Chris Evans on Losing Captain America Muscle for 'Gifted': 'My Body Doesn't Want to Be That Big'


Chris Evans follows up his role as the titular beefcake crime-fighter of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War by playing a boat mechanic caring for his super-genius niece (Mackenna Grace) in the much gentler, much less action-packed new drama Gifted. Granted, he’s a boat mechanic in much better shape than the majority of Americans, but the gig still required the Avenger to tone down from superhero shape.

“I’m lucky — or unlucky, however you want to look at it — that I can gain or lose weight relatively quickly,” Evans told Yahoo Movies at the Los Angeles press day for Gifted, where he was joined by his young costar. “I think it changes as I get older, but as of now I seem to be able to kind of shed and add pretty quick.

Last summer’s Civil War marked Evans’s fifth outing as super-soldier Steve Rogers (not counting cameos in Thor and Ant-Man movies), and he’s currently in production on No. 6 with Avengers: Infinity War. While the actor has said he naturally weighs in between 170 and 180 pounds, he typically adds another 20 to 30 to play Cap.

“My body doesn’t want to be that big,” Evans admitted. “I naturally walk around at a much lighter weight.” So when it comes to an everyman role like Gifted? “You just stop working out, maybe cut back on a few meals. And in a few weeks I’m back to being a skinny weenie.”

Gifted is now in select theaters and opens wide April 14.

Watch costars (and ex-couple) Chris Evans and Jenny Slate shower each other with praise:


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