“Captain America” Put Chris Evans in Therapy

The notion of playing an enduring icon of gung-ho, all-American values can, it seems, mess with your head.

Actor Chris Evans admitted as such - claiming that before he could pick up "Captain America's" mighty shield, he had to hit the therapist's couch.

"I wouldn't have done it had I not agreed to do "Captain America" and gone into panic mode," Evans says in a new interview with the New York Times, regarding his decision to seek therapy. "The second I agreed to do it, I was like, 'All right, I'll do this, but I've got to start working on my head.'"

The 30 year-old admits that it was more than just living up to the beloved comic book hero (who has been a masthead figure for Marvel Comics since being created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941) that weighed on his mind. There were larger implications about his overall career goals.

"The question is: What's the endgame?" he says. "What's the goal? If the goal is to be a giant movie star, then yeah, this is a great way to achieve that. That's not necessarily what I'm trying to achieve."

Evans has previously compared the Captain America role to a classic Catch-22, seeing as it required him to sign on for 6 potential films including the upcoming "Avengers" team-up movie.

"At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f***ed. If the movie hits, I’m f***ed!'," joked Evans in an Entertainment Weekly interview.

But in typical Cap fashion, Evans realized it all comes down to facing fear and overcoming it.

"The reason I kept saying no is because I was scared. Maybe this is exactly what I had to do. Maybe this is exactly what I had to face."

Selected Reading: New York Times, MSNBC, Entertainment Weekly

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