Knives out … Chris Evans pays price for having a private life
This should have been a time of wild celebration for Chris Evans. Just over a week ago, People magazine crowned him 2022’s Sexiest Man Alive. It’s an honour that only the greatest men on Earth receive (and Mel Gibson, and Johnny Depp twice), and it meant that he should now be embarking on a full calendar year of non-stop triumph. But he isn’t. In fact, Evans is having a terrible time of it. And it’s all down to his stinking fans.
You see, it has emerged that Evans has a girlfriend. He has had a girlfriend for a year now: Alba Baptista, the star of TV series Warrior Nun. And now that the relationship has been made public, some of his fans are spitting mad. On Sunday, the Twitter account TeamEvans_13 posted a message reading “We are disappointed. We are hurt” that linked to a long, long open letter to the actor. “As a 30 year old, I’ve basically grown up on your work,” it began. “You’ve been the most real and genuine person I’ve watched in Hollywood. Your humility, your love for your family, friends, and [your dog] Dodger, your sense of responsibility to use your voice for good.”
But then comes the twist. All that stuff in that message? Forget it. “Your Fandom is not upset because you’re in a relationship,” it states. “Rather, it was the reveal of the relationship that made us feel betrayed by you. We feel betrayed by the Chris you lead us to believe is you.”
The problem seems to be that, during press for The Gray Man, Chris Evans answered one question in one interview in a manner that might have made it sound as if he was single. And this apparently led all of his fans to believe that they might have possibly had a shot with him. But all this time, he was hiding a secret girlfriend. What a bastard. “The sense of betrayal is not because you are in a relationship,” the letter repeats. “It is the rude awakening that our belief in you is based on nothing but lies that you’ve been selling us … It’s like a kid finding out that Santa isn’t real.” And then, with one final swipe at Evans for going out with a woman young enough to be his daughter, the letter ends.
Now, there are two ways to react to this letter. The first is to trip into the rabbit hole a little and recognise that People’s Sexiest Man Alive isn’t a mathematically quantifiable award. There aren’t a team of scientists sweating over the data here. Publicists put their clients up for the title based on whether or not they have a project to promote. You’ll notice that Paul Rudd’s win last year coincided with the start of his TV show The Shrink Next Door, for example.
Now, Evans doesn’t have a movie to promote, but Baptista does. She’s in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, which is still rolling out worldwide. It is not unthinkable to suggest that Evans put himself forward for the award so that he could make his relationship with Baptista public days later, putting more light on her work in her film. If that’s true, you can sort of understand why some fans might be put out by the cynicism of the move.
The other way to react to the letter is this: Jesus Christ. JesusChrist. Fans ruin everything. Not content with throwing ugly racist tantrums whenever someone from their precious fantasy series is played by a black person, or to swamp the internet with negative reviews because a film has a woman in a major role, now they’re literally claiming ownership on what their favourite actors do in their time off. What a snotty, entitled, creepy way to conduct yourself.
Nothing makes being famous less appealing than having fans. Chris Evans should be living it up right now, but instead he’s probably digging a bunker in his garden to get away from an army of dickheads. Everyone involved in this should feel nothing but relentless shame, and I look forward to reading your tweets.