Chris Evans recruited Ana de Armas for Ghosted after Scarlett Johansson dropped out

Chris Evans used his friendship with Ana de Armas to recruit her for their movie 'Ghosted' after Scarlett Johansson dropped out.

Chris and Ana star in the new Apple TV Plus action movie but director Dexter Fletcher has revealed Scarlett had originally been cast to play the female lead partly because of her longtime friendship with the actor - and when she had scheduling issues, Chris had to bring in another of his female pals.

Fletcher told The Hollywood Reporter: "I was lucky enough to get on well with Chris and meet him, and he was like: 'Look, Scarlett is a great friend. I’m just gonna ask Scarlett'. And obviously, I had no objections to that pairing, and for a while there, it seemed really positive and very good ... [Scarlett] was engaged, she was giving great notes on the script and the ideas were flowing during great meetings. But as tends to happen, schedules change, and then suddenly, we went: 'Oh no, that’s not gonna work,' which was difficult."

However, Chris came to the rescue by convincing Ana to come on board after previously working with her on 'Knives Out' and 'The Gray Man'.

Fletcher went on: "I very quickly said to Chris: 'What about Ana?' And he went: 'I know Ana'. And I was like: 'Yeah, I know you do!'

"I’d seen her in 'No Time to Die', and I knew she was doing 'Blonde'. I also loved her in 'Blade Runner 2049'. So that became a very quick conversation, and using his friendship, Chris picked up the phone ... "

He added: "So, unfortunately, [Scarlett] only had that window of availability, and that was it. But we weren’t like: 'Okay, let’s go out and find as many actors who are mates with Chris Evans as we possibly can and then throw a rock to see which one we hit'. It was really just good fortune that Ana had a window of opportunity, and they’re such great friends. So it was pretty straightforward."