume

The first full Captain America trailer arrived some weeks ago and it featured Chris Evans’ Cap getting super-sized with super-soldier serum, slinging shields, beating up Nazis and Hydra agents, facing off with the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), being shot at, and jumping in the water to stop an escaping enemy (played by Richard Armitage) in a submarine. That last part was one of the zaniest sequences Evans had to do, the actor told me last month when he was in New York for our upcoming summer movie photo shoot with fellow superhero actor, Chris Hemsworth of Thor.

“It’s a pretty cool-looking thing actually,” Evans says of the scene. “He takes off and my character runs and dives in and swims after him and grabs the submarine and punches it. It’s this whole underwater thing, and as I was reading it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never done a scene underwater. This is crazy!’ And it was. It was like five days in this giant tank underwater. They yell ‘Cut!,’ you swim over to a guy with a respirator and a tank, and you breathe. Then you take it out and he yells again. It was just a crazy thing but it was fun.”

We’ll have more from Evans closer to the April 15-17 issue featuring the pair of Marvel Comics heroes, but read below for what the former Fantastic Four star thought of the 1940s aesthetic of Captain America (in theaters July 22) and his superheroic threads.

Captain America director Joe Johnston is no stranger to action-packed period pieces — he helmed The Rocketeer, of which Evans is a big fan, as well as October Sky and Jumanji, which had old-school scenes in the beginning. “That’s one of the appeals to me,” Evans says of the ‘40s-era sets, music, garb and environment. “I think that’s going to be a good selling point for the film. Joe is so good at creatig that world. You’d walk on set and you’re like, ‘Man, I can’t believe where I am right now. This is wild.’ ”

Evans wasn’t as psyched about Cap’s costume, which to an untrained eye looks leathery and uncomfortable. “It didn’t breathe, no,” Evans deadpans. “I don’t know if they washed it. It was this type of canvas – there were leather straps. It was a lot of layers and pieces and very cumbersome. Every morning you’d put it on and you’d have a little conniption fit in your trailer where you were just like, ‘Arrrgh!’ and then you’d just surrender and say, ‘OK, let’s go make a [freakin’] movie.’ ”

Of course, he did not actually say “freakin’ ” — instead he used a four-letter word not suitable for a family blog, or a superhero for that matter. Evans paused after saying it and laughed. “I shouldn’t be swearing. Captain America shouldn’t swear. But I get caught with these interviews and I start dropping f-bombs! This is why I can’t do interviews!”

Source: USA weekend

New behind the scenes Captain America pic

A behind the scenes photo of Captain America. I'm not convinced it's Chris Evans in the pic though, but his skinny body double. What do you think?

Chris Evans & Producer On Steve Rogers' Morals in Captain America: The First Avenger!

Chatting with USA Today from the set in England, while filming for Marvel & Joe Johnston's much-anticipated Captain America: The First Avenger movie was underway, the star Chris Evans and Producer Stephen Broussard subtly elaborates on what makes Steve Rogers paramount and more.

"Steve has been dealt kind of a lousy hand in life," Evans says. "He's 5-foot-nothing. He's 110 pounds. He's got a lot of ailments, but it hasn't made him bitter or jaded or anything. Even after he's given this great gift, he still continues to do the right thing, not to prove anything to anyone other than himself. He just has this great moral code."

"The first cover issue of Cap punching Hitler was definitely a political statement," says producer Stephen Broussard. "Like today, the country was divided and there were people who thought we should go over there and do the right thing, and there were others who said it was Europe's war and to stay out of it."

"Captain America was invented essentially for American propaganda. I mean, who was going to be like, 'Nah, the Nazis, they were OK. They had a few (good ideas)!'" Evans jokes. "It's safe to say we can all agree it's pure evil, right there. So it's fantastic to create a character of pure good, pure honesty and true morality, and say this is ultimate bad against ultimate good."

Captain America Trailer screencaps

Captain America: The First Avenger Trailer

And here it is! The trailer we've all been waiting for and it's great!!

ET Captain America sneak peek

New photo of Chris Evans as Captain America & ET teaser

New pic of Chris Evans as Captain America

...and what's next, the long awaited trailer?

