Known for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Evans plays a character in the new romantic action-adventure film who he says needs saving.

The star of “Ghosted” and Marvel’s “Captain America” tells which Avenger he frequently keeps in contact with.

If you were to tell a middle school-aged Chris Evans that he would one day be named PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive, “he’d be pumped!” the star tells the magazine in this week’s cover story. “This would probably be the road to the cool table which I was not at.”

Present-day Evans, 41, is still adjusting to the new title of PEOPLE’s 2022 Sexiest Man Alive and having to talk about it, but he knows this news will delight at least one person: “My mom will be so happy,” he says. “She’s proud of everything I do but this is something she can really brag about.”

It’s a sunny fall day on a farm outside of Atlanta, Ga. where Evans is sitting in front of the fireplace in a quaint farmhouse. Although he appears to have fully understood this particular assignment, dressed in a cozy knit sweater and jeans, the Boston native would probably rather jump into said fireplace than talk about being sexy.

“This whole thing is tough to be interviewed about,” he says with a laugh. “It feels like a weird form of humble bragging.”

The Gray Man star is also bracing for some good-natured ribbing from his close friends.

“Really this will just be a point of bullying,” he jokes. “It’s ripe for harassment.”

Regardless, his mom Lisa is delighted by the news. “I am not surprised at all,” she tells PEOPLE. “Our family will be beside themselves.”

Best known for playing the altruistic, self-sacrificing superhero Captain America in Marvel’s multi-billion-dollar Avengers franchise, and as a devoted, photo-happy dog dad to Dodger, his boxer mix, on social media, Evans is far more comfortable talking about his career, which has been on fire for the last decade. This year alone, he starred in Pixar’s Lightyear, Netflix’s Gray Man and filmed three new movies, including 2023’s Ghosted for AppleTV+ which he is also producing, and also still co-runs A Starting Point, the civic engagement platform he launched in 2020.

Now in his 40s, Evans is trying to prioritize a healthy work-life balance and spending as much time as possible at home and with his family in Boston.

“When it comes to seeking out the people I play it’s more of an issue of where the movie shoots,” he says. “I’m too old to be living out of a suitcase for six months and I’ve settled into a nicer phase where I’m just happy being at home.”

He’s also thinking a lot more about his future outside of acting — one that includes marriage and fatherhood.

“That’s absolutely something I want,” he says. Just don’t expect him to talk much about that when it happens: “Some things you want just for you, or just for my family and my friends.”

Twenty-two years into his career, Evans admits he’s ready to slow down a bit.

“The most enjoyable aspect of my career right now is feeling secure enough to take my foot off the gas,” he says. “I feel like I have a bit more freedom to take time away from the industry and still find projects that will satisfy my creative appetite when I return.”

​And given all the time he’s been spending in and around his hometown, what does he think is the sexiest thing about Boston?

“So much history there! I love the accent. To me, the accent is home,” he says. “I love the weather. The seasons, the sports teams. But the sexiest thing about Boston… maybe our universities. We’ve got a lot of good schools. Let’s give education a plug, that’s damn sexy.”

Just don’t ask him to use the word “sexy” in a sentence about himself. And although he’s not quite comfortable with it yet, years from now he’ll look back on the title fondly.

“It’s something that as I become old and saggy I can look back on and say ‘I remember then…’ ” he says. “I’m lucky to be in the discussion in any capacity.”

I would like to apologize for the lateness on these photos being added to the gallery so late. Last Tuesday (July 12th), my mother passed away and I took some time away from fan-site work and had been working non-stop at my new job at T-Mobile. I’ve managed to add 100+ photos of Chris attending The Gray Man premiere in L.A.

Gallery Links:
– JUL 13TH | WORLD PREMIERE OF NETFLIX’S “THE GRAY MAN” – ARRIVALS

Chris Evans is set to co-star opposite Emily Blunt in Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Evans is best known as being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Captain America since 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, but is branching out in Hollywood after putting his superhero cap aside.

Netflix nabbed the Pain Hustlers feature package at Cannes, with Blunt starring and David Yates behind the project as director. Yates described the movie as being in the vein of The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short, with Blunt playing a high-school dropout who lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical start-up in a yellowing strip mall in Central Florida.

Liza’s charm, guts and drive catapult the company and her into the high life, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy with deadly consequences. Wells Tower is behind the screenplay for Pain Hustlers, which is being produced by Lawrence Grey through his Grey Matter Productions banner, along with Yates and Yvonne Walcott’s Wychwood Pictures.

Filming is set to start in August. CAA Media Finance and The Veterans shopped Pain Hustlers at Cannes. Deadline Hollywood was the first to report on Evans joining the project.

Evans is repped by CAA and 3 Arts Entertainment.

With the snap of a Kevin Feige’s finger, “Avengers: Endgame” might not have been the end of Chris Evans as Captain America.

Disney+ series “Moon Knight” was set to include a possible series of cameos, including Evans reprising his famed, decade-long role as Steven Rogers. “Moon Knight” writer Jeremy Slater revealed to Discussing Film that the Oscar Isaac-led Marvel installment was prime for other MCU appearances, but ultimately the series opted to stand more on its “own two feet” in the canon.

“There were definitely different times in the writing process where we talked about cameos because cameos are one of the most fun things to discuss in a writer’s room,” Slater said, reflecting on the series. “What happens if we try to get Chris Evans back as old Captain America? You know, you sit there and play that ‘what if’ game among your writers.”

The main cameos that were “seriously discussed,” however, included Kit Harrington’s “Eternals” character Dane Whitman, aka Black Knight, due to the inherent overlap with Isaac’s Steven Grant (both work at the same museum). Other “Eternals” stars Kumail Nanjiani and Lauren Ridloff were also possible cameos for “Moon Knight” to show the original fall of Ammit and the death of Alexander the Great in a flashback sequence.

Ultimately, though, Feige encouraged production against it.

“Kevin comes to us and says, ‘You know what, guys? I know everyone loves the cameos. Everyone gets excited about it. But I really think your story is standing on its own two feet right now,’” Slater shared. “We really let [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] be our guiding light for a lot of these creative decisions because he has such a good gut instinct for it.”

Slater added, “It almost feels like shoehorning in an unnecessary cameo. Suddenly War Machine happens to be visiting Cairo at that time or something like that. It feels like it would have just jerked out of the story and really taken the focus away from the character journey that we were on between Marc and Steven. So it’s a little bit of a bummer because I like to play with all the toys in that sandbox, and I was like, give me Doctor Strange [and] Spider-Man. But at the same time, you recognize that it’s the right creative decision.”

The “Moon Knight” screenwriter also pointed to budget as an issue, saying, “‘Oh, if we’re spending [x] millions of dollars to recreate Ancient Egypt and get a lot of movie stars in here, then that’s that same amount of money coming out of our budget for the big Episode 6 fight or the stuff in the Egyptian Underworld.’ You then finally say, ‘Our money would be better spent making ‘Moon Knight’ as cool as possible versus spending that money to bring in another character and let them be cool.’ So part of it was being practical.”

As for any chance Evans might return as Cap, the “Gray Man” star said he is hanging up his shield for good…for now.

“Cap is so precious to me,” Evans said. “I almost don’t want to disrupt what a beautiful experience that was.”