Chris Evans may now be forever associated with his iconic performance as Captain America, but itās easy for people to forget the guy is an honest-to-God actor. He proves it once again playing strung-out junkie attorney Mike Weiss in Adam and Mark Kassenās indie drama Puncture. Weiss is a brilliant lawyer with more than a couple of serious vices who gets involved in a case of a safety needle designed to save nursesā lives that was being suppressed by hospital purchasing organizations.
Itās based on a real case, and we sat down in New York with Evans to discuss playing a real-life (now-deceased) junkie, how that may or may not have interfered with his superhero duties, filming Marvelās The Avengers in our city, and the continuing legacy of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
ComingSoon.net: This is very much a story of ideological perseverance, almost Frank Capra on crack. Your uncle, whoās also named Mike [Mike Capuano], is a respected congressman. Did he inspire your role at all in terms of that drive to enact social change?
Evans: God, no. I look at that guy and I canāt even believe Iām related to him. He dedicates his life to helping people. I make movies. Weāre in very different worlds. He blows me away.
CS: Not necessarily you in real life, more your character Mike Weiss in this movie and his moral barometer.
Evans: I gotta be honest, I thinkā¦ itās tricky, you donāt want to speak ill of the dead, but from what I can gather in speaking to everyone who knew Mike they were all kind of like, āI love him but I want to f**kinā kill him.ā I donāt think he was this crusading guy. This happened to be one case where he was at a crossroad with his own demons and this was a shot at redemption. I donāt think he set his life out to help other people, on the contrary. I think he was one of those extremely brilliant men and that type of genius is synonymous with a certain selfishness and alienation and I think people like that leave a wake and people closest to them are left in the path. I think, for the most part, Mike was not the most thoughtful guy. I think he was kind of out for himself. This case came along and gave him the opportunity to feel better about the choices he made. I donāt think heās the kind of guy like my uncle, per se, whoās out there constantly doing whatās right because itās the right thing to do. I think this case just got under his skin at the right time in his life.
CS: So he was a Type-A personality.
Evans: Absolutely. A lot of the times with those Type-A personalities you end up with some sort of vice, his just happened to be drugs, and I think he was in a bit of a rut, a hole, and he found a way to do some good and that was a change for him.
CS: In the movie, Mikeās a very high-functioning drug and sex addict. You were in pretty terrific shape for the film, so was there any pressure from yourself or others to pull a Christian Bale or was that inconsequential?
Evans: To this day Iāve never seen a photo of Mike Weiss. From what I can gather he was a pretty thick human being. He wasnāt like some skinny junkie. You wouldnāt see him and say, āGod, this guyās obviously a heroine addict.ā He was a very plump individual.
CS: I saw a picture of him.
Evans: Oh, you did?
CS: He looked a little like me.
Evans: (laughs) Iād never seen a picture of him, but his brother tried to show me his walk, the way he moved. I was like, āWas Mike big?ā He was like, āYeah, he was.ā āLike, husky?ā He was like, āOh yeah.ā So I almost feel like its clichĆ© to lose a lot of weight to play a junkie. Paul Danziger, his partner for years had no idea this guy was a heroin addict, so I donāt think the outward look of a drug addict would have been the right approach to who he was, based on the people I met.
CS: I personally have never taken any drugs, butā¦
Evans: REALLY!?? Youāre missing out, dude! You never smoked weed?
CS: Nope.
Evans: Letās smoke some weed, bro!
CS: Maybe later, weāll hang out. But I know a lot of people who do and they outperform me by miles. There are just some people in this world who have brains to spare.
Evans: (laughs) Yeah, youāre right. Thatās it. I was talking with his college buddies, and they said the guy could do what would take people a week to do in four hours. The guy would never be in the office because he would come in and in a few hours get everything done for the whole week. There are book lawyers and there are courtroom lawyers. Some are good at research and doing paperwork and some are good at performing, and they said this guy was better at both than any lawyer theyād ever met. He could do it all, and then go shoot up. He was just on another level.
CS: What was your experience acting opposite your director, Mark Kassen?
Evans: It was great. Itās really nice having a director whoās an actor, because if youāre not feelinā itā¦ there were a couple of days when I came to the set and I took ābad actor pillsā or something, you come to the set and youāre just off. āI donāt know whatās wrong with me, I canāt get my sh*t together.ā When youāre having those days itās nice to say it to another actor. It was a team, it wasnāt me vs. them. We were all in the same boat.