Phone interview with Chris Evans part 2

Source: www.comicbookmovie.com

Chris Evans talks about his Captain America suit

Chris Evans has compared donning his Captain America costume to “putting on ski-boots”.

The 29-year-old American actor stars as Steve Rogers/Captain America in science-fiction adventure Captain America: The First Avenger, which is due for release later this year.

The hunk dons a rather fetching stars-and-stripes jumpsuit for the movie, and admits he has become attached to the attire.

“When you put it on first thing in the morning you think, ‘Man, this thing is stiff,’
“Then you spend four hours sweating in it, it starts to loosen up and by the end of the day you kind of forget it’s even on.

“It’s like putting on a pair of ski boots: you’re like, how am I going to work in these things?
“An hour later you’re skiing and you’re not even thinking about your feet,” he told Total Film.

Phone Interview with Chris Evans

Source: www.comicbookmovie.com

Captain America Movie Trailer Coming This Week

The first trailer for Marvel and Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger was expected to bow sometime last week right behind the second Thor trailer. That obviously didn't happen, and now word is the trailer will likely hit this week attached to Drive Angry 3D starring Nicholas Cage.

We got our first glimpse of Captain America in motion during the Super Bowl via a :30 second spot. That half-a-minute worth of footage was quite revealing in showing Chris Evans as Steve Rogers prior to the Super Soldier Serum injection, Tommy Lee Jones in character, Bucky and the Howling Commandos, Hugo Weaving in full Red Skull make-up, Hydra soldiers and the submarine, and an ample dose of action.

This first trailer will run 2:24 in length so we're promised at least two solid minutes of new footage. I'd expect the trailer to follow the film's negative and perhaps give us an idea of what Red Skull is up to, perhaps even a glimpse at the bookend present-day scenes that should include Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Those scenes are designed to tie into The Avengers film.

Source: www.thehdroom.com

Chris Evans talks to Total Film about taking on Captain America

Chris Evans has spoken exclusively to Total Film about the demands of taking on the Captain America role.

Evans was cast as the iconic comic hero for Marvel's The First Avenger, and he'll also be appearing in superhero team-up The Avengers.

"It's a big commitment," he tells us. "At one point it was nine pictures. We've got it down to six but still, that's making a decision for a big portion of your life."

"I love acting but there are other things I want to do. I want to write and direct. If the movies do well and they want to exercise all six films, I could be doing this until I'm 40."

"That's a crazy thing to try and process."

Evans is also fully aware of the demands of transporting such a well-loved property to the big screen: "It's important, you know at the end of the day we are doing this for the fans. And if they're not happy, we've missed the mark."

"You go in and do as much research as you can from the comic books, but you're also trying to make something your own. This is an origin story."
"I think a lot of the comic books deal with after he's become Captain America, so to some degree we had to take some liberties. But you want to make sure you've done your homework."

The actor is also keen for the character to remain human, and not disappear beneath the iconic status: "You want the character to be the icon, but if you reduce him to a red, white and blue outfit it makes him shallow."
"It wasn't until we got our hands dirty with the script and had a good couple of scenes in the can, that I thought, 'Man, I think I'm actually getting this guy.' I feel like the character now, much more than a shield or a mask."

Despite Evans initial reluctance towards the role, he assured us that this has been an experience he has very much enjoyed: "I wouldn't trade this movie at this point for anything. I'm very happy with the decision."

Captain America: The First Avenger is due to hit cinemas on 29 July 2011.
For more from Chris Evans, get the new issue of Total Film Magazine, which hits newsstands today!

Source: www.totalfilm.com

Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth are toy boys

Chris and Chris were at the Hasbro Toy Fair in New York City yesterday to take a look at the new Thor and Captain America toys.

Captain America: Super Soldier Stars Chris Evans

Video games based on movies get a bad rap, but a movie-based game without its movie star is even more prone to mudslinging and eye rolling. Luckily, Captain America: Super Soldier -- the multiplatform title tied to this summer's Cap movie -- won't fall into that voiceover trap.

Today, SEGA announced Chris Evans, the star of the film, will lend his likeness and voice to the game.

Source: www.ign.com

Captain America site change + wallpaper

Go to http://captainamerica.marvel.com/ to check it out! And see the wallpaper below.

Click wallpaper to enlarge!