THR – Best known as Captain America, the Boston native reflects on the panic attacks that almost led him to abandon acting, repeatedly turning down Marvel before reconsidering and following eight years in the MCU with an Apple TV+ limited series.

“I’m at a point now where I have a little more room to breathe,” says Chris Evans, the actor best known for his work in seven of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters of not only the past decade, but ever, playing Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, in Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

As we record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast, the 38-year-old continues, “Sometimes I wake up and don’t have any appetite to make a film. And then other times I can’t wait to get on set because I have a new ‘strength,’ maybe, in risk-taking: I’m more excited to get to set and take some big swings and not be so concerned about, ‘Will this end it all for me?’ And I think that’s where the best work comes from, especially on Defending Jacob.”

Evans is referring to the acclaimed new eight-part limited series on Apple TV+, adapted from William Landay’s 2012 novel of the same name, on which he served as an executive producer and stars as an assistant district attorney working a murder case that leads him to very uncomfortable places. “I really took some swings and made a mess, not quite thinking about consequence or whether this will impact getting future jobs,” Evans says, “and I think that’s where some of the best work comes from.”