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This actor from Massachusetts has scored lead roles before, but his latest silver screen performance will send his cell phone into overdrive
When an actor stars in a film with a crossover artist, like a rock star, he might land free concert tickets or CDs. But when an actor plays opposite a NBA star like Darius Miles, he might get to do something-like challenge the 6'9" forward to a game of H-O-R-S-E.
"I actually beat him a couple of times," laughs Chris Evans, who starred opposite Portland's #23 in the film The Perfect Score. "We asked Darius to play some one-on-one, but he just laughed at us. He finally played us casually one day, and even playing casually, he just smoked us."
Evans, who personally played lacrosse growing up in Boston, can live without a good crossover dribble where his career's taking him. Making a name for himself in the 2001 spoof Not Another Teen Movie, Evans quickly landed more roles in films like The Paper Boy, The Perfect Score, and the forthcoming independent The Orphan King. Still, his biggest breakthrough appears to be right around the corner with Cellular.
Helmed by stunt expert-turned-director David Ellis, Cellular features Evans as a young man called on his cell phone from a lady claiming to be kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car. The victim, played by Kim Basinger, desperately needs the help of the confused and skeptical Evans.
Regarding his character, Evans notes, "I could have played a character who, once he believed it, kept a level head, but instead I made him a kid who panics, wears his emotions on his sleeve, and doesn't know what the fuck he's going to do next. It makes the audience wonder what they'd do if put in that same situation. I'd like to believe I'd keep my cool, but in making a movie, that's not terribly interesting. There are a million ways to make something realistic, but as an actor, you want to make the most interesting choice. It's much more fun to call the kid that goes to pieces."
A mere month after graduating high school, the young actor landed a lead in the short-lived Fox sitcom The Opposite Sex, which meant Evans started acting professionally without the luxury of long term study at a prestigious dramatic academy. Surprisingly though, his perspective on the discipline could earn him almost any acting teacher's applause.
Evans remarks, "Acting involves the ability to portray something realistically, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The real challenge is reading a script and making interesting choices that create a character that isn't on the page. Many times the words in a script can trick you."
To explain his point, Evans recalls a simple drill he did. Purchasing scripts of classic films like Scarface and Raging Bull, the actor read the dialogue and thought out how he'd play the characters. He then watched the films to see how the actors interpreted those same words.
"I swear to God, if you do this once or twice, you will be floored by people like Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro and the choices they make," gushes Evans. "It's like, now I see. These actors dissected the script and made a character that isn't on the page. You think the words are a guideline to the character you're trying to play, but that's not always the case. Now I try to take a script and knock out a whole character journey that has nothing to do with the words spoken."
Evans clearly shows innovation and drive in developing his abilities and ideas, and it's these same traits that first helped him get his foot in the Hollywood door. While still a high school junior, the budding actor wrote several letters to casting agencies in New York saying he'd fetch coffee, make faxes, and do whatever else they needed for free if he could intern over the summer. The television show Spin City accepted his offer, so Evans, barely old enough to drive a car legally, spent the summer in the city working at the show's Manhattan casting office.
"I would set up actors for auditions for little parts on the show, so I was talking to agents all day long," he recalls. "At the end of the summer, I went to the agents I got along with and said, 'I don't mean to impose, but I'm an actor. Can I come down and read for you?' Most of them let me come down, and one of them signed me."
Finishing high school early with an accelerated class load, Evans came back to New York and almost immediately started working on The Opposite Sex. The show only aired five episodes, but even cancellation couldn't dampen Evans' mood. He picked up Teen Movie soon after, and his career's been headed for a slam dunk ever since.
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