When an actor finds themselves in the unfortunate position of helming a flop, they have a few options for how to proceed. There’s the “blame stuff happening behind the scenes at the studio” route, popularized by Dwayne Johnson in relation to his beloved, sequel-less Black Adam. There are the “blame the marketing team,” “blame the audience’s taste,” and, ironically, “blame Dwayne Johnson” routes, somehow all taken by Zachary Levi in his many attempts to defend the honor of Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Thankfully, Chris Evans has finally uncovered another way.
This may come as a shock, but it’s actually quite possible for actors to just shrug their shoulders and say their movie honestly wasn’t that good. Snipers from Apple TV+ don’t seem to have shown up to take Evans out for saying it about Ghosted, anyway.
“Ghosted to me felt like a movie that I grew up on, a movie that maybe we don’t see very much anymore. And the question is whether or not audiences have outgrown those types of films,” the actor said in a recent GQ profile when asked to address the ill-reviewed action flick. In it, he stars as a love-struck man who finds out his date (Ana de Armas) is actually a secret agent.
Evans questioned the audience’s interest in the genre film “both” going into it and coming out of it, he said. “I didn’t think audiences had outgrown it prior, and I still don’t think they have, despite the fact, I mean, technically I think we did okay on, in terms of viewership,” he clarified.
“Critics didn’t like it,” Evans continued, something he considers “more the fault of the movie as opposed to the appetite of the audience. I think the appetite’s there, if it’s done properly. We could have been better.”
Luckily, Evans has higher hopes for both of his upcoming films: Pain Hustlers and Red One, the latter of which also stars none other than Dwayne Johnson. In Pain Hustlers, which details the rise of an extra-skeevy opioid company, Evans gets to play a “real character,” which is exciting for him. As for Red Ones? “I’ve just been looking for a Christmas movie my whole career,” he said. Even if this one does flop as hard as Ghosted, nothing can take away from the realization of this beautiful dream.
