The boy next door grows up
Mar. 30th, 2019 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11Chris Evans did a new picture editorial recently. It really struck me, and not just for the expected reasons. It drove home how... grown up he's been looking lately. Even in a way the one for Italian Vogue didn't manage.
I think I know what he's doing. I bet it's similar to what Brad Pitt did in the mid-2000's, when he was trying to get people to see him as more than a pretty boy and consider him for different, more mature sorts of roles. Evans has not been in a ton of very good movies, and most of them have in some way played off of his beautiful boy-next-door image. He's leaving his Captain America role. I've heard he wants to transition to directing. You get so nailed into "types" and "niches" in Hollywood, I think he's trying to get people to see him as a more mature and serious artist, to give him a chance to start a new stage of his career.
It makes me wistful, in a weird way. It's a noticeable shift. I mean, he used to do stuff like this:
This is hardly a bad change. He still looks phenomenal, and like a Grown Man in a way he didn't always before. He's still built like a beast— look at his arms in the first image, the shape of his trunk in that second. But those are expensive, mature man's clothes, and it looks like that beard is here to stay, and I technically prefer him clean-shaven. I joked that he's probably not going to be taking his shirt off as much anymore, now that he's a Grown-Up Serious Artist. I'm going to miss him as Captain America, which has been important to me in large and small ways.
And he's nearing forty. He's too old to ever play Aidan, even if I ever do manage to get that made. Honestly, he was probably too old even when I first wrote it. But this makes it seem final in a way it never did before. And that makes me sad.
It's stupid. All things must change, and life goes ever on. But even dumb dreams are tough to let go of.
I think I know what he's doing. I bet it's similar to what Brad Pitt did in the mid-2000's, when he was trying to get people to see him as more than a pretty boy and consider him for different, more mature sorts of roles. Evans has not been in a ton of very good movies, and most of them have in some way played off of his beautiful boy-next-door image. He's leaving his Captain America role. I've heard he wants to transition to directing. You get so nailed into "types" and "niches" in Hollywood, I think he's trying to get people to see him as a more mature and serious artist, to give him a chance to start a new stage of his career.
It makes me wistful, in a weird way. It's a noticeable shift. I mean, he used to do stuff like this:
This is hardly a bad change. He still looks phenomenal, and like a Grown Man in a way he didn't always before. He's still built like a beast— look at his arms in the first image, the shape of his trunk in that second. But those are expensive, mature man's clothes, and it looks like that beard is here to stay, and I technically prefer him clean-shaven. I joked that he's probably not going to be taking his shirt off as much anymore, now that he's a Grown-Up Serious Artist. I'm going to miss him as Captain America, which has been important to me in large and small ways.
And he's nearing forty. He's too old to ever play Aidan, even if I ever do manage to get that made. Honestly, he was probably too old even when I first wrote it. But this makes it seem final in a way it never did before. And that makes me sad.
It's stupid. All things must change, and life goes ever on. But even dumb dreams are tough to let go of.
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