Former Captain America Chris Evans 'excited' to have 'freedom' to pursue other roles

Chris Evans has admitted it's "very exciting" to have the "freedom" to pursue other roles after playing Captain America.

The 39-year-old actor has starred as Steve Rogers and his alter-ego Captain America in 11 Marvel movies, and whilst he misses playing the superhero, he's excited to whet his "creative appetite" with other characters.

He told Backstage: "I absolutely loved my time with Marvel; I already miss it, but there's no denying that it is very exciting to just have complete freedom to pursue whatever my creative appetite wants.

The 'Gifted' star also admitted that there was an "enormous expectation" placed on his shoulders to do the part justice.

He said: "There was this enormous expectation that these people already had in their minds, this idea of who this character was, and you have to respect that.

"Audiences are part of what will make [these films] work, and I owe that group my understanding of what they see."

Evans initially turned down the opportunity to test for the part because he had been suffering from "panic attacks" whilst working on 'Puncture' in 2010, so believed his anxiety would prevent him from performing well.

He said recently: "It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set. 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.'"

He rejected a testing opportunity several times before Marvel came back to him again, this time offering him the part outright with no need to screen test.

Evans then consulted with fellow Marvel star Robert Downey Jr. - who plays Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man - who urged him not to make a major decision based on fear.

He added: "It was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to [Marvel chief] Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake. To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition."

Since his last turn as Captain America in 2019's 'Avengers: Endgame', Evans has starred in Rian Johnson's whodunit 'Knives Out' and Apple TV+'s crime series 'Defending Jacob'.