Chris Evans surprisingly agrees with one of Quentin Tarantino's major criticisms of Marvel movies.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a cinema juggernaut over the last 15 years or so, starting with Iron Man in 2008. The characters of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Hulk and Hawkeye would come together for The Avengers, and from there the roster of stars joining the MCU grew and grew.
Tarantino, a noted cinephile, recently said that no movies in the MCU featured movie stars as it was the characters like Iron Man and Captain America who were the real stars.
Evans agrees that Captain America, not himself, was the star.
“That was the beauty of working on Marvel films. You never really had to be front and centre,” Evans said in an interview with GQ.
READ MORE: Chris Evans would 'NEVER SAY NEVER' to a Captain America return for Marvel
“Even in your own films sometimes. Quentin Tarantino said it recently and I was like, you know, he’s right. The character is the star. You’re there, but you don’t feel the burden of it.”
Marvel producer Kevin Feige disagreed with that assessment, saying:
“I think it’s something was telling himself, and I think it’s something many of the Avengers, including Robert, would tell themselves, which actually was very helpful to the process. But in certain cases, including Chris’, it’s not entirely true.”
Evans played Steve Rogers / Captain America in no less than 11 MCU movies before passing the Cap shield to Anthony Mackie.
Robert Downey Jr. reacts to Quentin Tarantino
Speaking to Deadline, Robert Downey Jr. previously said he believes that there is plenty of room for blockbusters as well as smaller, character-centric movies when asked about Tarantino's comments.
"I think our opinions on these matters say a lot about us," he explained.
"I think that we are in a time and place that I unwittingly contributed to, where IP has taken precedence over principle and personality. But it’s a double-edged sword. A piece of IP is only as good as the human talent you get to represent it, and you can have some great IP even if it’s coming from an auteur or a national treasure of a writer-director, and if you don’t have the right kind of artist playing that role, you’ll never know how good it could have been.
"I think that creatively it is a waste of time to be at war with ourselves. I think this is a time when everything is so much more fragmented now that I think you have this kind of bifurcation. Throwing stones one way or another … and I’ve had my reactions in the past when people said things that I felt were discrediting my integrity … I go, 'You know what? Let’s just get over it. We’re all a community. There’s enough room for everything.'
"And, thank God for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. That’s all I have to say. We need the big stuff to make room for films like Armageddon Time."
Tarantino is one of a number of noted directors who have been outspoken in their criticism of superhero movies, with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola being detractors too.
Downey Jr. recently received rave reviews for his supporting performance in Oppenheimer.
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