Chris Evans suffered panic attacks that almost caused him to quit acting. Captain America himself revealed the long-kept secret on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
It means that the man who went on to help anchor the Marvel Universe — with Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man — nearly walked away from acting before he even had the iconic role.
Chris Evans speaks about his panic attacks
While chatting with Scott Feinberg on his podcast, Evans really opened up about his mental health struggles. It is a side to the 38-year-old actor that not a lot of people have seen or heard.
It seems that his stressors included his films being given bad reviews and also performing badly at the box office.
Evans definitely had a number of films that didn’t do very well. Films that performed poorly included The Losers and Push, while it was his Fantastic Four films that landed some pretty bad reviews.
In regard to those reviews and box office numbers, Evans stated, “There was a period of time where you start thinking, ‘Man, I can’t make a good movie. I don’t know what it is. I wonder how many chances I’m gonna get at this.'”
He noted that his panic attacks started while he was filming Puncture in 2010. That’s when he really started to question whether or not he wanted to be in the movies.
“It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set,” Evans said. “I really started to think, ‘I’m not sure if this (acting) is the right thing for me, I’m not sure if I’m feeling as healthy as I should be feeling’.”
Thanks for having me on your podcast! I really enjoyed it!! https://t.co/D3pSg3kbfJ
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 25, 2020
Chris Evans goes on to become Captain America
Luckily for most of the world, Chris Evans stuck with acting and landed the role of Captain America in the Avengers franchise after he completed work on Puncture.
Since starring in Captain America: The First Avenger, Evans has found success at the box office and also with the critics. And that includes success with more than just the Marvel films.
Recently, Evans appeared as part of the ensemble cast for Knives Out and he really showed what he could do without the shield. After a run of films that made billions, he did really well with a story that was driven by good acting.
As for the role of Captain America, that likely came to an end for good with Avengers: Endgame.