Chris Evans on His Psychopathic Villain and Trashy Mustache in Netflix's The Gray Man
Netflix’s The Gray Man is just days from release, but if the pre-release hype is to be believed, it’s going to be a hit the moment it drops. And it’s no surprise why—Netflix didn’t hold back in the budget department when it recruited Avengers alumni Anthony and Joe Russo to direct the movie and Hollywood heavy-hitters Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans to lead the cast. Budding stars Ana de Armas and Rege-Jean Page have also joined the cast alongside vets Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, and Wagner Moura. Netflix also roped in Bollywood superstar Dhanush in a scene-stealing role.
Based on the book of the same name, The Gray Man follows mercenary Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) who’s on the run from Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a psychopath who’s been hired by the CIA to hunt Six down—dead or alive. What ensues is a two-hour, action-packed manhunt throughout Europe.
While Gosling leads the cast in an antihero role, it’s Chris Evans who steals every scene in his unexpected portrayal of a villain with no morals. After playing Marvel’s golden boy Steve Rogers/Captain America for a decade, Evans experimented with his potential as a villain when he played the spoiled heir Ransom Drysdale in Knives Out. In The Gray Man, Evans graduates from narcissistic playboy to all-out mercenary psychopath, and it’s a sight to behold. Gone is Evans’ heroic persona, replaced by a piece-of-shit villain that we can tell Evans had fun playing.
Six’s back story is front and center in The Gray Man, but the same can’t be said for Lloyd Hansen, whose colorful personality deserves its own origin story. When preparing for the role, Evans already had a backstory in mind. And contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t daddy issues like Six that made him this way.
“What I enjoyed about Lloyd is that I don't think he's someone who has some dark traumatic past. When you have characters like this, you assume, ‘Oh, he had an abusive childhood or these horrible things happened to him.’ I found it much more interesting to say, ‘You know what, it was nothing wrong,’” shared Chris Evans to Esquire Philippines.
“He had a great childhood. He had a great upbringing, parents who loved him, and all the opportunity in the world. And the reason he is the way he is, is just because that's what he chose. That's much more dark and sinister.”
To Chris, Lloyd Hansen has no excuse to be an asshole. There’s no trauma holding him down—just a pleasantly psychopathic personality that deludes him into thinking he’s doing what’s right.
“He sees himself as the cleanse he sees himself as a superior thinker, which is far more sinister, far more unjustifiable,” said Evans.
If his portrayal of an unhinged mercenary wasn’t enough, Evans also added a mustache to the mix. Because as Hitler taught us, mustaches are the facial indicator of evil—or porn stars. Gosling’s character Six gave Evans’ mustache its own name: The Trash ‘Stache.
“I feel like I have one of those faces that changes quite a bit with whether it’s facial hair or a weird haircut,” said Evans, acknowledging the trash ‘stache’s part in the role.
He’s got a point there. Without the beard, he’s Steve Rogers. With the beard, he’s Captain America. And with the trash 'stache, he’s a psycho mercenary who has no problem killing kids.
Variety, right?
The Gray Man drops on July 22, only on Netflix.
