Entertainment

Chris Evans explains why he initially turned down Captain America, then changed his mind

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"Jimmy Kimmel Live"/ABC

While landing a superhero role has made Chris Evans very famous, the actor said he turned down the role "a few times" on Monday's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

"I was scared," he told host Jimmy Kimmel about initially turning down the nine-picture contract.

"In doing movies one at a time, if all of a sudden you decide you don't want to do it anymore, you're afforded the opportunity to take a step back and recalibrate," Evans said. "When you have a giant contract, if all of a sudden you're not responding well? Too bad, you got to suit up again. That was scary."

Including "Captain America: Civil War," opening May 6, Evans has played the Marvel superhero five times on the big screen. Combined, the "Captain America" movies have so far earned more than $400 million in the US alone.

Evans said the offer to play Captain America kept coming back to him. So after speaking to friends and family about the career move, he made his final decision, and realized why it was the right move.

"I was saying no out of fear, really," he said. "You can't do anything out of fear. You can't be doing something, because you're scared. It ended up kind of clicking to me in the way that whatever you're scared of, push yourself into it."

Watch Evans discuss why he almost said no to Captain America below:

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Jethro Nededog is the former entertainment editor at INSIDER. Before that, he was the senior entertainment reporter for sister site, Business Insider. He has also served as the TV Editor for TheWrap and Celebuzz, as well as reported on television for The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times. He is a former member of the Television Critics Association (TCA), currently a member of the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA), and served for several years as a judge for the Critics Award at the New York Television Festival. He has a BA in journalism from New York University, and an MA in fiction and screenwriting from the University of Southern California.