Chris Evans, Paul Rudd Recall Marvel Pressure And First Day They Met On ‘Avengers: Civil War’ Set

On his first day on set of “Avengers: Civil War”, Chris Evans made Paul Rudd dance for him.

Evans and Rudd are the latest stars to participate in Variety‘s Actors On Actors series from home, recalling their time together in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more.

Evans explains that the OG MCU crew, including Anthon Mackie and Scarlett Johansson, wanted to film a “yearbook video” set to “We Go Together” from “Grease”. And that video included asking relative MCU newcomer Rudd to dance on camera.

“I was like, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. You don’t know me, but can I get this?’ It was you, Mackie, I think [Jeremy] Renner, Sebastian [Stan], and I just said, ‘Look, everyone, just dance for 30 seconds,’ and you did it,” Evans recalls. “You were a great sport. You willingly danced with little explanation from me, and then I never completed the video. I just abandoned it. But I got that footage of our first day of meeting of you dancing.”

“I must’ve blocked it out. I don’t remember it at all,” Rudd replies. But it looks like Evans will keep the video a secret, at least for now. “I’m sorry, I found it. It’s unbelievable. I can’t show it — it’s way too embarrassing,” he adds.

For Evans, being part of the MCU is all about making the team look good.

“It feels like such a group effort. It’s a real landscape of competing ideas and the best idea wins, and that’s how they end up with so many good movies. Very quickly you kind of put down your fear and recline a little bit and recognize that you’re in good hands,” he says.

That relaxed atmosphere didn’t make it any less intimidating for Rudd to take on the role of Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man at first.

“There’s pressure at every single movie you’re making in the Marvel world. You don’t want to be the weak link,” Rudd explains. “A character like Ant-Man, yeah, very few people knew. They’d say, ‘Well, what does Ant-Man do?’ And I’d say, ‘He can shrink to the size of an ant, but he also retains strength, and he can control ants and talk to ants.’ And people would just laugh.”

Despite the pressures of being a part of a multimillion dollar franchise, the cast still had fun when cameras weren’t rolling, getting competitive over games of Boggle.

“This is without fail: You could be playing with a group of 20 people. The person who is going to win is Paul Rudd. The person who’s going to come in nail-biting second is Don Cheadle, and [Mark] Ruffalo will be way at the end,” Evans says. “Although one day Ruffalo found “asbestos” on the Boggle board. It’s a real anomaly.”

“That is pretty impressive, but that’s because Mark fights the valiant fight. He’s probably out right now marching for asbestos reform,” Rudd jokes.

But, leave it to Evans to ask the most important question of all.

“Why don’t you age? Are you drinking baby blood?” he asks.

“I most certainly age,” Rudd retorts.

Watch the full 40-minute chat above.