How Chris Evans and Ana de Armas deliver a new Han Solo and Princess Leia dynamic in Ghosted
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Courtesy of Apple
Chris Evans and Ana de Armas are tired of trying to kill each other.
Their two previous films — 2019's Knives Out and 2022's The Gray Man — pitted their characters against each other as mortal enemies; one was always trying to murder the other. So when Evans was approached with the idea for Apple TV+'s big-budget action rom-com Ghosted, he instantly thought of de Armas to play his onscreen love interest. "I love hanging out with Ana, but with this film, we actually got to be charming together and sweet," says Evans, speaking to EW from a New York hotel room with his costar by his side. "We're not adversarial. It's actually fun repartee, and that was something we hadn't had a chance to do yet."
"We don't hate each other," de Armas adds with a laugh. "It is refreshing."
That's not to say that Evans and de Armas' characters aren't in peril — but at least they're finally on the same side of the fight. Ghosted (streaming now) begins with the ultimate meet-cute as salt-of-the-earth Cole (Evans) and enigmatic Sadie (de Armas) cross paths at their local farmer's market, trading fiery banter over whether green-thumb-challenged Sadie should take on the responsibility of buying a house plant. Their undeniable chemistry kicks off a whirlwind 24-hour date. Cole believes he's finally found the one. But a dozen unanswered texts later, Cole realizes Sadie has totally ghosted him. His family convinces him that a grand romantic gesture is sure to win her back, so he flies to London to surprise Sadie on what he thinks is her work trip. But when he's kidnapped and tortured by some very bad men upon arrival, he's shocked to discover Sadie isn't an international art curator like she told him — she's a veteran CIA spy, and he just ruined her mission. Forced to work together to survive, the two embark on a global adventure to save the world... and maybe their relationship too.
That reveal may seem like a spoiler, but it's nothing you don't see in the trailer — much to the chagrin of the film's stars. "It's a shame," Evans says. "If you know absolutely nothing, the first act is a really nice romance, and then all of a sudden it does this complete 180 and that surprise is what's really satisfying. Unfortunately, we did have to blow that reveal in terms of promoting the film."
Thankfully, Ghosted is more than just that plot twist — it's the kind of feel-good movie that Evans loves watching but hasn't gotten to star in for a very long time. "It felt like a movie that I grew up on, something from the '90s where it was just a fun concept, and a little bit of a role reversal in terms of gender norms and things like that," he says. "It felt very re-watchable, movies that I just don't see enough of right now." It also offered the Marvel star the chance to get back into rom-coms after starring in a long string of heavy dramas and genre action films. "These are the movies that I really like — these are the movies that I'll watch on a good hangover day. I've watched Romancing the Stone a billion times, and if a movie's done well like this, it's like comfort food."
Courtesy of Apple Chris Evans in 'Ghosted'
The biggest draw for him, however, was not playing the hero for once. "He's incapable," Evans says, laughing as he describes his role. "I wasn't the one throwing the punches. I was the one getting punched, which was really nice!"
Director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle) knew he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase one of the world's biggest action stars as the "damsel in distress."
"He's a hero of romance, but he's not the hero of action. She's the hero of action," Fletcher says. "I really liked the idea of some very high achiever having to suddenly deal with someone who just was following her around like a puppy. And the fact that that puppy was Chris Evans was even funnier."
"I didn't have to work anywhere near as hard as Ana did while on set," Evans adds. "And it's fun as an actor to play someone that is human, that reacts to things the way most of us would — which is panic."
De Armas trained harder than ever for her fight scenes — even more so than when her other Knives Out costar Daniel Craig recruited her to play novice spy Paloma in the James Bond film No Time to Die. "My experience in Bond was very short…" the actress begins before Evans cuts her off to say, "Come on, you stole the show!"
Courtesy of Apple Ana de Armas in 'Ghosted'
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she continues. "I don't mean only in the movie screen time, but also preparing for it. I didn't have time to prepare for the stunts and all the action, compared to this one [where] I was training for months. I had to carry, for the most part, all the big stunts, which was very exciting. There is this sense of, 'Only men can carry an action-packed movie,' and this is clearly an example of that not being the case. It was a big responsibility. And even though this is a comedy, I wanted it to look legit. I was not going to settle for a so-so take. I would go back to the monitor and be a perfectionist and do it again and again and again to improve. That was very exhausting but very rewarding work."
The first big action scene they filmed comes early in the movie, when Cole learns the truth about Sadie's profession as she saves him from being tortured. "That was the first time I was like, 'Oh my God, Ana,'" Evans remembers. "She did this sequence where she beats up three guys and flips some guy over her head, and I just was like, 'Whoa, alright. She's been doing her training.'"
But no amount of training prepared her for the hardest part of being an action star. "You know what's difficult for me? To hold up a gun," she admits. "I cannot do it."
