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Growing up in a Boston suburb, Chris Evans didn't spend his time reading comic books or consuming science fiction novels and films, so who would have guessed he'd build such a formidable resume in a genre that failed to capture his imagination as a child?
And yet, a decade after moving to Los Angeles, the gregarious 27-year-old - best known for burning up the screen as Johnny Storm in 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four franchise - is starring in yet another sci-fi thriller, Push, this time as the telekinetic Nick Gant, a "mover," in the argot of the film, who grudgingly joins a rogue group of expat psychic warriors united in bringing down a shadowy military agency attempting to harvest their abilities for supernatural warfare.
In Push, Evans' character can move things with his mind.
It was a new skill to master for the reluctant action hero, who has burst into flames as the Human Torch and raced to save the planet in Danny Boyle's underrated 2007 space odyssey, Sunshine.
Working with Boyle, whose unexpected hit Slumdog Millionaire propelled the Irish director to the top of Hollywood's most-wanted list, made boarding a sound stage spaceship seem less ridiculous to the would-be thespian (Evans studied theatre in high school and moved to New York in search of the stage right after graduation).
"Whether he's making a movie or wants to handle my finances, I'd be like, 'All right, I trust him'," the actor said of Boyle.
When Evans learned that 14-year-old Dakota Fanning had signed on to co-star in Push as a clairvoyant runaway, he brushed off all sci-fi fatigue and got to work.
"It's humbling to meet someone who was born in the '90s - the '90s! - who has a more sophisticated vocabulary than you do," he marvelled. "She's like 34. I want to see her ID."
The downside was the time spent filming on location in Hong Kong.
He missed his dog and had to spend his downtime in a tiny wagon-sized Chinese trailer rather than the standard Hollywood accommodations.
And just before the Push shoot, he'd spent three months in Louisiana filming Tennessee Williams' The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, in which he plays Jimmy, a down-and-out urchin who captures the heart of reclusive debutante Fisher Willow (Bryce Dallas Howard from Spider-Man 3).
Although he always has admired the Southern playwright, spending so much time away from home on back-to-back projects really took it out of him.
"Sometimes you would be sitting in those little buses losing your mind," he said. "It felt like work."
Then he realised that even with the inconveniences, he still had it pretty good.
"I'm splitting hairs. I'm still making movies."
- Alicia Lozano