Chris Evans says first impressions are important to wife Alba Baptista.
The actor, 42, gave rare comments about Baptista during an interview with GQ, published Tuesday. The interview was conducted prior the actors’ strike, which began in July — and before the pair tied the knot in Massachusetts earlier this month.
In the GQ feature, Evans recalled telling Baptista, 26, that he wanted to act less in order to devote his energy to other parts of his life. The Portuguese actress is known for films like Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and the Netflix series Warrior Nun.
“I haven’t worked all year and I don’t plan to, which has been lovely,” he said. “My girlfriend that I’ve had for a while, when we began dating, I was like: ‘Yeah, I do one movie a year. I try to never work now.’ “
But, Evans recalled how he subsequently spent all of 2022 working on three movies (Ghosted, Pain Hustlers and Red One).
“And then, after like a few months of dating, boom, guess what? We’re living in Atlanta for a year. Get ready,” he recalled. “And even when that year was happening, I was like, ‘Man, never again.’ “
GQ‘s Zach Baron included an exchange he had with Evans in which the actor again brought up Baptista.
Baron asked him, “You mentioned writers trying to put you in one particular box or other. Do you have a sense of me trying to do that to you?”
Evans replied, “No, not at all. Not at all. Actually, that’s so funny. My girlfriend’s really big into people’s energies and first impressions.”
“I’m not so much, because I feel that I don’t always give off the same thing out of the gate. So I try to really reserve judgment,” he continued. “But you had a very, very nice energy when you first came in.”
Evans, the current Sexiest Man Alive, told PEOPLE in November why he wanted to slow down on work.
“The most enjoyable aspect of my career right now is feeling secure enough to take my foot off the gas,” he said at the time. “I feel like I have a bit more freedom to take time away from the industry and still find projects that will satisfy my creative appetite when I return.”
Chris Evans Says Wife Is ‘Really Big Into First Impressions’: ‘I’m Not So Much’