"It is hard," Evans agrees with a laugh. "It's incredibly heavy!"
"Forget it, I cannot do it with one hand," she adds as she mimes her arms slowly drooping down. "It's horrible. That was my struggle, to be honest. It was either up or down, but never straight. It was no good."
The man on the other end of that gun? Meet vicious black market arms dealer Leveque, played by Oscar winner Adrien Brody. Locked in a brutal cat-and-mouse chase with Sadie as he tries to gain access to a top secret weapon of mass destruction, he mistakenly believes Cole is the agent who has what he needs. "I mean, talk about someone who's got incredible range — he's intense and capable, but also funny and tender," Fletcher says of why he wanted Brody for the part. "I just wanted a good excuse to work with him, so I said, 'Offer him the villain's role. Let's see if he wants to do it.'"
Brody is well aware that playing a villain in an action rom-com is not what anyone would expect from him — and that's exactly why he took the role (not to mention the opportunity to work with his Blonde costar de Armas again). "I just got such a kick out of it," says the actor, as he calls EW from the set of his upcoming film The Brutalist. "It was a breath of fresh air. I do revel in playing a bad guy. There's something really liberating in playing the nemesis — it's freeing. I often look for roles that give me a chance to speak about something much bigger than myself and something much more relevant socially or something that we have to acknowledge... but it's also fun to string up the hero and bruise him."
He's referring to a specific scene that Evans also calls out, in which a bound and gagged Cole is dragged out of a car trunk. "That was fun, although I will say at the end of that day, for whatever reason, the way that I was getting dragged out of that truck, something was happening on the back of my leg getting scraped," Evans remembers. "I got a bruise that was this big — !"
De Armas cuts him off with her laughter: "This guy complains about the one day he got a bruise." Now Evans is fighting back laughs as he adds, "It was crazy! It was horrible! It really hurt. I mean, that's Adrien. He always takes big swings."
Courtesy of Apple Chris Evans and Adrien Brody in 'Ghosted'
"I just had some real specific thoughts on the character," Brody explains. "My first thought was to play it very straight and sinister, and then I was watching The Pink Panther and I changed my point of view. [He's] both funny and scary — and I would probably say more scary."
While striking that balance was a challenge Brody relished, he says it was made easier thanks to the "playful" tone Fletcher created on the set, where the director "encouraged a lot of improvisation."
That "playful" tone extended to Evans and de Armas' scenes — even when their characters weren't getting along. "From lovers to enemies to lovers, that's the real fun journey," Evans says. "It's very Han Solo-Princess Leia. While they're arguing, they're flirting. I love that part, the rhythm of it; the dance is what makes it so charming." Adds de Armas: "They don't have the time to actually get to know each other slowly. Everything is really rushed in a very extreme situation. Of course they're going to fight."
"If this were a normal circumstance, [Cole would] have the space to have a discussion about why he feels betrayed, but they're dodging bullets," Evans echoes. "Underneath it all, you have a guy that really likes this girl, and when the bullets stop flying, you have a chance to see that magnetic pull again."
Speaking of magnetic pulls, the stars say none of the precarious situations Cole and Sadie face compare to the spinning restaurant fight in the film's climax, as the centrifugal force flings the characters against the windows like they're on a Gravitron amusement park ride — a scene that took weeks to film and required the stunt team to spend a weekend spinning on an actual Gravitron. "They all got on it just to get a sense of what the actual physicality would be: Can you stand? Can you move? Can you punch and kick? Turns out, you can't," says Evans. "It's a beautiful concept, great idea; very tough when it comes to filmmaking."
But gravitational pull wasn't the only difficulty de Armas faced filming that sequence. "I sneeze and I bruise, so by the end, truly, the damage was serious. A few injuries, bruises everywhere. So when we had to do the restaurant scene and I was in that dress… I'm pretty sure some of the money for CGI went to covering my bruises," de Armas says. "But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It's part of the job, and everyone feels bad for you and they do bring you cupcakes." Evans pretends to get offended as he adds, "No one felt bad for my bruise! But I'll keep complaining about it."
Courtesy of Apple Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in 'Ghosted'
While they aren't truly complaining, they might be done with taking punches for a while. "More rom-coms, yes. More action, I don't know," de Armas says. Though Evans is quick to point out, "She went right onto another action movie [Ballerina] right after this. An even more demanding action movie. I can't believe that."
"No more action for me!" de Armas exclaims as they both laugh. "I was just saying yesterday, I just want to play like a librarian or chef."
"Someone in an office," Evans suggests.
He also has an idea for what their fourth movie together should be: "Musical. I'm going to drag her into one."
"He's singing," de Armas immediately says, to which he replies, "She's dancing."
Is this a bad time to let them know dancers get bruises too?
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