Captain America Is Terrified of ‘Saturday Night Live’

Chris Evans, the jacked actor beloved for portraying star-spangled supersoldier Captain America, has one super-threat that even he is horrified to face: Hosting late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live. “I’ve avoided hosting SNL like the plague for years now just because I’m so scared,” Evans told ET Canada. “It’s terrifying to me.”

Understandable! Just because you play a superhero in the MCU doesn’t mean you’re up to the task of tackling a Thanos-level threat like SNL. In fact, no MCU hero has shown the guts to take on hosting duties, unless you count:

• Robert (Iron Man) Downey Jr.
• Scarlett (Black Widow) Johansson
• Benedict (Dr. Strange) Cumberbatch
• Paul (Ant-Man) Rudd
• Chris (Thor) Hemsworth
• Jeremy (Hawkeye) Renner
• Chadwick (Black Panther) Boseman
• Samuel (Nick Fury) Jackson
• Brie (Captain Marvel) Larson
• Simu (Shang-Chi) Liu
• Chris (Star-Lord) Pratt
• Bradley (Rocket Racoon) Cooper

We’ll save Evans the embarrassment of listing all the SNL hosts who played MCU villains, like Josh (Thanos) Brolin and Jonathan (Kang) Majors, or supporting characters like Gwyneth (Pepper Potts) Paltrow and Natalie (Jane Foster) Portman. There are several more, but why rub it in? After all, the very thought keeps Evans up at night. “To me, it would just be one of those things that every single night I would wake up in a cold sweat.” 

What exactly is Captain America’s problem? Most heroes have their kryptonite and Evans has identified his own: “I’m not a funny person. Maybe I only feel that because I have very, very funny friends who once told me I’m not a funny person.”

Evans’ Ghosted co-star Ana de Armas is doing the honors this weekend, leading ET to ask if he’d be brave enough to attempt a quick walk-on appearance. “Well, now a cameo I can handle,” he says. “A cameo sounds great, that’s perfect. In and out… get your toes wet.”

Ball’s in your court, Ana de Armas! Can you let Evans test the dangerous waters of live comedy for a minute or two on Saturday? On second thought, maybe it would be better if you left the frightened Avenger waiting in the wings. “Hosting, I tip my hat to her,” he says. “She’s going to be amazing. But it would provide a lot of sleepless nights for me.”

C'mon, Cap - with a little exposure we bet you could do it all day.