PASADENA, Calif. _ Captain America is giving up his bulletproof helmet and star-studded shield for jurisprudence and fatherhood. Chris Evans, best known as the superhero in the "Captain America" movie series, takes a dramatic turn. He stars as a stalwart district attorney and father of a boy accused of murder in the suspenseful "Defending Jacob," now streaming on Apple TV+.
Evans says he was in no hurry to pick a new project when "Defending Jacob" came along.
"I'm not an actor that works all the time. So maybe if I were somebody who liked to fill my schedule from January to December with constant work, maybe I'd find that it was a bit more of a struggle. But I'm a little more mercurial by nature, and I kind of take my time," he says.
"And so luckily it's always felt like when I felt the impetus to work and a call to work, luckily there was a piece of material that fit my creative appetite."
The creative appetite was whetted with the show that questions how far loving parents are willing to go in shielding their child. The eight-episode series costars British actress Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary of "Downton Abbey") as Evans' wife and Jaeden Martell as their son.
Dockery, who's played a grubby Western pioneer and a slick con artist since "Downton," admits she's attracted to quirky roles.
"I was drawn to her because she's very different from any other character that I've played," says Dockery of her role in "Defending Jacob."
"I love her journey throughout the story. Without giving too much away, I think that was something that really intrigued me from the start. You know, I like doing accents, so I liked playing another American," she smiles.
Dockery says she was intrigued more by the characters than the plot.
"It's not about the mystery of who did it so much as it's a real kind of exploration into, how would you respond as a parent? Certainly, for me playing Laurie, that was what I was really drawn to is this tapping into how you would react as a parent, and what lengths you would go to to protect your child. And I'd never really read anything like this before about family, and I was just so instantly drawn to the project."
The series was adapted from the bestselling book by William Landay and was originally meant to be a film. But writer-executive producer Mark Bomback says he saw it in a different light.
"I understood the impulse to turn it into a film," he acknowledges. "However, I was really inspired by a lot of limited series that were coming out around that time. And I said this feels to me like you could _ 20, 30 years ago this is a movie that we all know is in the multiplex _ it feels like now this train is being better served in limited series space. And my mind just started racing ... there's all these avenues within the story that would have gotten short shrift if they were a film," he says.
"In eight-hour storytelling, we have all this space to really explore the characters so that ultimately you'd get a thriller," he says.
"I don't love the term 'elevated thriller.' I think it's a bit condescending sometimes. But in this case, it IS an elevated thriller in that we're really diving super deep into the characters' journey ... My favorite kind of genre is the genre that is obeying the rules of a genre, but is ultimately about something. And that's what this does."
While they were enacting turbulent emotions onscreen, the actors were able to form a homey kinship off, says Dockery.
"Like with any role, you have to immerse yourself in the character and ... you kind of observe others. I felt like it was very easy for us to sort of become a family on set," she says.
"We all had a really lovely time together in spite of the intensity of the subject matter. We had a really fun time together ... I feel like we bonded very quickly, and I think that comes across on screen. And I think ... you really believe that we are a family."
For Evans, his facility with comic book fantasy quickly morphed into reality. "It was the first time I've been able to play a parent and, I don't know, I loved it," he says.
"I think there's a whole _ there's body language there, there's postures, there's so many things that _ at least I drew from my own childhood of what a dad looks and feels like. I really, really, really enjoyed it, actually, because it really does lend itself to the complexity and depth of the film.
"I think being a parent, I would imagine, unlocks depths of love that you didn't know you were capable of. And I think that only raises the stakes and makes things more interesting. So, for me, it was a fun place to start off with that kind of blinding love at times and (explore) how far you would go to keep it pure."
JAMIE LEE CURTIS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT
Jamie Lee Curtis will direct her first feature film when she orchestrates the horror flick "Mother Nature," which she's writing with Russell Goldman. Curtis has signed a three-year, first-look pact with Blumhouse, the company that she worked with on "Halloween" two years ago.
Two more frightening flicks from Curtis and Blumhouse are on the docket: "Halloween Kills" due Oct. 16 and "Halloween Ends," slated for next year. Curtis is executive producer on both.
Although she climbed to the top of the charts with films like the first "Halloween" in 1978, "Trading Places" and "A Fish Called Wanda," Curtis has never been content to rest on her laurels.
"The only way I'll feel I satisfied myself in my professional life is to say that I tried different things," she tells me. "I hate to hear actors talk about stretching: 'I needed to stretch.' I tried not to pay that much attention to it. But I know I would not do well if I didn't do difficult things and I will be proud of myself and will be able to say to myself my last day, 'You did do difficult things even though maybe nobody ever thought you could.' I'm proud of that."
But it's not big deal, she says. "Truthfully, I don't think my work is all that extraordinary, I think I've been little bit brave in my choices _ just not being afraid to try something. And that's good."
ROB LOWE INVADES BRITISH SHORES
Rob Lowe is jumping the pond to star as an American cop who loses his job and lands in jolly old England in "Wild Bill" premiering on BritBox Tuesday. Lowe's latter-day Bobby will shake things up at the East Lincolnshire Police headquarters in weekly episodes, which aired in England for one go-around last year.
Lowe has proved his mettle from teen angst movies to important and gainful stuff like "The West Wing" and "9-1-1: Lone Star," and tells me he started young.
"I remember when I saw a production of 'Oliver,' and they were kids, I said, 'I want to do that.' I was in the fourth grade. My folks signed me up for a children's theater workshop. I'm certain they thought it was a lark and that next season it would be basket weaving.
"But I always saw in my mind's eye doing EXACTLY what I was doing. 'Ignorance is bliss' couldn't have been more true for me. I was in Ohio; your every waiter wasn't a failed actor. My sense was, 'Oh, you act and become an actor.' When my mom and dad split up and mom remarried and moved out here, it sort of _ in one way _ dovetailed nicely for me."
SEGEL DISPATCHES 'DISPATCHES'
Jason Segel, whom we know from the comedy "How I Met Your Mother," has written and stars in a fantasy, "Dispatches from Elsewhere," that arrives on DVD/Blu-ray Tuesday.
The 10-part series is about four diverse people who are in search of more meaning in their lives and stumble on a mysterious circumstance.
Segel says once he finished a decade on "Mother" he felt at loose ends.
"I suddenly had this blank canvas ahead of me, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about," he says. "I was also realizing I hadn't done an artistic check-in with myself in a really long time. And the things that I was sort of known for were no longer relevant to me.
"And I realized that that was a really scary and interesting feeling I hadn't encountered in a long time: not knowing what to do next; not really knowing who I was at 34 years old, because who I was had been dictated to me for quite a long time. And I wanted to write about that," he says.
"I found it really moving, that a bunch of people in really different stages of life, from totally different walks of life _ socioeconomically, politically, ethnically _ were all taking part in this thing because something was missing from their lives," he says.
"And that was just so interesting to me, that we all maybe are much more alike and much more confused than we are being told to believe. We're supposed to see our differences, and I wanted to make a show about how we're much more similar than we realize that we are."
The DVD/Blu-ray offers a couple of bonus features and costs $35 for the DVD, $45 for the Blu-ray.
