Date: August 31, 2004
Source: IESB.NET
Most of the journalists at the Cellular junket really only wanted to talk to Chris Evans about The Fantastic Four. Evans plays Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in the highly anticipated superhero movie. We’ll have more with Evans on Cellular next week, but wanted to present the juicy superhero details as soon as possible.
Q: Have you met Julian McMahon yet?
CE: You know, I haven’t. He’s the only guy who hasn’t come up yet. I don't think he works for another week. He was cast kind of late so he’s been in LA doing a lot of fittings and getting all the body casts and things like that.
Q: Will most of his stuff be separate from you?
CE: No, actually, most of his stuff is with us. Most of his stuff is with Ioan Gruffudd, the guy who plays Mr. Fantastic. We do have a lot of group scenes together, but as far as the one on one stuff goes, it’s mostly him and Ioan.
Q: No, Ioan’s not much older than you, right?
CE: No, I think he’s 30.
Q: But he’s supposed to be the oldest, Mr. Fantastic?
CE: Yeah, the character is. He’s actually supposed to be the same age as my sister, Sue Storm, because according to the comic books and the script, Julian, Ioan and Jessica [Alba]’s character all went to MIT together. Apparently they were all in college at the same time. So I think they’re all supposed to be in their mid 30s and I’m supposed to be in my late ‘20s.
Q: Have there been any comic book superhero exposition lines that were tough to get your mouth around?
CE: Not really, no. At least my character, even though he is a scientist, doesn’t really spit out too much jargon. He’s kind of more of a fun loving playboy. So I don’t have too much of the wordy stuff.
Q: A playboy, so are there lots of hot girls around you?
CE: They do throw a couple of different girls at me. I mean, Johnny’s character is a young gun, a dashing playboy so he’s going to have girls, but there’s no substantial love interest.
Q: Have they set you on fire yet?
CE: No, not yet. I don't think they’re going to actually use real fire. I think most of my stuff is going to be computer generated. I’m ready. I’ll soak myself in gas and do it.
Q: What was the audition process? Were you aware of who the competition was?
CE: Yeah. I try not to know. I think if I know who I’m competing against, I’ll alter my performance based on, “Well, if they like him, I wonder what they like about him and I wonder if I should be more like him.” You just try and you know what? Do what I do and hope that’s enough. It was the same audition process as any other film. No different. You go in, you get a couple callbacks and you hope they go well. It was a good group effort. I had a lot of help with my agent and my manager making the right phone calls and David Ellis making calls to people at 20th Century for me. It was a nice group effort and everyone came together.
Q: Did you audition with Alba?
CE: No, no, I didn’t actually. I think Ioan did.I think Michael Chiklis was cast first, then Ioan, then I was. The majority of Jessica’s stuff is with Ioan, so they brought Ioan in to read with Jessica. We’ve obviously met and hung out a lot. We’ve been up there for two or thee weeks right now and we’ve gone out of our way to make sure everyone has a really tight knit bond which so far has been great. Everyone’s great.
During his <I>Cellular</I> interview, director David Ellis described his phone call with Fox.DE: “They did call me, the producers of that film and wanted to talk to me about him and about his character and his work ethics and stuff like that. I just told him there’s nobody better. On his own right, he nailed the test [audition]. The studio really liked him but they were also seeing some other kids that meant more to the domestic and international box office and marketing the movie. Yet they liked Chris’s performances. So they just wanted to reassure themselves that they knew he could play the part, but does he have a big ego, is there a lot of baggage that comes with him? And I reassured them that there wasn’t and he would be great.”
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