A new feature piece in Vanity Fair goes into the work of Sarah Halley Finn, the casting director who discusses the various hirings and ‘almost hirings’ for Marvel Studios films throughout her tenure.
A good chunk of that piece goes into the casting of Steve Rogers/Captain America – a role that ultimately went to Chris Evans who also talks about his initial reluctance for the role and his bad experience.
Ryan Philippe, Garrett Hedlund, Jensen Ackles, Wyatt Russell, Chase Crawford, John Krasinski, Sebastian Stan and Chris Pratt all tried out for the Steve Rogers role.
Halley says at the time “we saw something there that was a bit darker, a bit edgier” in regards to Stan’s screentest which led to him becoming Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier. Apparently nobody thought Pratt was right to play Rogers. Krasinski reportedly made the final cut for the role.
Finn says no one they auditioned felt quite right and many “didn’t get it” as the property “seemed a bit dated”. They came back around to Chris Evans who had already declined an initial offer.
They pitched a nine-movie deal without even auditioning and gave him a weekend to decide, but the deal couldn’t persuade Evans to change his mind.
What ultimately did was that Marvel scaled back his commitment to only six movies, and they got Robert Downey Jr. to call up the actor and encourage him saying fame would expand his opportunities as an actor. He signed on.
Then he worried he had made the wrong decision and says that whilst shooting the first film he wrestled with fear and self-hatred over his decision: “This is it. I just signed my death warrant; my life’s over.’ I can’t believe I did this. This isn’t the career I wanted.”
He says he finally relaxed when he realised the films were actually good: “The biggest thing I was worried about was making s—ty f—— movies. I don’t want to make s—ty movies and be contractually obligated to make garbage.”
Finn says her proudest moment in her long career at Marvel was casting another Chris – Chris Pratt as Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy”. She prevailed on Gunn, who was against the casting initially, to let Pratt do a screen test. She says: “Within ten seconds, James turned around and looked at me and said, ‘He’s the guy.'”
Head over to Vanity Fair for the full interview.