CS: You also have an awesome scene with Michael Biehn, whoās a legend for āThe Terminatorā and āAliens.ā
Evans: Heās a nutball.
CS: He is?
Evans: Oh yeah. Heās wild, man. Heās one of those actorsā¦ have you ever interviewed him?
CS: Never talked to him, but I read a recent interview where he talked about how he once bitched out William Friedkin on a set, and Friedkin was like, āIām not gonna mess with this guy anymore.ā
Evans: Heās that type, one of those classic clichĆ© actors you hear about, throwing chairs through windows. Heās an artist, an eccentric wild one, but heās great. Heās so talented.
CS: Itās cool to see him onscreen again. Now you started filming āPunctureā before you were cast as Captain America, but watching you as Mike I kept imagining that thing in āEntourageā where Vince had done āAquamanā and then went to the studio and said he wanted to play Pablo Escobar. Were there any hints from Marvel Studios that maybe they didnāt want their hero riding the H-train in a movie?
Evans: The good thing about Marvel is theyāre such a great studio to work for. If youāre gonna be sucked into some giant franchise where youāre playing some iconic character, you wanna be doing it with Marvel. Marvelās great about understanding that weāre actors, we like variety and playing different characters. Iāve never heard a whisper from them one way or another about what Iāve done in my downtime.
CS: You guys just shot some of āAvengersā in our fair city. The fans came out, the pictures hit the internet. Clearly youāre a rock star now, the worldās your stadiumā¦ how does that level of success change the equation?
Evans: Itās been okay. I mean, itās crazy when youāre filming, during the days we were shooting it was a hassle getting to and from places, but when the camera stops rolling my life kinda goes back to being relatively normal. Get a few people approaching me at restaurants, take a few pictures here and there. Nobodyās waiting outside my apartment, no oneās calling my momās house.
CS: Itās interesting that you and Chris Hemsworth had the luxury of knowing you were gonna get another shot even if the solo films tanked.
Evans: Yeah, but the worry was what if āIron Manā did its job and then āThorā came out and did its job and all I kept thinking was, āMan, what if Iām the weak link in this chain? What if āCaptain Americaā bombs.ā Obviously Iām in āThe Avengersā now, they canāt boot me, but still, you donāt want to be the one thatās not carrying the load.
CS: In both āCaptain Americaā and āPuntureā youāve managed to nail that sense of earnestness without coming off as fake.
Evans: Thanks manā¦ foolinā āem all!
CS: Another movie that people really loved was āScott Pilgrim.ā
Evans: Yeah, me too, man! I canāt believe more people didnāt see it, what-the-f**k? It was such a good movie. The first time I saw it I was like, āthis is my favorite movie.ā I love every second of that movie, and was so bummed more people didnāt go see it.
CS: Now itās on permanent midnight rotation at the New Beverly in LA, once a month.
Evans: Oh really? I didnāt know that. No kidding.
CS: Would you like to do another really far-out, stylized performance like that?
Evans: Iād love to do anything else with Edgar Wright. If Edgar Wright asked me to do anything, ANYTHING Iāll do it. That was like one of the most fun, āLetās just go somewhere nuts.ā But if youāre gonna go somewhere nuts you need a director you trust, because if youāre going crazy youāre handing the performance over. Youāre like, āAlright, Iām gonna put some wild sh*t down here, and then youāre gonna cut and paste whatever performance you want in the editing room.ā Editing can change everything. If youāre gonna swing for the fences itās a much more comforting feeling knowing you have a good director.
CS: You can totally step over the line.
Evans: You can take risks. Iām just gonna keep slinging sh*t at the walls, and Iām gonna trust you to go back there and find something good in all the mess, but if you donāt have a good director it can backfire.
CS: Do you think you would be able to sustain almost a Johnny Depp-level heightened performance like that for a whole film?
Evans: Of insanity? Yeah, absolutely. Thatās part of the fun of acting. It was a lot of fun coming to set every day. āAlright, letās make an *sshole out of myself. Letās really be obnoxious. Letās go there.ā Itās therapeutic almost.
Puncture opens in limited release this Friday.