It’s Friday, it’s been a pretty sh*tty week all around, and we could all use something nice to look at as we zone out for the weekend. So here are new photos of Beardy Chris Evans, making his return after Avengers: Age of Ultron has wrapped. I don’t generally do facial hair, but Evans is one of those guys who somehow manages to be even better looking with a beard. I think that violates some law of dude physics, like the Thermodynamic Law of Scruff or something—the change in external hotness in a closed system is accounted for entirely by the heat unleashed by the system and the work done by the beard.
Remember earlier this year when Evans used his Captain America press tour to tell us how he was over being a superhero and wants to focus more on directing? I got the feeling a lot of his issues boil down to not liking the Big Sell that goes along with these types of movies, and a desire to reduce his public profile overall. That’s fine as a sentiment, but what does he think being a director is? Directing means hard-selling every project you make, oftentimes scrambling for festival slots and distribution, and then shilling, sometimes for years, to get people to see your movie.
Case in point, these new photos of Beardy Chris Evans are from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Grants Banquet, where he was on hand to accept a grant for American Cinematheque, an historical film society. Evans, who claims to dislike the machine of Hollywood, is at a HFPA party kissing HFPA ass because his directorial debut premieres next month at TIFF, and it’s never too soon for the shill. Want to take a break from acting? Fine. Want to get into directing? Great, but be prepared to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life, and to become a world-class salesman while you’re at it.