At that point, a bit of a process ensued. Evans had been having these "little panic attacks" around the time the Cap offer came in. In the past, they'd mostly happened in the hectic weeks of media and promotion leading up to the release of a movie. Doing press has always made him self-conscious. "You feel very judged," he says, "and you're a little unsure about who you are."
As a kid, he'd spent hours drawing alone in his room, dreaming of being a Disney animator; as an adult, movie sets had become a similarly safe space for him. When he began to experience that familiar feeling of panic while shooting 2011's Puncture in Houston, he thought, "Man, if I were an animator I wouldn't be panicking." He wondered if the attacks were his subconscious warning him that he'd chosen the wrong line of work.
And that was when Marvel called. "Getting the [Captain America] offer felt to me like the epitome of temptation. The ultimate job offer, on the biggest scale. I'm supposed to say no to this thing. It felt like the right thing to do."
Evans passed on Marvel's first offer, a nine-film deal. The studio came back with a six-film contract, and Evans passed again. He accepted an invitation to visit Marvel Studios — back when the company, newly purchased by Disney, was still based out of Raleigh Studios' Manhattan Beach complex — but made it clear that he wasn't planning to change his mind.
"You see the pictures, and you see the costumes, and it's cool. But I'd now woken up the day after saying no and felt good, twice."
Marvel persisted. After consulting with close friends and a former teacher, and taking an encouraging call from Robert Downey Jr., Evans took the part — and ran straight to a therapist for the first time in his adult life. He loves therapy now, and goes whenever his schedule permits, even if nothing's particularly wrong. Downey Jr. says he's watched Evans evolve significantly in the course of their decade in the Marvel repertory.
