“The Gray Man” directors Joe and Anthony Russo couldn’t shield their excitement about Chris Evans playing a bad guy.
After directing four Marvel movies starring Evans as the heroic Captain America, the Russo brothers enlisted the actor for their new spy thriller to play an over-the-top villain who couldn’t be more different.
“Over time, you get to understand one another so well on a creative level, on a personal level, and it just started to tickle all of us, this idea of trying to do something else together that was as far away from Captain America as you could possibly get,” Anthony Russo, 52, told the Daily News.
“That was appealing and exciting and witty to us. Chris was also in a place where he’s very secure in his career. He just wants to take risks. Taking a big swing at a crazy villain is exciting to a lot of leading men, because they don’t get to go to that place very often.”
Out Friday on Netflix, “The Gray Man” stars Ryan Gosling as the CIA mercenary Six, who becomes his agency’s target after obtaining compromising information. Evans plays the ruthless Lloyd Hansen, who is tasked with tracking Six down.
The action-packed film is adapted from a 2009 novel by Mark Greaney and produced by the Russos’ AGBO company.
“We really liked the character at the core of it,” Joe Russo, 51, told The News. “He was sort of a proletariat action hero. He was working class, came from an abusive father, conscripted into the CIA, didn’t indulge in any of the glamour of being a spy, and in fact was a brutal assassin.
“His simple motivation was freedom, and we felt like that would connect with modern audiences. He’s very different than sort of predecessors like Bond.”
The film, now playing in select theaters, is the latest project outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the Russo brothers, who directed the two most recent “Captain America” movies and the “Avengers” epics “Infinity War” (2018) and “Endgame” (2019).
Each of those films were written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who co-penned “The Gray Man” with Joe Russo. The filmmakers incorporated new elements to “The Gray Man” story, including introducing a female agent, portrayed by “No Time to Die” actress Ana de Armas.
“For Ana and for Ryan, this movie was more of an escalation in terms of what their experience level was with action. There’s few people as experienced as Chris,” Anthony Russo said.
“Ryan and Ana, the training they put in was immense. They really took it very seriously. They knew what an amazing opportunity this was for them as performers, and just to be able to do these types of things, it doesn’t come along every day. They worked out hard. They trained hard. They studied hard with our CIA advisers as well as our special forces advisers.”
With a budget of around $200 million, “The Gray Man” is among Netflix’s most expensive films ever. The Russos’ previous movie, the addiction drama “Cherry” starring Tom Holland, came out on Apple TV+ last year.
The directors say they love the theatrical experience, but appreciate how streaming services can reach audiences across the world.
“We have an immense amount of nostalgia for film,” Anthony Russo said. “That being said, we’re sort of radically into what’s coming next, what the future is. How do we move forward with the technology and how do we look for new opportunities to communicate with audiences? That’s what really excites us the most. We’ve always been very globally minded in how we want to tell stories.”
The filmmakers also got a kick out of Evans sporting a mustache in the movie, which they say was the actor’s idea.
“We’re very open to actors coming up with their looks for the film, because they have to be happy with how they look,” Joe Russo said. “Otherwise you won’t get as good a performance out of them. We do pre-calls with them leading up to the production. I remember, we’re on the phone with Chris and he said, ‘Oh, and I want to do this mustache.’ We both thought for about a second and went, ‘All right, sounds good.’”
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