While Chris Evans’ tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is over per all reliable sources (like Chris Evans himself), in celebration of his 40th birthday this year I figured I had to go big. Cosmic big. And what’s cosmically bigger than stones the Universe (fictionally) spit out after the Big Bang?
We all know that if Chris Evans was ever granted a power as exponential as the Infinity Stones, he’d use that power to do good, much like Gandalf when offered the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and maybe he’s already doing it.
The stones may not be real, but the aspects of our lives they represent are, so without further ado, in celebration of his 40th birthday is a tour through Chris Evans’ “Infinity Gauntlet.”
Mind
The man himself’s stone of choice (as seen here), and for those who follow along closely, that’s not a surprise.
From excerpts of Hermann Hesse novels, to new NASA discoveries, Evans’ penchant for sharing what fulfills his own mind has kept followers enchanted with these little glimpses into what brings one of their favorite performers joy.
However, even beyond these little tidbits shared, Evans has also opened up on his struggles with anxiety, bringing a much needed destigmatization to mental health struggles. He’s never shied away from sharing his hesitations after being offered the role of Captain America, the reasoning behind it being opening the door for others to follow his steps of normalizing our internal struggles with matters big and small.
’Sssh’ has been a big thing for me. Everyone’s brain is noisy, and the root of suffering is following that brain noise and listening to that brain noise, and identifying with it as if it’s who you are.”
Chris Evans
He’s also a man who isn’t afraid to admit when he doesn’t know enough about a topic and then searches out the answers. Except in Evans’ case, he created an entire database for other people who may be having the same questions he did. The co-founder of the civic engagement site A Starting Point, Evans set out design a resource so that anyone wanting to educate themselves on political processes, stances, and issues could find what they needed all in one place.
After a year and a half collecting interviews in D.C. and designing an entire website, plus a few pandemic delays, A Starting Point launched in July of 2020 and has since registered thousands of new voters, engaged politicians in civil debates, and informed citizens about the hot topics governing our daily lives.
Power
Speaking of A Starting Point, Evans and his team have set out to empower an entire new generation of U.S. citizens to get to the polls and create the country they want to live in. They’ve begun creating platforms to be used in schools by teachers, such as ASP Homeroom in collaboration with Close Up Foundation, and are now considering in-person events once safety measures are met to help drum up excitement and motivation around civic processes and just how imperative they are to our society.
“The site wasn’t designed to try and promote bipartisanship. This isn’t a therapy session for the left and the right so we can all figure out how to sing kumbaya. It was created to promote engagement with young people. If we don’t get more young people to vote we’ll never get a government that accurately reflects who we are as a country.”
Chris Evans for Newsweek
Chris Evans also has some hefty star power behind his name, and one of the only things he uses it for is getting attention for some of his favorite causes (like voting!). Christopher’s Haven has always been a favorite charity of Evans’, an organization local to his hometown area of Boston that provides housing to families of children receiving cancer treatments in the city.
It’s also worth noting here in this section that when writing this, power and Chris Evans weren’t two words that were synonymous with each other, but there is absolutely power in the humility and graciousness that he carries himself with that made that so.
Soul
It’s hard to judge a soul of a person you don’t know, but Evans has always been good about giving small little glimpses in by sharing the things he loves vehemently and above all else.
He loves his dog, his family, his friends, and his fans. He speaks ill of no one, and no one has a bad thing to say about him either. So, seeing as he’s celebrating his 40th birthday and is still America’s Sweetheart, it’s fair to say that his soul is probably just as wonderful as we all assume it is.
Time
There’s no possible way to get through this without commending the eight years that Evans spent bringing one of most beloved characters of all time to life. Since his introduction in 2011 in Captain America: The First Avenger, Chris Evans embodied the role on and off the screen as he carried himself with the poise needed to shoulder such an immense responsibility.
The character meant so much to so many people, and that wasn’t an element that went underappreciated or disregarded.
(Also, his favorite time of year is autumn in New England. That superior opinion needed to be said again. There really is nothing better.)
Reality
Reality can be hard to accept sometimes, but Evans has never been one to shy away from speaking out on some of the atrocities facing so many. Any potential backlash to his career is consistently outweighed by the need to use his platform (very large platform) to bring as many eyes to the issues as he can.
Reality can be hard to accept, but easy to avoid, especially if it isn’t something an individual is being overtly exposed to or affected by. It gets a little harder for the 14.8 million followers of Evans on Twitter as he takes to the platform to encourage others to face these realities, see the world for what it is beyond our rose-colored lenses, and take care of one another.
Space
This was an easy one. Chris Evans’ fascination and love of all things space has kept his Twitter followers endeared for years. He’s always good for a tweet about what lies beyond our atmospheres and NASA’s latest discoveries up there in the great unknown. Sometimes it takes an outside force such as him to help us sit back and realize how small we are in this universe and the absolute magic that surrounds us that is so often overlooked in the busyness of our daily lives.
Whether you only know him from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or you’ve seen his entire filmography, there’s so much to appreciate. Coming up you can see Evans in the Netflix films Don’t Look Up and The Gray Man, hopefully in the upcoming Little Shop of Horrors remake, and as the man behind the legendary toy, Buzz Lightyear, in Disney’s Lightyear in 2022.
Happy 40th Birthday, Chris! We can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Author’s Note: Thank you to my dear friend Rachel for bringing me this idea. Whenever I get too far into the box, you’re never far to drag me back out, and I’m eternally grateful to you.
