Leave it to Chris Evans to turn his accidental risqué photo leak into a public service announcement. The ‘Captain America’ actor used his platform as a celebrity for a good cause. And he just so happens to have everyone’s attention.
On Saturday, the 39 year old sent the internet into a frenzy when he accidentally shared an NSFW photo of his privates on his Instagram Story. The picture was immediately taken down but it was all Twitter could talk about. Even Evans’ Avengers co-star, Mark Ruffalo and his own brother, Scott Evans chimed in with their own reactions.
On Sunday, Ruffalo consoled Evans on Twitter, writing, “@ChrisEvans Bro, while Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See… silver lining.”
Evans’ brother Scott teased the actor, tweeting, “Was off social media for the day yesterday. So. What’d I miss?”
Breaking His Silence
However, Evans has now finally broken his silence on the incident and has decided to make the most of a less-than-ideal situation.
The actor slyly hinted on Twitter about what happened, and then used the opportunity to encourage his fans to vote in the upcoming presidential election. “Now that I have your attention…. VOTE Nov 3rd!!!” Evans wrote informing his fans about the serious message. His tweet earned more than 350,000 likes within two hours.
Several celebrities were also quick to applaud Evans for his smart and informative move. Billy Eichner followed Evans’ lead, commenting “Some hot pics here:” and then proceeded to share a link to Vote Save America. Evans’ Knives Out co-star Jamie Lee Curtis commented, saying, “My boy! Proud of him. Got MY attention!”
“It was an interesting weekend full of lessons learned”
Evans made a guest appearance on The Tamron Hall Show on Tuesday, Sept. 15. And even explained why he was being a good sport about the “embarrassing” mistake. Tamron praised the actor for encouraging fans to vote and using the awkward leak to “get our eyes on something more important.” Evans cleverly responded to the statement saying, “That’s called turning a frown upside down, Tamron.”
The Gifted actor further addressed the situation, telling Hall, “It was an interesting weekend full of, uh, lessons learned. Lots of teachable moments,” he added. “You know, things happen. It’s embarrassing. You gotta roll with the punches.”
“I will say I have some pretty fantastic fans who really came to my support”
At the time, the Evan’s loyal fans came to his rescue, calling on others to respect the actor’s privacy and not let the situation get out of hand. Fans started tweeting and posting wholesome photos of the actor along with his adorable rescue pup, Dodger to “cleanse your timeline,” as one fan account wrote.
The Marvel star was very pleased with the initiative and even gave a shout out to his fans, who quickly came to his defense.
“I will say I have some pretty fantastic fans who really came to my support,” he told Hall. “That was really, really nice.”
“You have to use your platform to do more than just retweet things”
Using the extra attention to encourage civic engagement isn’t something the Fantastic Four actor hasn’t done before. Evans recently founded A Starting Point, a fact-based bipartisan website for basic political topics and policies.
Speaking about the website and its objectives, he said in a statement, “Our goal is to create a chain of connectivity between elected officials and voters to create engagement,” Evans explained of his latest initiative in July. “To try and just create a little bit more involvement from the public with the political arena. It’s not that I’m specifically drawn to politics. It’s just, when you look around, you try to figure out how you can help,” the actor revealed of his involvement in politics last month.
“There’s a lot of things you can do as an actor with your name,” he emphasized, talking about the power of a platform if you’re a well distinguished individual. “I could be making booze, I don’t discourage anyone from doing that. I love booze. But there’s no denying that I played a certain character,” referring to his role as the noble and wise Captain America in Marvel’s Avengers franchise. “And it just so happens to align with part of my nature in terms of being someone who is politically involved and who cares about the well being of people in this country.” He added, “You have to use your platform to do more than just retweet things.”
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