27 years ago, this young boy took his first steps on the screen, today he is an international star. Did you recognize him?

Now known worldwide for playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Evans made his screen debut at the age of 16, in an educational short film on the environment.

As early as 2011, viewers around the world got to know him when they saw him don the armor and shield of Captain America for the very first time. Chris Evans had already played the Human Torch in two adaptations of the Fantastic Four a few years earlier, but it was thanks to the role of the super-soldier that he truly won the hearts of Marvel fans.

Even though he has now officially left the MCU (after 7 feature films, not counting his cameos), the American actor is still one of the most famous stars in Hollywood, having also played in the science fiction film Snowpiercer, in the whodunnit Knives Out or in the detective series The Jacob Barber Affair.

A first role at the age of 16

But where was Chris Evans 27 years ago, when no one had heard of him? Like almost all of his fellow actors, he entered the Hollywood scene through the back door. After growing up in Boston and taking a few acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, he tried his luck by joining modest projects.

It was in 1997, when he was only 16 years old, that we could see him appear on screen for the very first time. He played the role of a high school student in Biodiversity: Wild About Life!a 53-minute educational short film about protecting the environment.

“I felt like a movie star because they gave us sandwiches for lunch”Chris Evans recounted with humor and nostalgia many years later, at the microphone of IMDB.

“It was a huge thing for me.”

“It was huge for me, there was a recruitment near my home, I was in 7th grade, I took off my braces to be able to do it, my father was a dentist.“

“(…) For those who don't know, it's just a silly little educational video, and I took my camera off just to do that. We shot it in Lincoln, near my house. It's a silly little thing, but at the time, it was a huge thing for me. I loved that first experience in front of the cameras and the spotlight. At that point, I knew very clearly that I wanted to continue.”

After having had other small roles in TV films and TV series, Chris Evans was chosen in 2001 to play the lead role in Sex Academy, a parody of teen movies of the time.

Just four years after this cinema experience (followed by a few others), he took his first step into the world of Marvel by joining The Fantastic Four in the role of Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch: the start of a long adventure in the world of superheroes for Chris Evans.

(Re)discover the trailer for “Fantastic Four”…