Jeremy Strong Almost Played Chris Evans’ Pre-Superhero Body Double in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’
The now-Emmy winner "needed money" at the time and almost starred alongside his high school classmate Evans in the 2011 Marvel movie.
Jeremy Strong almost wore Chris Evans’ face…literally.
The mind-bending would-be casting hinged on Strong almost playing Evans’ body double for his pre-superhero physique in the 2011 Marvel film “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Strong, who went to high school in Massachusetts with Evans, revealed to The Sunday Times that when he was “broke” and “needed the money,” he auditioned to play the younger version of Captain America, sans muscles.
“OK, fuck it, I will tell you this story,” the “Succession” star said, noting that after he lost out on a role for “Cowboys & Aliens,” he was offered a part in “a top-secret film about Captain America.”
“They needed someone to play Captain America’s young body, before he turns into a superhero,” Strong said. “They said they needed a transformational actor and would use CGI to put the actual actor’s face and voice over my own.”
While he “considered it,” Strong ultimately turned it down.
“But that’s my story of L.A. It was just never going to happen for me here,” Strong continued. “It didn’t feel like what I had to offer was valued. And the next day I went back to New York and did a play about a veteran from Afghanistan in a wheelchair during the blackout of 2003.”
Evans reacted to Strong’s admission, telling the outlet, “Oh no! It just goes to show the industry is so unpredictable. But I’m so happy things worked out, because I don’t think there was ever plan B for Jeremy.” The Marvel actor previously called Strong a “little bit of a celebrity in my mind” even back in high school.
Strong went on to win an Emmy and a Golden Globe for portraying Kendall Roy in HBO’s “Succession.” The Method actor currently stars in James Gray’s semi-autobiographical period piece “Armageddon Time.”
Strong recently told IndieWire that both Gray’s film and “Succession” are “about the sort of blindness and complicity of white privilege.”
“Kendall is trying to do his best. I certainly have to believe that I’m trying to do my best,” Strong said, citing his “Succession” character. “But there are so many ways in which that falls short and is harmful to others, the blast radius of my behavior.”